This fall, three of the county's public high schools will be launching wrestling programs, joining four other high schools in Aiken County that started competing in the oldest and greatest sport last fall.
The trio of new wrestling programs are at Ridge Spring-Monetta, Silver Bluff and Wagener-Salley High Schools.
Prior to fall 2016, none of the seven high schools in the Aiken County Public Schools district -- a 25,000-student district located in the southern part of the state, along the South Carolina-Georgia border -- had wrestling. In fact, Aiken County was the fourth-largest in South Carolina not to have wrestling until last fall.
"We have to start all the way back at the basics and teach the kids everything," Silver Bluff coach Josh Hadden told the Aiken Standard this week. "That's pretty much it; we've got to start from the bottom and build up."
To help the wrestlers at the three new programs get some valuable on-the-mat experience before taking on more seasoned competition, there will be a tri-meet at Silver Bluff on Dec. 9. A month later, they'll participate at the Aiken County Challenge on Jan. 6 at Midland Valley High -- one of the four schools that welcomed wrestling one year ago.
The Aiken County Challenge tournament has been expanded to include the new programs. The whole idea is to help build local interest in wrestling, and perhaps extend existing rivalries in other sports into the sport that's relatively new in this corner of South Carolina.
"It's gonna be really cool, because it's actually going to be a full county tournament," said Midland Valley head coach Kevin Emily, who launched that school's mat program in fall 2016, bringing considerable coaching experience -- including a stint at the storied Waterloo West High program in Iowa, Dan Gable's alma mater -- to South Carolina. "Seven teams. Some of the teams might not have a full lineup, but that's OK. It's still the unity. It's still the appearance. It still gives you the atmosphere of a real county tournament."
Sean AlfordAlford believes in wrestling. He coached youth wrestling. Two of his sons wrestled in high school (in another district) and went on to post-secondary mat careers -- one at The Citadel, the other at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
"They were lucky to gain the core principles that wrestling offers to its participants," Alford said in a July 2017 interview with InterMat.
"Aiken County has a great tradition of producing athletes in various sports, some who have had success in pro sports," Alford continued.
"When I came here, I was surprised, given the track record of sports success, that this district did not have wrestling in its high schools."
Now all seven of the public high schools in Aiken County have interscholastic wrestling. And that's something worthy of celebration.
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