Louisville wrestling team reflects on the challenges of a season unlike any other

Major events with high stakes. A standing-room only crowd. Loud fans hanging on the results of every match.

It was just 12 months ago the Louisville wrestling team enjoyed that setting nearly every weekend on its way to a state duals championship. So little relative time has passed. Yet so much has changed. Those days feel like they were an eternity ago.

The coronavirus has left the Leopards and their talented group of seniors — including West Virginia recruits and 2019 individual state champions Davin Rhoads and Garett Lautzenheiser — participating in a season unlike any other. 

"It's hard not to feel bad for those two and the other seniors on the team," Louisville head coach Rocky Laughlin said. "They had their junior year cut short. They lost the (2020) individual state tournament and now you have a season that is not traditional to say the least. I saw a picture from this time last year and you could see the gym just packed. Now, you might not even have 300 people in the gym."

A year ago, Louisville qualified a school-record eight wrestlers to the individual state tournament. Lautzenheiser and Rhoads were poised to defend their state championships after each won district titles the weekend before the Ohio High School Athletic Association shut down all of its sports.

The Leopards entered this season knowing they would face challenges on and off the mat.

COVID-19 concerns and injuries have prevented them from competing with their entire starting lineup at an event this season. They had stretches where they were without as many as five starters early in the year.

"It's been a combination of things," Laughlin said. "We've had one team-wide quarantine and we've also had a lot of injuries. We've had a lot of dual matches canceled and the downside of that is you spend a lot of time practicing and grinding. The intensity these guys bring into the gym in those practices has led to some injuries. We've just had a lot of scenarios this season that we've never had to deal with before."

The team-wide quarantine came over Christmas break. While that may seem like an inopportune time for a stoppage, it emerged has a helpful period of rest for a Louisville team finally starting to get close to full strength.

"It wasn't the worst thing to happen looking back at it," Laughlin said. "I think with the amount of cancellations we were having, it was starting to feel like 'Groundhog Day' in the practice room. We ended up being off for 10 days and I think it gave the kids an opportunity to recharge and gave us a chance to get a bit healthier."

The challenges have not stopped since that quarantine. Louisville had a five-match dual meet canceled this past weekend because of COVID-19. 

"It's just a tough thing and everybody involved in the sport recognizes that," Laughlin said. "We've been just trying to taper our practices a bit and get in and get out without injuries when circumstances like that arise."

Now is a good time to begin to get healthy, with just under two months left in the season. Sectional competition begins in five weeks.

"We just hope we are able to get everything in," Laughlin said. "We were wondering if we were even going to get a season before the year started. You're talking about a contact sport where the kids are as close as close can be so we aren't taking anything for granted."

It's a set of circumstances that will challenge Laughlin and every other coach in the state.

"You always want to peak at the end of the year and the gauging where you are at is going to be tougher than ever this season," Laughlin said. "I want the kids to be successful and I want to challenge them, but the biggest thing I want is to keep them all healthy. I view that as my most important job this season.

"I want them to peak. I want them to have a great postseason, but I also want them to get through this without getting sick."

Reach Cliff at cliff.hickman@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @chickmanREP