By Kary Booher
Talk about a wrestling coach’s dream.
When the Lebanon school district opened a new middle school this year, it had a significant impact on the wrestling programs throughout the town. All of it positive, of course.
Now coach Randy Roark’s Lebanon Yellowjackets are practicing at the old junior high, in a side gym with a sunken floor and room for five mats. Even better, the middle school teams set up shop in the old cafeteria, and the USA Wrestling program has access to mats in the evenings and, with so much space, they can get home by 7:30 every evening.
“It’s a step in the right direction,” said Roark, now in his 19th year at Lebanon and 14th as head coach. “When you have 80 (high school) kids coming out every season and you only have room for 40 of them (in the old gym), some fall through the cracks. Now we can keep more kids involved.”
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Roark has certainly put in the time to raise the sport’s profile in Lebanon. He himself comes from a tradition-rich program in the southeast Kansas town of Columbus, in which Roark was on the back end of four of its seven Class 4 state championships between 1986 and 1992.
His roster at Lebanon looks pretty good, too.
The Yellowjackets have two returning state qualifiers in 106-pound sophomore Hunter Lewis and 138-pound Andrew Young, plus 13 other returning lettermen. Four freshmen also were medalists in the USA Wrestling program.
The projected lineup includes Hogan Fisher at 113, freshman Cole Roark at 120, Caleb Shields at 126, freshman Trevor Christian or Kyle Johnson at 132, Andrew Young and Kickapoo transfer Cade Schmitz at 138, Reagan Mowery at 145, Ty Glendenning and Tyler Paul at 152, and three-time letterman Braxton Lewis at 160. Roark was a state runner-up in USA Wrestling, where Christian was a two-time state medalist.
In the upper weights, look for three-time letterman Dakota Shockley at 170, Brock Reeves at 182, plus Maxwell Shelton or Landon Smith at 195, Dillon Wagoner at 220 or Wyatt Stone and Elliot Byrd at heavyweight.
Despite the losses of several starters in the upper weight classes, Coach Roark is optimistic that they could do some damage this year, given the 195, 220 and heavyweights were senior-laden last season in Class 3. There is a door open now.
“I know our guys are kind of excited,” Roark said. “They’ve got their (state) trips planned. But we’ll see.”
Lewis could be a strong returnee, given he is back from a knee injury that cut short his season last year.
He has wrestled for almost a dozen years, a reflection of the town’s youth wrestling program, which is now headed by Fisher’s dad.
“Our USA program is starting to put quality kids through,” Roark said. “Our numbers have been strong in getting kids out for wrestling. But the numbers gradually have gotten bigger and bigger. About three or four years ago, we were hitting 100.
“So if you have kids with five or six years of experience coming in to high school, you’re going to be sitting good for awhile. It’s a great feeder system.”
