FLEMING ISLAND - After a season of turmoil that still landed wrestlers in the state tournament, Fleming Island High wrestling will be starting at ground zero, according to new coach Randall Willetts, who has slowly and methodically directed the Golden Eagles through a gauntlet of schedules reminiscent of Fleming Island's 3A era.

"I don't know much about what happened before I got here and really don't want to know much about it," said Willetts, who traveled from Colorado Springs, Colorado, to lead the Fleming Island wrestling room. "My wife got a health care job, we got here and I saw the job opening. Made a phone call and here I am."

Willetts, who has taken his Golden Eagles to 3A power Flagler Palm Coast for his first foray in the Florida wrestling scene, came back humbled a bit with a 64-12 loss.

"I'm just going to teach wrestling my way, condition hard and make little steps every day," Willetts said. "We have a few hardened wrestlers here, but a lot of young faces. They give me effort, toughness and no quit and we'll be a good team."

After Flagler, where 144 Matthew Braddock won by a pin and 215 Dominic Dyer won by a pin, Willetts liked the effort.

"I knew a little about Flagler and their history in Florida so I wanted to see how how much fight these guys had," Willetts said.

Next up, Willetts traveled to the first major tournament of his short tenure with the Danny Byron Invite in Kissimmee amidst the powerhouses of not just Florida, but Camden County and a plethora of out of state teams.

"Again, we got some seconds and thirds in the White division (Gold, Blue, White) and we were wrestling some of the best guys in the southeast," Willetts said. "No one quit."

On Saturday, Willetts took the team to St. Augustine High's Ancient City Duals and got 3A powerhouse Lake Mary as his first matchup.

"Again, I don't know who's in the gym as far as big guns and little guns, so maybe that's a good thing," Willetts said. "What happened was another hard-fought battle. We had some guys maybe a little overwhelmed, but our guys were cheering, helping and supporting their teammates."

In that Lake Mary dual, Willetts got a pin from JD Linn at 138, a 12-4 tech fall from Matthew Braddock at 144 and a dominating 21-2 win at 190 from Zion Longmire.

"Zion weighed in 15 pounds under his guy," Willetts said. "He's going to be dropping weight as the season goes. Had football weight on him."

Fleming Island eventually won matches against St. Augustine and Mandarin with a loss to West Nassau. Linn, Braddock and Longmire were all 5-0 with Landon Johnson finishing 4-1.

"I'd call it a good day, the kids showed some grit and ability to overcome adversity," Willetts said. "Their conditioning showed and this upcoming week, we'll be focused on maintaining our strength and refining our technique."

Willetts, with 16 years of wrestling experience, served as an infantryman in the U.S. Army with deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq. Willetts started as a middle school wrestling coach and worked into the high school ranks. Willetts is married to his wife Erika and has five children.

Middleburg tops Oakleaf boys and girls; win district duals

Lady Broncos win Ponte Vedra Own the Ocean

Middleburg High's boys and girls wrestling team traveled about 12 miles to Oakleaf to take on the Class 3A Knights and got wins of 48-25 for the boys and 45-36 for the girls.

Middleburg's boys also beat Lincoln 72-6 to dominate and win their district 2-2A duals tournament to advance to the regional duals in January. Middleburg had a bye first round as defending champion, then beat Columbia 68-12 to advance to the championship match with Lincoln. Ridgeview lost to Chiles in their round one match before losing to Columbia in consolations 53-24.

Highlights for the boys were wins from Jonathan Harp, a recent tournament gold medalist at the Border Wars in South Walton Beach, who pinned at 106; Porter Loveland at 215, also a Border Wars champion, who pinned Oakleaf football defensive lineman Evan Brown and Keensdee Roseme at 190, who got the better of Oakleaf's Cornell Moses with a pin.

Oakleaf's state placers; Connor Barnes at 126 and Fleming Island transfer back to Oakleaf Sebastian Bonachea, at 144, both pinned with Cedric Harris at 165 beating Sean Blouin in a tough 8-4 match.

In the girls matchup, the marquee match was at 135 with Kailani Barrientos, third at 135 for Oakleaf last year, and Sarah Walsh for Middleburg with Walsh turning Barrientos numerous times, but Barrientos eventually winning by a pin. Middleburg freshman Fallon Dames, at 120, also won by a pin.

Middleburg, on Saturday, Dec. 13, competed in the Bobcat Round Robin in Gainesville and had Harp third at 8-1, Blouin third at 3-1, Micah Thomas third at 6-1 and Loveland fifth at 6-1.

Middleburg will travel to Kissimmee for the Knockout Christmas Classic at the Silver Spurs Arena.

For the girls, Middleburg won the Own the Ocean Invitational at Ponte Vedra High with a 193-123 top score over Tallahassee Lincoln with Clay finishing fifth and Orange Park 12th.
Placers for Middleburg were Toni Silcox, Fallon Dames, Memphis Moses, Sarah Walsh, Cyndi Almonte, Lillian Bradshaw, Lorena Chaput, Amiya Aalberg, Kadyn Parker and Riley Toomey. Iridessa Tyson finished fourth.

Girls wrestling will also be going to Knockout Christmas Classic in Kissimmee.

Clay in Tennessee

Clay High wrestling traveled to the Smoky Mountains Duals in Tennessee and finished fifth in the Gold Bracket with a first round loss to eventual third placer West Forsyth (GA) then a 57-19 loss in consolation semifinals to Cabell Midland before eventually winning 54-28 over Martin County, Kentucky, for fifth place.
In pool matches, Clay lost 36-34 to Georgia Duals State Champion Cass High (GA) with a win over Wayne County (GA) 52-30 and a 54-23 win over Pigeon Forge (TN). Drew Holmquist at 165 finished 3-0.

Before Tennessee, Clay won a 36-34 dual match over 3A Creekside.
Clay will be going to the Knockout Christmas Classic in Kissimmee on Saturday.

Spartans get handful of unbeatens at Bobcat Round Robin

St. Johns Country Day School's young and tough wrestling team came home from the Bobcat Round Robin tournament in Gainesville with five undefeated grapplers: Bryce Fiore, Roman Ortez, Baron Nelson, Wyatt Martin and Colt Hill.

OHS, RHS, SJCA girls at Bobcat

Oakleaf High had two firsts; Zoe Goode at 145 and Lamees Hudson at 170 and one second; Kaylene Felix at 155 at the Bobcat Round Robin in Gainesville with St. Johns Classical Academy and Ridgeview fielding teams with limited athletes. St. Johns Classical had three wrestlers: Amelia Dacuyan at 110, Gracelyn Gillmer at 135 and Victoria Mann at 155.

Ridgeview had four athletes: Cailyn Crocker at 125, Shyann Schioppa at 120, Sophis Kendrick at 130 and Thalia Rodriguez at 100.