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Saturday, December 10, 2022, TRIB-LIVE
There’s one thing that becomes evident when visiting the Fox Chapel wrestling room at the school’s field house — plenty of wrestlers.
There are 51 wrestlers out for the team this year — eight of them girls. That might belie the fact that the Foxes struggled to a 5-5 dual meet record last season, though several wrestlers had excellent individual marks.
“We have a couple of weight classes where we have nine or 10 kids in that weight class. It’s an incredible problem to have,” fourth-year coach Michael Frank said. “It’s lovely. We have a bunch of our kids who have come back, we have a couple kids who haven’t wrestled the past year or two but were in our youth program. We’re really, really pleased.”
Needless to say, the Foxes look to fill every weight class this season.
“We’re happy about that,” Frank said. “With a roster of 51, when they’re healthy, we have a couple who aren’t yet, we have a lot of options. We’re still going through our individual wrestle-offs to see where people land.”
Fox Chapel didn’t schedule any dual meets the first weekend of the regular season.
“Knowing we have a young lineup, you see we have a bunch of young kids,” Frank said. “We didn’t want to jump in to a new tournament; we have a number of tournaments that we like to go to.”
Fox Chapel’s first dual meet was against North Hills, and the Foxes made their annual appearance at the Hampton Dog Duals the following weekend.
Among the returnees to the mat for the Foxes is junior Alex Kaufmann, who posted a team-high 28 wins last season and placed fourth at sectionals at 145 pounds.
“It was a good season for me, and I’m proud of the strides I made since my freshman year,” Kaufmann said. “I fell short of my end goal, and that’s something I’m really going to work towards. I had some great wins last year, and I want to capitalize off that and perform at that high, consistent level and just keep on getting better.”
Also back is junior Josh Alexander, who finished 25-11 last year wrestling at 126 pounds. Senior Trevor Katz finished 18-13 at 172 and Michael Worsen was 18-10 as a freshman at 106.
All four aforementioned wrestlers were WPIAL tournament qualifiers.
The Foxes also have high expectations for sophomore Landon Funk, who went 16-15 last season at 113.
Kaufmann is also pleased at the huge turnout.
“It’s great, I love to see a big team,” he said. “At the end of my freshman year, there were 15 kids by the end of the year. Now, seeing upwards of 40 and 50, the variety of experience is something good for us. We’ll be better off for us now and in the future.”
Kaufmann is expected to wrestle at 152 this season.
As for the female wrestlers, interest continues to grow. There are 82 schools that have committed to sponsoring girls wrestling. If there are 100 schools, the PIAA will sanction a girls program.
“Our goal right now is to get them as many matches against other female contestants from other schools,” Frank said. “We’re exploring all girls tournaments that they can be a part of.”
If the Fox Chapel Area School Board approves, it would make the total 83 schools.
Frank and his father, long-time coach Ron Frank, will be organizing the annual Allegheny County wrestling tournament, slated for mid-January.