The Dalles wrestlers open season

At 220 pounds, Linebarger is more than the Riverhawks most experienced wrestler. He’s also a leader and coach.

“He’s totally committed,” TDHS head coach Greg Burkart said. “He does all the extra stuff in and out of the room. We expect him to be successful in everything he participates in this year from beginning to end. He’s ready. Without a doubt, he’s our team leader. He gets them going in warmups. He runs them through everything. He basically runs the practice and he’s great in the classroom. He’s the full package.”

The one issue with Linebarger is finding someone for him to practice against.

“Our biggest problem right now is we don’t really have anybody his caliber in the room for him to wrestle with so we’re still trying to figure out ways to address that,” Burkart said.

While participation has been down the last couple of years—TDHS finished last season with only 12 wrestlers—the program is rebuilding thanks to a large group of underclassmen. Of the nearly 30 kids that have signed up, 19 are sophomores and freshmen.

“We’re pretty young this year and inexperienced,” Burkart said. “We have a lot of young guys out, a lot of freshmen, a lot of sophomores, some guys that have never wrestled before so it’s a real mixed bag but when everybody is here numbers are improving over last year. Building numbers is our long term goal. It’s something positive to build on.”

The Riverhawks are also heavier this season.

“We have a lot of heavy weights which is something we don’t normally have a lot of,” Burkart said. “Usually it’s the other way around. Usually we have a lot of the lighter weights and mid weights, now we’ve got a lot more heavy weights.”

One of the lighter weights with experience is senior Cole Davis of Dufur, who is in his fourth year with the TDHS wrestling program.

Burkart said junior Sam Tyler has also shown some promise as well as sophomore Glenn Breckterfield, who spent last winter on the basketball court but has decided to come back to wrestling.

Burkart is also expecting to get a couple kids from Dufur’s state championship football team.

“Our [participation] numbers are better but that’s all relative,” Burkart said. “Our numbers were really low last year. At 5A, you should really have 40. There’s still kids that we’re trying to pull in that are on the fence. Last couple of years we’ve had a real problem with grades and eligibility. It was more that than a lack of interest or wanting to participate. But it all goes hand in hand. If you’re interested in doing it, you’re going to do what it takes in the classroom and in the [wrestling] room as well. Those are things we’re trying to address as well.”

The Riverhawks open the season Saturday in the Oregon City Tournament. They then travel to La Grande the following weekend for the Muillenberg Tourney.

“The Oregon City tournament is tough,” Burkart said. “It’s an open classification tournament so kids from 6A all the way down come. There’s 16 teams. It’s a big tournament and it’s a tough tournament for the first one of the year and then the weekend after that we’re in a two-day tournament in La Grande, which is a little more something for everybody, ability wise.”

TDHS will wrestle in nine tournaments this season and also duel Hood River, Pendleton and Hermiston before competing in regionals on Feb. 19-20 in Bend. The top four in each weight class there will wrestle in the state tournament on Feb. 26-27 at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland.