The Braves had a season of adjustment and coaching on the fly.  As a guy with four state titles, two runner-up finishes and eight regional championships under his belt, Eddie Clark and his staff may  have done some of their best coaching in a year that saw them fail to add to any of those accolades.
Star Valley finished second at the 4A West Regionals and placed fifth at the Wyoming 4A state championships amid a handful of very strong teams.  But in a year that saw major injuries, a brutal schedule and decisions to leave the program, the Braves battled through it all.

And last year’s resolve just may turn into this year’s glory.

With 20 wrestlers who qualified for last year’s state tourney now returning for another season, there’s no shortage of experience.  With nine of them placing in Casper, there’s no lack of accomplishment either.  And with six of those wrestlers accomplishing that feat as sophomores or freshmen, there will be no lack of youth on this year’s squad either.

In short?  Expect some noise in 2009-2010.

The team will return some impressive experience, led by last year’s 4A 112-pound state champion, Hayden Heap, who went on a tear to close out last year by winning six straight major event titles.  In fact, once Heap moved to 112, he never lost again.

Now with another year of growth behind him, it’s always an evaluation process as to where certain grapplers will end up on the competition scale.

With weight certification rules mandating that only a certain percentage of body weight can be lost and still compete, here’s what we do know.

Junior Josh Claye won 42 matches before the state tournament last year at a stripped down 103 pounds.  Claye’s experience will add to  Star Valley’s impressive depth at the lower weight classes.  Along with Heap and T. J. Guild who won 36 matches as a freshman en route to a third place finish, the scrappy grapplers of the bunch appear to be in good hands.

In the middle weights, the Braves will have to deal with the loss of four-time state placer and 2009 runner-up, Dakota Dana at 130 pounds.  Brandon Aullman placed sixth in the same weight class and will be a key component in the middle weights. Mark Van Slyke, Darin Taylor, Brandon Anglesey and Dawson Loveland combined to win 114 matches last year at weights 135 through 160.    Some excellent additions from the junior varsity will also swell the numbers of the middle weights.

In the big boy weights, there was a lack of depth again down the stretch from a year ago.  Star Valley had two top-ranked wrestlers at 215 and 285 that never wrestled at state.  Returning this year will be some combination of Nick Edwards who will be looking to become Star Valley’s eighth wrestler to place all four years. Adam Walton and Casey Wolfley along with Tanner Crook round out the musclebound weights. However, outside of Edwards’ 25 wins, the varsity credentials will need some seasoning this year.

With six tournaments before the conference duels even begin, there will be plenty of opportunity for that.
“Basically the first part of the season is all about working on  your skills,” stated Head Coach Eddie Clark.  “We obviously haven’t started at the weights that we’ll finish at.  The big thing is to go out and compete no matter what weight you’re asked to wrestle.  We expect our experienced kids to lead our team and to get the rest of the kids the experience that they need.”

While there were some newcomers and underclassmen in last  year’s varsity singlets, Clark feels that experience pretty much fills out the squad this season.

“Most of our weights have kids who are established wrestlers,” he replied.  It will be pretty tough to have a kid come in and contribute at the varsity level right away.”

The Braves will begin their season after two weeks of practice as they travel to the Evanston Invitational on the first weekend in December.

“We’re sitting at 50 kids,” Clark concluded.  “We’ll have some fall out [of the program] over the course of the season but I don’t expect too many.  Most of these kids who are in here know what they’re in for.”

After two years of top five finishes in Wyoming’s largest class including a heart wrenching runner-up title in 2008, the Braves are poised to make another strong run at the title.

“The 4A class is a tight race,” Clark concluded.  “There are four teams that can legitimately contend and I think we’re one of them.  I think the kids are excited about it.  They see the potential so that helps drive the early part of the season so it’s exciting and it’s fun to come in where everyone’s working hard because they know we’ve got a chance.”

2009-2010 Season
Event                                  Date
@ Evanston Invite         Dec.  4-5
Star Valley Invitational    Dec.  11-12
@ Weber Invite    Dec. 18-19
@ Rollie Lane Invite    Jan. 8-9
@ Box Elder Tourney    Jan.  15-16
@ American Falls     Jan. 21
@ Tiger Grizz Tourney    Jan. 22-23
Vs. Green River    Jan. 27
@ Natrona County    Jan. 29
@ Riverton        Jan. 30
@ Ron Thon Tourney    Feb. 5-6
Vs. Rock Springs    Feb. 10
@ Evanston        Feb. 11
Regionals (@ NCHS)    Feb. 19-20
State (@ Casper)    Feb. 26-27