Taking on many other schools from around Frisco, Celina, and The Colony in the District 8 Championship Wednesday and Thursday, Redhawks Wrestling placed eight athletes – six girls and two boys – into the 5A Regional meet Feb. 9-10 at Independence High School.
“I felt fantastic,” head coach Justin Koons said. “At the beginning of the year we had two big team goals. Number one was for JV to place top three at districts, and we were. We took third at JV districts [even] missing three weight classes. The second goal was to get our varsity girls into the top three, and we accomplished that. With varsity boys we knew it was going to be tough. We’re young and we’ve got a lot of work to do, but we were able to get two to qualify for regionals. We rallied around our team, we cheered, and supported each other and I think that’s what propelled us to the top three. it’s a great high point and I’m proud of all the hard work we’ve put in.”
For junior Juan Mendoza, the Redhawks’ performance at districts could foreshadow their region results, even if he didn’t personally qualify.
“This was a great confidence booster for a lot of us,” Mendoza said. “I think I did a great job at keeping my cool and staying calm and minimizing nerves before my matches, which is something I struggled with last year.”
