Ram wrestlers enter year with confidence

Walk into the Havelock wrestling team’s practice room, and you will be greeted by a confident bunch. 

The Rams have seven state-qualifiers, two of which transferred to Havelock in the offseason. It’s easy to understand why the Rams walk with a swagger.

Havelock won its fourth straight regional title in the 2008-09 season and its sixth conference championship in seven years.

They lost 3A state heavyweight champion Charlie Millea and two-time regional champion David Stone in the offseason, but the Rams remain confident. They feel they have seven wrestlers who are capable of competing for state titles.

“Our morale is pretty high,” said senior Ray Davis. “We are pretty stacked. We’ve been training hard for the past month. This first tournament, we are going to show everybody why we are the best.”

Returning wrestlers include Christian Holleman (119) and Matt Bogard (103), both of whom won regional titles last season. Davis (130), Michael Newby (135) and Thurman Green (189) also wrestled in last year’s state tournament.

Junior Zach Jaramillo (125) joins the team after posting a 47-7 record and advancing to the 4A state tournament with New Bern last season. White Oak transfer Terrence Zaleski (152) is also on board after placing second in the state a year ago.

“If you look at last year, I would say we are stronger at eight or nine weight classes,” said Havelock coach Ed Cruz. “We were pretty strong last year, but if we wrestled last year’s team, this year’s team would win.”

Cruz said the Rams’ strength is in its depth.

Senior Zach Miller is expected to contribute at 215 or heavyweight, while senior Nigel Archer (119), junior Tyler Merkel (171), senior Kevin Sherry (140), junior Shane Williams (160) and Mike Moody (125) return with experience.

Cruz is also anticipating a big season from junior Jake Sanborn (130), who moved to Havelock from Virginia.

“We are looking pretty good,” Cruz said. “Everyone has three or four guys that can push them as far as they can go. That is only going to make them better wrestlers and the guys around them better wrestlers.”

The Rams finished 24-3 in dual-team competition, losing in the eastern championship, one match from the state title match. Ram wrestling teams have won five tournament or dual-team state titles, the last of which was in 2001.

“Our goals are definitely set,” Holleman said. “The bottom line is we want to be wrestling in the finals and win in February.”

Holleman, the junior captain, also understands that a title isn’t guaranteed. Holleman and co-captain Davis have put in extra time during the offseason. Holleman attended a wrestling school in Wilmington, and Davis added 15 pounds of muscle.

“It’s going to take hard work,” Holleman said. “We can’t stop at all this season. We have got to realize that we have to work hard every single day if we want that ring on our finger.”

Even though Havelock is no longer in the same conference as New Bern, the two schools will meet twice this season: Dec. 5 in New Bern’s Swiss Bear Classic and Jan. 20 in Havelock.

“New Bern wasn’t going to win our conference anyways,” Davis said. “They have been in our conference forever and have beaten us one or two times. With them being in there, it was like, ‘Do they feel like getting beat by a 3A school again?’”