The Knoxville Wrestling Squad will hit the mats tonight as close to full strength as it has been since early December as Knoxville hosts a South Central Conference Quad against Albia, Chariton, and Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont. It has been a roller coaster season for the Panthers, as they started with two losses to Pella and Nevada, then had to shut down the program for two weeks due to COVID-19 concerns. One other concern for Coach Doug Hatch is the young Panthers and their lack of experience on the mats, but he has been very pleased with their progress and hopes to showcase that talent tonight.
It has been a slow start for the Knoxville Wrestling Squad on and off the mat this season. The young Panthers are currently 0-2 in dual meets and had to pause activities for COVID-19 concerns that wiped out three events on the schedule that would have been valuable experience for Knoxville. Coach Doug Hatch does see progress with his guys. He tells KNIA/KRLS Sports Luke Spaur has made a lot of progress on the mental part of wrestling and points to a match early on that might have gone a different way last year.
Hatch:
“Last year in a really tough match he may have not been able to recover. The points were not going his way, he would score and go out of bounds or the period came to an end and the referee didn’t see it that way, but in the third period he came back and dominated his guy. He’s wrestling way smarter and better than he was last year.”