GREENFIELD — A 300th coaching victory with seven victories for seven seniors on Senior Night made for a memorable evening for the Greenfield-Central boys wrestling program, even though the matches and the wins aren’t the things Cougars head coach Josh Holden remembers most in his 20 years of leading the G-C program.
On Thursday against a team described better as friends than rivals, Greenfield-Central wrapped up the dual portion of its season with a 69-6 victory over Hancock County neighbors Eastern Hancock.
“I told the team afterwards, 300 is great,” Holden said. “But, how many of those 300 do you remember? How many individual matches do you remember? There’s only a handful that you really remember, but you remember every kid.
“You remember every time a kid calls you and tells you he’s getting married, or he’s having a kid, or he just wanted to stop by the room to say, ‘hi.’ Those kind of things, that’s what you’re going to remember about this.”
“I’m not going to walk into WalMart and someone is going to go, ‘That’s Josh Holden. He has 300 wins.’ But, somebody might say, ‘That’s Josh Holden, he helped my kid graduate or he helped my kid learn that not running with the wrong crowd is important.’ To me, that’s what this program is about. I hope they know that. Wins are great, but …”
G-C assistant coach Austin Early has also been a part of all 300 wins. He was a freshman wrestler in Holden’s first year as head coach and joined the team as an assistant after graduation.
In fact, the opposing head coach Sam Pfaff, has been a part of that journey for Holden, too. Pfaff was brought on as the program’s junior high coach several years ago when he was a teacher at the school.
“I told him as we were shaking hands that I was OK with losing if it’s No. 300 for you,” Pfaff said. “He’s been so amazing to me and a great mentor to me. He went out on a limb and trusted me six, seven years ago to coach his junior high team when I was a teacher over there.
“He’s such a big role model for my life and in my career. In the spring our kids come over here and work and he coaches my kids just like they’re his kids. I can’t say enough good things about the guy.”
Thursday’s dual meet began with the 132-pound class match, Eastern Hancock opened with one of its two victories. Cam Volz defeated Cade Zuber 6-3 to give the Royals a brief 3-0 lead.
Greenfield-Central followed with the next 12 wins, 1o by fall, one by decision and one by forfeit.
Seven seniors made up the 14-wrestler lineup and all seven won by fall.
Nate Miller (144), Kannon Zuber (150), John Ubehlor (165), Silas Frye (175), Clay Guenin (215), Brayden Flener (285) and Braeden Ayres (106) all won by fall in their final home match at Dellen Automotive Gymnasium. Guenin’s pin in 40 seconds was the quickest of the night.
“That senior class, they’re special to me because, my son (Zeke Holden, who graduated last year) grew up with those guys,” coach Holden added.
Additionally, G-C got pins from Jarred Harlow (138), Aidan Briles (157) and Hayden Tomey (113). Zaiden Tritch (190) won by forfeit.
As pleased as the Cougars were with the outcomes for the senior class, the loudest roar of approval on the night came when Tomey, a freshman, earned a first-period fall.
The varsity newcomer has taken his share of lumps over the course of his initial varsity season in a program that doesn’t shy away from wrestling the state’s strongest competition.
“Again, it’s not really about the win,” coach Holden said. “It’s about someone they love finding success and being rewarded for all the hard work he puts in. Think about wrestling practice and how hard it is. Why does the best kid on the team get the most respect? Practice is not hard for the best kid. Then, you start thinking about the kids that may not be as good, or not wrestled as long, or not physically … Hayden Tomey doesn’t have any facial hair. That kid is a young buck trying to get through and he comes in every day and busts his butt. That kid gets a lot of respect in our program and our kids know he doesn’t quit.
“It’s not that he won, but that he’s getting rewarded for his hard work and his teammates are happy because they love him. They love each other. It was pretty awesome. It was awesome to see.”
The final two matches of the night were very competitive.
At 120, Greenfield-Central’s Jett McGuire defeated Bradyn Volz 9-6. It was Bradyn Volz’ first loss of the season. Normally a 113-pounder, the Royals chose to move him up a class to face a strong competitor in McGuire, a state-ranked sophomore and a sectional champion as a freshman.
“We bumped him up because he needed a good match with the tournament coming up,” Pfaff said of putting his frosh standout up against McGuire. “We put his undefeated record on the line to get some experience and wrestle a semi-state or state level kid for that experience. I think Bradyn learned more from that match than any of his matches this season.”
The Royals got their second win in the last match of the night.
At 126, Zane Badgley defeated Lincoln Parsons 3-0.
“Zane’s confidence has never been higher. He’s doing the best wrestling of his career,” Pfaff said.
Though the final score was lopsided, their opposing coach sees good things coming out of Charlottesville.
“Coach Pfaff has turned that program around,” Holden said of the Eastern head coach. “He’s not far off from having teams you’re going to have to really battle to beat them. He hasn’t been there long enough, but he’s getting there. I have no doubt in the next couple years they are going to be really good.”
Already in a tough battle of large school vs. small school, the smaller Royals were without four starters due to injury.
Pfaff made no excuses. He said they wrestle the Cougars for a reason.
“We wrestle Greenfield to make our guys better,” Pfaff said. “Our guys have to be tough to compete with these guys. If our guys want to make it out of semi-state they’ve got to beat this level of kids. That’s why we wrestle them and choose to wrestle tougher competition. We had some guys get better tonight wrestling tough matches.”
