Wrestling outdoors in December? This Wichita high school plans to inside football stadium
Wrestling outdoors in December underneath the lights?
Bishop Carroll believes it will host the first Kansas high school wrestling event outdoors at 5 p.m. Thursday when the Golden Eagles renew their rivalry with Northwest on wrestling mats placed at the 50-yard line of the football field.
“We don’t think there’s ever been one in a football stadium underneath the lights at night, at least not to our knowledge in this part of the country,” Carroll athletic director Tyler Fraizer said. “We thought it would be a pretty cool idea, so we’re going to roll with it and I know the guys are excited about it.”
The plan wasn’t hatched until Wednesday and a perfect storm of events has led to it.
It started earlier this week when South, which was originally scheduled to host the event, pulled out due to COVID-19 protocol. And then on Tuesday the KSHSAA Board of Directors voted to allow up to two parents or guardians to attend athletic events beginning on Thursday.
During a discussion with Fraizer, Carroll wrestling coach Kyle Cline made an offhand remark about how nice the weather was and joked that maybe Carroll should just host the dual against Northwest outside. Fraizer was immediately on board and the athletic director went to work to clear the idea and begin setting it up. The temperature is supposed to reach as high as 65 degrees on Thursday.
While it very well could be the first of its kind for Kansas high school wrestling, Cline says he pulled the idea from a 2015 collegiate dual when Iowa hosted Oklahoma State inside its football stadium. Cline is excited for his team to get to experience something unique.
“This group of seniors have been through three coaches in four years and then they’ve had to be in school with all of this covid stuff, so I figured it would be nice to try something a little special,” Cline said. “Especially now we can have a few fans, being outside we can make sure we stay socially distanced and we can minimize the risk even more.”
There will be two mats pulled close to the sidelines of the football field with the varsity and junior varsity matches going off simultaneously. The official scorers table will be on the track surrounding the field and the football scoreboard will be used as the varsity scoreboard.
Northwest wrestling coach Ron Russell said his wrestlers are excited about taking on their biggest rivals in a first-of-its-kind experience.
“To be completely honest, I wish we would have thought of it,” Russell said, laughing. “We’ve had so many curveballs thrown at us this year and so many negative things happen, this sounds like a really fun way to have the kids do something a little different and be able to compete on a unique stage. We’re excited to make some history under the lights.”
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