HS WRESTLING: Buffs rising to the occasion ahead of season start
Nov. 26—The Buffs are back.
McAlester wrestling will be back to the mats as the junior high and high school boys and girls open up the 2022-2023 season next week, and coach Kydel Billy said the last month of preseason action has been going well for the Buffs.
"It's been going really well. We went to some tough tournaments," he said. "Bixby Tournament, we went against some tough teams — and everybody did really well at that. We brought home a lot of hardware junior high through high school."
Billy exampled the efforts of multiple wrestlers on the roster for putting in the work early. He said Kenneth Carter made it to the finals at Bixby, where he went through a gauntlet. His only loss that tournament was to Ishmael Guerrero — son of former Oklahoma State and Olympic wrestler Eric Guerrero.
"As soon as he got off the mat, he came to me and asked what can he do better, what he can do to win that match," Billy said. "And that's just what type of kid Kenneth is."
He also mentioned Kam Hutchison, Adam Dixon — "I think he's got one of the deadliest chicken wings in the state of Oklahoma," Billy added — Axton "Gibby" Gibson, Emery Turner, and Kale Livingston — who wrestled the No. 3 wrestler in the nation from Ponca City.
"That was a match the whole arena just gathered around and watched," Billy said. "Kale upset him, and the whole crowd went silent."
Billy also mentioned Lee Moore making his high school debut, losing a heartbreaker at the end of the tournament. But as soon as he came off the mat, he was already working on getting better.
"He showed something special," Billy said. "He lost a heartbreaker...it broke his heart, and he just wanted to come back and get better from that."
All in all, Billy said he was excited about the potential in his group of wrestlers, all the way down to the junior high level. It's a group he's been working with for some time now, as he and his staff teach them what it means to wrestle at McAlester.
"I've got a good group of young kids that just want to improve. They want to push themselves, and they want to be successful," he said. "I preach to them getting their name on the wall, writing their name in history — and they're starting to rise to the occasion."
McAlester will open its season Dec. 2-3 on the road, with the boys heading to the Bulldog Tournament in Okmulgee and the girls at the Lady Warrior Classic in Glenpool. The Buffs will then open the home slate in a different venue — facing off against Ada in a dual at Hook Eales Stadium.
"We're doing it on the football field for the first time ever," Billy said. "I know there's a basketball game that same day. But I would like to see those stands pretty full."
He also highlighted McAlester being named a host for districts, welcoming Glenpool, Durant, and Western Heights to Bob Brumley Gymnasium. And it's there Billy hopes to have a raucous home crowd to help lift the Buffs to the state's biggest dual.
"We're getting to host districts for the first time in 15 years, I think," Billy said. "That decides who goes to dual state, and we got runner up last year. Hopefully we can pull the trigger and win it."
But the journey to those moments starts now, and Billy is excited as the program continues to grow as the current generation hopes to write their own chapters of McAlester history.
"It's just kind of instilling that work ethic," Billy said. "This is our expectation of how hard we work. And we need you to live up to it, or step aside and let someone else. Because in wrestling, there's going to be somebody else that wants your spot."
Contact Derek Hatridge at dhatridge@mcalesternews.com.
