2017-18 Green Valley Wrestling Capsule

Head coach: Jon Ferry, 14th season

Returning lettermen: Seven

Top wrestlers: Steele Dias (Jr.), Will Zernich (So.), David Kalayanaprauit (So.), Jeremy Hoffman (So.), Justus Scott (So.), Desmond Bowers (Jr.), Tyler Dockery (Sr.)

Outlook: It just doesn’t seem possible for a team to be so young yet have a boatload of state meet experience.

Yet when you’ve won six straight state championships, pretty much anything is possible.

The Gators are youthful but experienced.

“Our team is very, very young,” Ferry said. “We may only have two seniors in our varsity lineup.”

Dias, the state champion at 106 pounds last year, moves up a weight class this year. Zernich (120/126), Scott (142/152) and Bowers (152/160) all finished third in the state meet last year. Hoffman (132/138) was a Sunrise Region champion, and Kalayanaprauit (126/132) and Dockery (132/138) also qualified for the state meet.

“We will rely heavily on our two juniors, Steele Dias and Desmond Bowers, to take the lead of our team,” Ferry said. “I’m confident that our athletes will follow them on and off the mat. If we wrestle our best at the end we have a great chance to be very successful at the regional and state tournaments.”