Nov. 26—A new era has begun for Weatherford Kangaroo wrestling.

On the boys' side, new Head Coach Craig Moore comes in from Arlington Heights to lead the program. This year will be his 24th year as a wrestling coach and 14th as the head wrestling, with prior experience at Grand Prairie, Dallas Molina and Dallas Madison High School.

"I think a lot of the change between last year and now is maturity, and we have a handful of seniors leading the program who not only put in the extra time, but they also do a great job of stepping up and being leaders," Moore said.

Former wrestling Assistant Coach Brian Blasingame was promoted to replace Hailey Heaton as head coach of the girls' program.

And though he is new in the head coaching role, he knows Weatherford girls' wrestling.

"This is my 10th year in Weatherford coaching wrestling and my first year as the women's head coach," Blasingame said. "I am extremely honored to have been named the head coach to carry on the tradition we have built here."

Moore takes over a program that has held the respect of other coaches and programs for a while.

"We have a long, rich tradition and history here. People always know who Weatherford is," he said. "The program has always had good, tough wrestlers. So the fact that I get to take over the program is exciting, but at the same time, it makes me nervous because I tell them that the program was here before us, it will be here after us. It is our job to take care of it for the time being."

Blasingame has seen what it takes to be successful with the girls' program.

"Our women's team has a rich history of success in its relatively short existence," Blasingame said. "My goals are to continue that success for the women's program and to grow it, and the sport, for women and men."

The WHS wrestling program has seen success most recently with four athletes qualifying for the UIL state tournament last year. Both the boys' and girls' teams clinched top-10 finishes in regionals in 2020. Five of those individuals punched their own tickets to the state tournament and one of them, then-senior Camille Fournier, won her third straight Class 6A state championship.

The varsity program this year is senior-heavy, with six leading the nine other varsity members, which includes four juniors, four sophomores and one freshman.

"I am excited about this year," Moore said. "We have a group of seniors this year who are putting in extra work because they have that drive to succeed."

While Blasingame doesn't have as much experience on his roster compared to Moore with his, Blasingame still has some upperclassmen who are preparing for a good year.

"Overall, we have a very young team this year in age and experience," Blasingame said. "We will need some of our younger players to step up, and I believe our kids are ready to do just that. We have three returning starters fans will want to keep an eye out for, Bella Dillard (JR), Ayden Day (SR), and Layla Frances (JR). They are prepared to have an excellent year. We also have some promising freshmen in the starting lineup with Montana Adams and Morgan Shaw."

There is an abundance of wrestlers for the boys' wrestling program, with 60 wrestlers across 14 weight classes. The girls' program consists of 30 wrestlers across 12 weight classes.

"I tell my wrestlers that when we talk about expectations to be realistic and quantifiable because if not, then you don't know if you are reaching the set goals," Moore said. "I told the wrestlers for this season that I want to finish in the top three in our open tournaments, I want to see at least half of the varsity make it to the regional competition this year, and for us to strive to win the district."

Promoting from within the coaching staff can allow the high expectations to remain just that.

"Iron sharpens iron. That is the beauty of wrestling," Blasingame said. "It takes the team to make the individual successful, and with that, the team is successful. We will approach the season with our first goal to win the district team title by qualifying as many girls as possible for the regional tournament."

The Roo wrestling has started hot this season, with a 40-33 win over Aledo on Nov. 9, following by a second and third place finish by Ben Williams and Chayse Blake, at the Warrior Invitational tournament in Arlington this past weekend. Noah Lee and Ethan Siklosi both finished in sixth place, respectively, and the Roos finished 10th out of 23 teams.

Blasingame kicked off his tenure with a 54-12 team victory over Aledo Nov. 8, followed by the Arlington Martin meet where the Lady Roos finished sixth out of 17 teams. Placing individually were Layla Frances, third; Montana Adams, fourth; Morgan Shaw, fourth; Camden Cervantes, fourth; Tanner Bussey, fifth; Azia Hodges, fifth; and Charlie Scarlett, sixth.

The next round of wrestling is set for of Dec. 2 in Grand Prairie.