(Anita) As many as 20 wrestlers could be a part of the CAM boys wrestling team next year. The Cougars will operate on their own for the first time in over 15 years.
Atlantic and CAM had a sharing agreement that spanned more than a decade, but the Atlantic School Board this spring elected to end that partnership. The combined enrollment between CAM and Atlantic would have moved the Trojans up from Class 2A to Class 3A. According to Cougar AD Joe Wollum, there’s more than enough interest for CAM to stand on their own. “We sent surveys out to our boys and when that information came back we thought it warranted us giving it a shot to have our own wrestling program. That’s what we are going to go ahead and do. We are still working out a lot of the details, but we are excited to start our own program. We had about 15-20 kids that were pretty committed to going out for wrestling if we have it on our own.”
A schedule is in the works and they’ve yet to lock in a head coach. Wollum admits he was pleasantly surprised by the response shown among student athletes, especially considering they typically only sent around four or five to compete with Atlantic each year. “I think a wrestling program here with some of those kids with them being in wrestling would be a huge thing for us. I’m hopefully kids will go out and stick it out once we get rolling.”
CAM did not have any formal talks with another school to share a program. 2005-06 is believed to be the last season CAM had their own wrestling program. The CAM girls program has hired Tiffany South as head coach. Practices will be held in Massena and multiple schools will be sharing. Atlantic and Nodaway Valley are both on board and others could soon follow.
CAM Activities Director Joe Wollum:
