With the season in full-swing Apollo’s boys wrestling program has taken the area by storm, racking up wins as they prepare for a deep postseason run.
The boys program has come a long way since Head Coach Courtney Johns took over, as they started out with just three kids. Since then they’ve been steadily growing talent while bringing reinforcements when needed.
This has resulted in numbers in spades, as the Eagles have 10 athletes with winning records and seven with 20-plus wins on the year.
“They worked all offseason,” Johns said. “As a coaching staff, we have really been pushing them. We talked to a lot of our returning guys about stepping up, which they’ve done that.”
Apollo has won a variety of tournaments, while being the first school in the area to win sectional duals and becoming the second Eagles team to qualify for state. At sectionals they defeated Henderson County 51-30, McCracken County 43-35, Christian County 48-31, Hopkinsville 60-24 and Ohio County 54-27.
The Eagles have some of the better wrestlers in the state on their roster as well, as seniors Blaze Cart and Jarrod Gray, junior Dana Bishop and eighth grader Jake Ramsey have all been ranked in the region. Cart, Gray and Ramsey have also been ranked within the top-15 of the state.
The success has come as a bit of a surprise to Johns, as he felt as though it might take them longer to reach the heights they’ve soared to.
“I knew we’d be a better team this year, but I didn’t realize we would be where we are at right now,” Johns said. “It takes about five years to rebuild a program… Still got a lot of room to go, but right now we are competing.”
Johns said the key to their success has been their work ethic in practice, making the most of every opportunity to get better day in and day out.
“We have really picked it up,” Johns said. “Our kids are buying in more, our kids are committing more. We’ve got kids doing camps, and we’ve got kids that are really using offseason open-mat time and utilizing that time to get better.”
Cart said that along with the Eagles relentless work ethic, the comradery that the team has this year has also helped them improve and strive for success.
“Us working as a team,” Cart said. “When we go to duals all of us are together and we’re all cheering each other on constantly and everyone is doing their job.”
Cart has been thrilled with how the team has made a big jump and competed this year and has high expectations as the postseason quickly approaches.
“The season has been really good…” Cart said. “The season for me individually has gone pretty well. I’ve only lost twice and I don’t plan to lose again. As each individual, we get better and better everyday.”
