Dec 12, 2006 By Kevin Harrison For The 4 min read

DEEMSTON – The Beth-Center Bulldogs are looking a little further down the road, as they work their way through the 2006-07 wrestling schedule. Head coach Dave Nelson, thinks he has a good nucleus of experienced bodies. He thinks with some hard work and a few breaks, several of his kids could push on through to the state tournament.

“We lost only two seniors from last year, and have only one senior returning this year so we’re still pretty young,” he said. “The team will be made up of mostly of a solid group of juniors.”

The lone senior returning is Joe Tarley (189). Nelson said Tarley was a regional qualifier last year and has a good shot to make the state tournament this year.

Leading the group of juniors is state qualifier Aaron Hrutkay (160), Chris Stay (152) who was another regional qualifier last year. The other juniors are George Cramer (145), and Drew Markovich (140). “Drew wrestled at 160 last season and was a WPIAL qualifier,” Nelson said, “and 140 is his natural weight class and I think he has an excellent shot at the state tournament.”

Rounding out the rest of the lineup for the Bulldogs are sophomores Amanda Cooper (125), Dominic Moore (135), and Cody Catalina (171). The freshmen are Jordan Kinder (112) and Charles Bowser (130).

“Amanda had her eyes opened at the tournament in Brooke, West Virginia. She got to see what it was like to go against an experienced wrestler,” he said. “All I can do is teach her the basics as best I can and send her out there. Actually we had a girl on the squad a couple of years ago in Melissa Morton, and she qualified for the WPIAL tournament.”

The biggest problem for Nelson is the upper weights where he’s had to forfeit at 215 and 285 because he doesn’t have the bodies. He said he is still holding on to a slim hope, that a couple of football players change their mind and join the team.

Nelson feels the strongest part of the team will be through the middleweights where most of the experience lays. “From 135 up through 189 we’re solid,” he said. “These kids have been wrestling most of their lives and know their way around the mat.”

Nelson said the future of Beth-Center wrestling could come in another four to five years, when some of the youth league wrestlers start to move into the system.

“My junior high coach Chuck Colborn and I decided we needed to put an emphasis on the elementary program,” he said. “We’ve got about 55 kids in the midget program. If we can keep them in the program we should be okay when they reach the varsity level.”

Nelson said the numbers have been low in recent years in the youth league program, so they went out to find kids. He plans to have a couple of matches in front of the student body that could help generate more interest.

Looking at section 2-AA Nelson said he thinks Mt. Pleasant is still the team to beat even though the lost some bodies through graduation. He said the Bulldogs recently lost to Keystone Oaks, who dropped down from class-AAA into the section, and should challenge for the section title. Derry has also moved into the section as they are led by two-time state champion Troy Dolan.

Nelson says because of the gaps in his lineup he doesn’t expect the Bulldogs to challenge for a team playoff berth but he has enough talent to have a say in which teams will qualify. He says the bigger goal for him is to get the kids stronger and ready for the individual tournament, where they have a chance to shine.

“I’m very optimistic we can get a lot of kids through the section since they’re taking four from each weight class,” he said.

“I truly believe we can get at least three kids on to Hershey. I’ve always said we might not have a whole bunch of kids down this way but what we have is tough taters.”