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ALTON – The Alton Little Redbirds Wrestling Team surely gave it their all this year, ending the season with phenomenal stats, proud parents and coaches and most importantly of them all, smiles on the young wrestlers’ faces.
The wrestling team is a part of Illinois Kids Wrestling Federation. Wrestling season spans from November to March each year. The team meets for practice at the high school twice a week and participates in roughly 25 tournaments throughout the region from Madison County to Chicago.
This big tourney, the Illinois Bantam State Tournament, took place Feb. 14 in Bolingbrook. The tournament included 700 wrestlers, 8 years old and under, from across the entire state.
Eleven Little Redbirds Wrestlers qualified to attend the State Tournament to include Lukkas Shewmake, Leland Pepper, Brandon Green Jr., Jon McMillian, Corbin Barnard, Kadin Carlisle, Bryce Smith, Trey Skelton, Zane Skelton, Drew Nelson and Tremain Robinson.
“The boys wrestled super tough and really showed that all their hard work leading up to this tournament truly paid off,” said Head Coach Dustin Logan. “This group of kids are some of the hardest working and most dedicated wrestlers on our team and have very bright future's in the sport.”
The Little Redbird had five state placers:
Brandon Green Jr. - 3rd Place
Corbin Barnard - 4th Place
Jon McMillian - 6th Place
Andrew Nelson - 6th Place
Lukkas Shewmake - 6th Place
“This has been what I’ve been preparing for with this group of kids since we started in November,” said Logan. “We work really hard in the wrestling room and these boys have practice three days a week and wrestle in tournaments every weekend. Brandon and Jon wrestled this tournament last year and didn’t place so they set goal this year to place and went out and achieved it, I am very proud of them all.”
The team finished the season off at the end of February placing 4th overall as a team in the regional tournament.
“We placed second in the Bantam Division, which was our first post-season trophy we have received in 20 years as a club, so I'm super excited about that,” said Logan. “We had eight regional champions and qualified seven for the sectional tournament.”
Logan gives credit to the wrestlers’ determination and hard work, along with the help from the parents and coaches, and is excited for the future of these young athletes.
“These boys and girls have far exceeded my expectations this year we have multiple 40 match winners and have placed in the top three in five team tournaments this year,” said Logan. “We have had so much awesome support this year and in my opinion, the greatest group of parents and coaches around!”
