Blue Jay wrestlers have enthusiasm and experience this season
Dec. 4—JAMESTOWN — There are 35 grapplers in the Jamestown High School wrestling room right now.
Approximately a third of them are not attending school at Jamestown High School.
“This year we started practicing with grades 7 through 12 all together,” JHS head coach Patrick Schlosser said. “That has been kind of fun. Our enrollment is decreasing slightly so it was just something that we wanted to try for a trial year.
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“The nicest thing is seeing everybody 7 through 12 come together as a team,” he said. “When they all come together everybody grows up a little faster and it’s fun to watch the upperclassmen be mentors to the seventh and eighth graders. The kids are working really hard and they are excited to compete. It should be a really fun year for everyone.”
As of Dec. 2, there are 11 seventh and eighth graders practicing with the Blue Jays’ varsity team.
“The most important thing is the practices, but I told them that if they are practicing with the JV (junior varsity) and varsity kiddos, they are going to get JV and varsity opportunities,” Schlosser said. “They understand the important thing is getting better at wrestling and if you get better at wrestling in practice, you have more opportunities outside of it. That’s kind of the mindset we are going into the season with and the kids are doing a really good job.”
The Blue Jays officially began practices on Nov. 10 but before practices even started, athletes were taking advantage of any time they could get on the mat.
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“Throughout the summer and beginning of the school year we had open mats and it was probably the best-attended it has been since I’ve been the coach,” Schlosser said.
His team’s commitment in the offseason has Schlosser excited for the year ahead and unbothered by who he lost to graduation.
JHS Class of 2025 grad, Lucas Schlepuetz, placed sixth in the 152-pound bracket at the 2025 West Region Meet and eighth at the NDHSAA Class A State Individual Tournament. The Blue Jays also lost Josh Dickerman and Mack Allmaras to graduation.
Jerard Satterlee will be the only senior coming back for the Blue Jays, but the Jays will be welcoming back seven juniors and 11 sophomores.
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“We’re getting to the other side of being young,” Schlosser said. “We have some kids who have been in the program for two or three years now and understand what it needs to take to compete. Everyone still has a lot of work to do but we have a lot more kids who have had some experience which has been really great in the wrestling room.
“A lot of them were just shy of getting to the state tournament last year,” he said. “It’s so early for me to give too many in-depth predictions but just from what I am seeing in practice, they have come miles and miles from where they were last year. Hopefully by WDAs that translates to qualifying for the state tournament.”
Jamestown will open up the competitive season with its annual Knights of Columbus Invitational on Saturday. The invite is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. at Jamestown High School.
“The kids are excited, that excitement usually correlates to hard work and hard work usually correlates to success,” Schlosser said.