Trumansburg wrestling returns to the mat

Resurrecting an athletic program isn’t a new concept in Trumansburg. In 2019, the football team was brought back after a five-year hiatus. They’ve had linear progression in the eight-man scene, ultimately culminating in the program’s first-ever sectional title in November. This winter, another program has been revived.

Trumansburg has a varsity wrestling team for the first time since 2012-13. The wheels got rolling on their return last year when modified wrestling returned under Chad Doolittle. Now coaching both modified and varsity this year, he’s taken plenty of enjoyment in helping bring a sport with such significance throughout the county back to Trumansburg.

“I was happy to jump in and be able to coach last year, and I had a ton of fun doing it,” Doolittle said. “To be honest. It was more fun than I expected to have. The kids were great, and the community of other wrestling coaches were great. It was a good experience for everybody. The confidence that gets built on the wrestling mat is unmatched in any other sport. You’re out there by yourself. It’s a very individual sport. There’s nobody else to blame. It’s just you and your opponent, and to walk out onto the mat in front of a crowd takes a lot of courage. It’s a great confidence builder for the kids, so I’m just so happy that they have that ability.”

Doolittle is also the head coach of the history-making football team this past fall, and there are quite a few wrestlers that also play on the gridiron. Not only is there overlap in the rosters, there’s plenty of overlap between the two sports.

“We condition a lot in football, but wrestling is a whole other animal,” Doolittle said. “It’s the most physically exhausting sport that we offer at Trumansburg. You’re on the mat, and you think a two-minute period is no big deal. But at the end of that two minutes, you’re exhausted, and then you’ve got to kind of get back to the center and do it two more times to finish a match. There was a little bit of a head start on conditioning, but we’ve had to kick it up a notch. It’s not exactly the same, but a lot of the techniques that we teach in terms of tackling for football resonate with takedowns in wrestling.”

It’s no surprise that the Blue Raiders have an incredibly young team. Of the 17 wrestlers on the roster, only six are upperclassmen. But the lone senior on the team has been the star of the show. Dikota Hamilton has won 17 of his 20 matches, as of January 19. He spent the last two seasons wrestling at Ithaca, winning sectional titles and competing at states both times. Along with starring on the mat now for his hometown, he’s also helping out the younger wrestlers, which included being the assistant modified coach last year.

“He’s a great kid all the way around,” Doolittle said. “He’s dedicated so much time to honing his craft that he’s more technical than I am in a lot of ways… He enjoyed coaching last year. A lot of those modified kids are now first-year varsity wrestlers, so he’s been able to mentor them and kind of help get them up to speed.”

One of those wrestlers Hamilton has mentored is Brody McLennan. The eighth grader also has a winning record at 6-3, and he’s one of many examples why the future is bright for the Blue Raiders.

“Brody is the type of kid that will take it home with him and really study,” Doolittle said. “Last year he did modified as a seventh grader and did really well his first year wrestling. He really sucked it in and wanted to figure it all out, and that’s something he’s continued this year. He’s athletic enough to pass the APP [Athletic Placement Process] and be able to wrestle varsity this year, and he’s been great for us.”

The season has really flown by with the IAC Championships coming up on January 25. No matter what happens during the postseason for the Blue Raiders, the fact that wrestling is back on the map is something to cherish and build upon.

“The main goal was to get the kids out there and have them experience wrestling, give them an opportunity to fall in love with it or not,” Doolittle said. “We’ve had kids that said, ‘Hey, this isn’t for me. I gave a fair shake, and it didn’t work out.’ But by and large, most of the kids have really taken to it, and they’ve improved week over week. All we can really ask for at this point is going out there and taking on something that may make you a little bit uncomfortable, because that’s how you get better and start to thrive in that environment of adversity, and a lot of the kids have done that.”