Grappling for space
For once, West Valley wrestling coach Geoff Hensley is concerned with having enough space for his squad.
Turnout numbers are up for the Eagles – an annual trend since Hensley took over the program – but the pinch comes in the amount of space the team has for its workouts.
The West Valley High School remodel is well under way, with footings already poured for the new gymnasium. But to make room for that new facility, some sacrifices had to be made. Namely, the boys locker room and the old wrestling room were demolished.
The locker room facility moved to a new outbuilding behind the football field that served as a storage building and visitors locker room during the fall sports season.
“We worked hard to transform it from a fully functional football locker room, complete with dirt and mud and grass and sweat and spit and all the other things kids do in football, to lay down mats and get things set up for a wrestling room,” Hensley said. “The West Valley maintenance crew has been unbelievable. They worked their butts off to make it ready for us – along with myself and my assistant coach, Todd Slatter.
“We’ve got a fully functioning wrestling room in there. We have showers and we put some lockers from the old locker room in there so kids can share a locker to keep their stuff. It’s interesting, though. We’re pretty packed in there.”
The Eagles started the season with more than 50 wrestlers on the mat the first day.
“We’ve got our biggest numbers since I’ve been here, but we lost 20 percent of our space,” the coach said. “We’re all over each other. I’m hoping that the room size won’t hurt our turnout – which we’re really excited about.”
The West Valley coach has worked hard to boost the wrestling program at Centennial Middle School and to promote a youth wrestling program to get kids a taste of the sport as early as possible.
Those efforts are beginning to pay off. Now, however, the coach is concerned with maintaining the quality of the team’s workouts.
“Our coaching staff has worked hard to get kids out for wrestling,” Hensley said. “It hasn’t been an easy sell, but we’re making progress. I just hope there’s a place for all of them to be in there. We’re ironing out all of the wrinkles.
“In our old wrestling room we had enough space so that everyone got a lot of live wrestling in during our workouts. We don’t have that luxury here. What we don’t want to get into is a situation where there’s a lot of standing around and waiting to get on the mat. Standing around just kills a practice session. You need to keep the kids working hard the whole time they’re out there.”
There are other concerns with the temporary facility. For one, the mats will need to be lugged back and forth to the gymnasium for matches.
“We’ll just have to deal with that,” West Valley athletic director Wayne McKnight said. “I’m trying to find us another set of mats so that we can have a set in the practice room and keep the match mats in the gym, but that’s not as easy as it sounds. You don’t just see those things lying around somewhere.
“One possibility will be to bring over the mats from Centennial Middle School once their season is over. We’re looking into that.”
Another immediate concern is lighting – making sure kids can make their way back to the school in the dark once practice is over.
A third concern, Hensley joked, will be finding a way into the school. Roughly half of the student parking lot is fenced off as workers begin laying the foundation for the new gym. The rear entrance to the current gym also is fenced off – making it a challenge for fans to find their way to the action once the season opens next month.
“Have you seen the school lately,” he said with a laugh. “I think every entrance there is blocked. Our biggest challenge may be just finding our way into the school in the morning.”
The inconvenience will be worth while, the coach said.
“The new wrestling room is going to be unbelievable,” Hensley said. “They gave us everything we ever wanted, but for the next two years we’re going to have to sacrifice a little.
“We’ve got some challenges, but the kids are starting to take a little pride in it.”
Changes in the West Valley landscape aren’t the only ones the team will deal with before moving into its new digs.
Next season the Eagles drop down to compete in the Great Northern League as a Class 2A school. Hensley insists, however, that it’s not a step back in the quality of competition.
“We’ve wrestled Medical Lake and Lakeside every year since I’ve been here and right now we’re 0-6 against them,” Hensley said. “I remind people of that every time they try to tell me that we’re dropping down against easier competition. There are some fine programs in that league and it’s going to be tough competition. The difference for us is that it’s going to be a little more fair. We’re not going to be outnumbered every night out like we are in the Greater Spokane League.”