Sprayberry High School - Echo Yearbook (Marietta, GA)

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JUNICR JACKETS Having a victorious undefeated sea- son was the Junior Varsity squad. They knew what it took to wrestle tough competition. Some of the schools who could not compete with Sprayberry's Varsity squad dropped down to take on the J.V. squad. The junior Jackets won their filth Cobb County Championship under Coach Tucker's dedicated guidance. Some of the individual winners were Mitch Boling, Alan Kollar, and John Bagwell, all placing first, Kirk Batroff placing second and Wes Kitchens placing third. The J.V. squad doubled the scores of all other Cobb County schools in the tournament. The junior grapplers went into the North Metro Tournament with the pride that every Sprayberry wrestler has. They pinned all competition to the mats until they met Berkmar High School. The struggle was long and disappointing. Sprayberry's J.V. came in a close second in the contest, with Scott Taylor placing third. However, Coach Tucker commented, Berkmar, the team that beat us in the North Metro Tournament, came back to 'wrassle' us the next week and we beat them by twenty points. Some of the highlights of the season included downing Rockdale 66-99 pinning Jonesboro 43-24, and stomping Campbell 60-10. Because of a well balanced J.V. squad, some moved up to compete on a Varsity level, and many freshmen got a chance to gain Junior Varsity experience. Said Coach Whitey Tucker, We always try to get our freshmen exhibition wrestlers a match before the duals . . . They wrestle for the experience and sometimes they get into the J.V. lineup. The Cobb County Freshmen Wres- tling Tournament held in January found Bob Almand, Billy Walker, and Rob Cowan capturing first place and Frankie Edwards taking second place. This year's Junior Varsity and fresh- man exhibition teams will feed into the future Varsity squads a unique mixture of skill, talent, and determination that will keep Sprayberry a dominating force in Cobb County and Georgia wrestling. Above: THE 1980-81 JUNIOR VARSITY SQUAD First rowi Glenn Williams, Eric Lemon, Jeff Hewgley. Dan Kile, Rob Hookerg second row: Damian Hebert, Alan Kollar. Ron Jeske, Chris Hulsey, Don Williams, Joel Fludap third row: Mike Brooks, Glenn Grumbien, Kirk Batroff, Wes Kitchens and Darren Dunbar, Right: BECAUSE OF THE MANY JUNIOR VARSITY PLAYERS who moved up to Varsity, many freshmen wrestlers were allowed to take on Junior Varsity competition. Some who did not wrestle on the J.V, squad participated on the freshman exhibition team to gaIn the experience needed for Varsity competition N80 .Qtr W 'Z .,, iii-J..-1 E If ' ' fi ' lv. I y A jgyrvf 44 ' 9 ij-Y ,,.. -gg,-'A I, 'Vffi r 575 I Hi, ' '5' . D YV

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lv-Q D x 5 ,E 1 WBC STQNERZ CHHHIPIOIII The 1980-81 Varsliy Yellow Jacket - Y Wrestling squad from left, first row, Bob 1 ?'f ' Ifvyv Almand, Brent Betteridge, Ritchie Flappa, ' ' , ' ' ' David Wagner, Greg Powell, second row: Chris Powell, Greg Fernandez, Earl Hampton, Billy Hulsey, Mike Peace, John Mercure, third row: man. Flene Viney, and Djuana Whittemore. 63

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KNOW WHAT IT TAKES Left: WRESTLING FOR THE J.V. SQUAD is indeed a tremendous opportunity. Coach Tucker does a super job . . . We are really fortunate to have someone of his caliber working with the kids. We have won the region tournament six years in a row and a lot of our success is due to Coach Tucker. commented Varsity Coach Keller. Rob Kooker was one of nine wrestlers who placed in the Cobb County Junior Varsity Wrestling Championship. Middle left: MORE THAN SIXTY PEOPLE TRIED OUT for the J.V. squad and freshmen exhibition team and among those was Alan Kollar. The J.V. team ended the season with an undefeated dual match record. Below: WINNING SIX MATCHES BY FALLS was Tim Hewgley. He finished second in the North Metro Tournament and first in the region. Tim was also one of the Junior Varsity wrestlers to move up to Varsity competition. N s ',,....-.--aa HC'- gi..- Rockdale County 9 SHS 66 Jonesboro 24 SHS 43 Douglas County 12 SHS 54 Campbell 10 SHS 60 McEachern 19 SHS 54 North Metro Tournament 2nd Berkmar 25 SHS 41 Left: EXPERIENCING THE TASTE of wrestling competition was the major goal of the freshmen exhibition team. Spending one of many grueling hours after school to strengthen his abilities, David Childres takes down another freshman opponent at one of the rare home duals. 65 sun-ali!