By Monica Holmes
Sports Editor

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]nother season of wrestling, another shot at the state championships and a new coach to tie it all together.

Russel Kepler, First Flight High School’s new wrestling coach, has previous experience as an assistant coach at Northeastern High School and has been an OBX Select coach for the past five years. OBX Select is a team that prepares students for middle and high school wrestling and is available for kids kindergarten through the eighth grade.

“Coming into my first year coaching here at FFHS, it’s extremely exciting to have  such a talented group of guys,” Kepler said. “Last year’s coach, Shane Baum, made my transition very easy.  He handed over some extremely hard-working and dedicated wrestlers who intend to, once again, represent FFHS at the state wrestling championship.”

Expectations are running high this year for the team, as Coach Kepler believes the team will finish as one of the top five in the state. There is also a great chance of having five individuals finish in the top five in the state, including defending state champion senior Alex Monaco.

“My goals for this season are to win states again, destroy all of my competition and win nationals,” Monaco said. “Our new coach is helping all of us reach our goals by introducing us to new techniques and conducting very physically demanding practice.”

Coach Kepler has many goals for the wrestling team this season, including getting a larger number of fans out to all of their matches.

“One of my goals is to get the community and the student body more involved with this sport,” Kepler said. “It is a super competitive one-on-one and team sport and it’s very entertaining to watch a wrestling match between two guys that have the same goal, which is to win.”

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