State of the Program ... Greenville (SC)
Greenville (SC)
Head Coach: Nick Jones (entering 4th year)
Staff: James Berdan, Jay Belton, Chris Hart, Stu Katzen, Grantt Hopkins, Sean Linnane
Greenville finished 11th a season ago at the 4A Traditional State Tournament. The Raiders lose Marion Benson, but return all of their point-getters return in State Placer Grason Belton, Jonathan Sligh, Brayden Belton, and Miquel Kilgore. The Raiders have the horses to compete with the top teams in 4A at the Traditional State Tournament (or Upperstate) … the real challenge will be the new faces coming in and competing in the duals. Grason Belton will lead the way and should be hunting the top step. Sligh, Brayden Belton, and Kilgore all have state tournament experience and will push for a spot on the podium.
Keep an eye on Donovan Hawthorne who could make some noise up top at 195. The key will be the new group of Raiders that step on the mat for the first time … we might need to wait until after December (and the fall season) to see how this comes together for a push in January and February.
“Expectations are about as high as they have ever been in the past 10 years. We return 4 State Qualifiers and another that was 1 match away. We graduated a large portion of our lineup last year, so we will be trying to fill in the gaps in November and December but should be ready for the Region schedule in January. With a new Region we hope to improve our seeding for the playoffs. Ultimately we have a handful of guys we feel capable of making the podium at the end of the season. We are very excited to continue growing the program, scoring points, and having fun.”
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.