GRANITE CITY — The Granite City Warriors and Alton Redbirds took to the wrestling match missing arguably their biggest fan on Thursday night.
William “Red” Schmitt, the longtime GCHS wrestling coach and 1940 Alton High grad passed away at the age of 94 on Aug. 27, so the two teams dearest to his heart entered the circle with their own heavy hearts with his absence.
The Warriors swept the triangular match with the Redbirds and Civic Memorial Eagles Thursday, defeating AHS 42-22 and CM 69-9, but not before they took a moment to remember Schmitt. The public address announcer read Schmitt's prodigious resume prior to the start of the match. Alton also bested CM 66-9 on the night.
“Coach Schmitt, you can't say enough about the man,” Granite City head coach George Kirgan said. “I'm grateful for what he's done. Then being from Alton and wrestling there and they lost their program and Roby (Eric Roberson) brought their program back, it was just a nice little gesture to appreciate coach Schmitt. He's touched so many lives around the area and coached so many guys who have become coaches themselves. We all learned a lot from coach Schmitt.”
Alton head coach Eric Roberson added, “I love coming to wrestle in Granite, it's a great program with a great tradition and it's great for them to honor Red, especially while they're wrestling Alton. That's a special dual when it comes to Red Schmitt. He didn't miss any Alton and Granite duals. I was glad he was able to see his alma mater last year (33-23 win over Warriors, first since 1938 and only third ever). It didn't quite turn out the way we wanted it this year, but it was awesome (to honor Schmitt).”
Granite City made sure it wasn't going to lose to Alton for a fourth time on Thursday. The Warriors raced out to a 30-6 lead through the first 8 bouts and staved off a late charge by the Birds.
With the score 30-22, GCHS senior Kyle Thompson bumped up to 220 pounds to wrestle Alton's Grady Womack, pinning him at the 3:39 mark of the match. It sealed the deal for Granite City. Heavyweight Korinthan Nabors provided the exclamation point, pinning AHS' Ryan Kane in 2:27 in the final bout.
“It was definitely payback,” Thompson said. “They got us last year, the first time they'd beat us in a long time. We had an off season last year, but we're coming back this year with some young guys on our team and we were able to come out and get a win. It's big momentum for us.”
The victory improved the Warriors to 5-4 overall on the season and 2-1 in the Southwestern Conference. Alton fell to 4-3 and 1-1 in the league with the loss.
Roberson felt the Warriors exposed some inexperience in the lower weights on the Birds and it just put them in too big of a hole to dig out of on Thursday.
“We dug a big hole in the lightweights and our lights are young,” Roberson said. “I've got some freshmen down there that are going to be good, they're scrappers. They just got outmatched by some other kids. The effort was there, they just need to learn more and get some more mat time. We tried to claw back with the upper weights, but it was a little too late.”
The most dramatic bout of the night came at 126 pounds between the Redbirds and Warriors. GCHS' Gregory Marti battled to 3-1 win in overtime against Hunter Hobbs in a tight affair. A takedown in OT secured the win.
“I'm really proud of him because he's taken his lumps this year,” Kirgan said. “But he just keeps coming. This is his first year in the varsity lineup and he showed a lot of heart. He could have given up so many times, but he didn't, he didn't give up.”
Other key wins for the Warriors vs. Alton came from pins from Josh Harsh (120), Brandon Bettag (138) and an 18-3 technical fall from Preston Nicard (132).
AHS got its big wins from Courtney Wilson (145), Nolan Wosczynski (160) and Christian Everage (170) against the Warriors.
Wilson won 2-0 over GCHS' Brendan Davis, while Everage prevailed 15-4 over Jeff Tyler and Wosczynski pinned Cordele Mackin in 1:55.
Wosczynski, a junior, was a bright spot for the Redbirds. He also pinned CM's Michael Spurgeon in 28 seconds and looked dominant in both matches.
“Woz, we're so proud of him,” Roberson said. “He's come so far. He works and does a lot of extra in the offseason. He trains year round and he wants to get better. He's done everything we've asked him to do. Hopefully we're going to see a kind of turn the corner type of year for him... Woz is definitely a bright spot.”
While there wasn't a lot of bright spots for the Eagles' young squad under first-year head coach Chris Jordan, senior Brandon Carpenter sure was one. Carpenter wrestled once Thursday, defeating Thompson 8-5 in a battle between state qualifiers from last season.
“Kyle is a very athletic individual and one of the things we tried to do was go out there and neutralize some of that speed he has,” Jordan said. “Brandon Carpenter really did a great job of hand fighting. He's getting ready for the Pontiac Tournament. That match was awesome. He capitalized on bottom. He works really hard on bottom and that's definitely something we have to take advantage of.”
Thompson gave props to Carpenter in the match and thought he may have taken him a little too lightly.
“I've beaten Brandon Carpenter a lot of times and I just came into this match a little too hot headed,” Thompson said. “He got the best of me this time. He was the better wrestler this time.”
CM, which dropped to 3-2 on the season with the loss, has an influx in numbers this season, but a lack of experience. Jordan thought the 2A Eagles battling a pair of solid 3A squads was a good barometer for where they're at on the year.
“You need teams like this on your schedule to judge where you're at, but also to get ready for the tougher teams we're going to see, especially at the state series,” Jordan said. “The last part of our lineup was all freshmen and we had one sophomore in there and some of the sophomores we picked up today have never wrestled before, so we come in here, see where we're at and where we need to get to. We've got four years with some of
