State of the Program ... East Wilkes (NC)
East Wilkes (NC)
Head Coach: Austin Bare (entering 3rd season)
Staff: Malachi Combs, Zack Faircloth
East Wilkes finished 18th in 1A in 2022 and with a ton of returners this season, expect the Cardinals to climb to a higher finish in 2023. 2022 State Qualifier Kole Lambert has graduated, but the Cards return SQ’s Dylan Rampage and Kaden Royal. Both will be key to the middle part of the Cardinal lineup. Look for Aiden Kraemer and Zac Helms to work into the mix from 138-160 also - making that the strength of the lineup.
Senior Alan Lopez will be counted on to lead a young crew down low … expect freshmen Collin White and Wesley Wiley to step in and make some noise at 126 and 132. Tristan Alkire and Raul Lopez will be counted on to lead the way up top - expect Lopez and Alkire to take care of business at 182, 195 or 220. This is still a young crew made up of mostly juniors and sophomores. They had 2 Qualifiers a year ago … the next step is to put some on the podium and get more to the big dance in 2023 … if that happens East Wilkes could be knocking on the door of the top 10.
“Since taking over this team in the 2020 season our number one focus has been building a larger program to compete for the schools first conference title in over 40 years. We are looking for many of our guys to make big jumps this season to help us compete against top level teams. With only one senior in the starting lineup, I would still consider us young but we feel that we have continued to improve each year, and will hopefully have several SQ this season.”
NOTE: All mentions of placers and qualifiers in the body are based on the 2021-22 season. If a wrestler placed higher or lower in a previous year it is not captured above.