Ben Smith won a regional championship last week for Blacksburg High School and will now head to this weekend’s state tournament along with five other Bruins.
The Blacksburg High School wrestling program has been on a quick rise including last week’s third place in the 4D tournament.
This is the first year the team has wrestled in the class because of an increase in enrollment, and the first year, they haven’t had to deal with cross-county rival Christiansburg, who remained down a class in 3D. The Bruins (117.5) finished third behind Amherst (209) and Jefferson Forest (57).
Ben Smith pinned Jefferson Forest’s Gavin Stainaker in the finals and will advance as regional champ in the 132-pound class. Coach Chris Johnson is quick to point to Smith’s offseason work as a reason for his success this year.
“Ben committed himself during the off-season after finishing once place from making the state tournament last year. He had beaten three kids who made the tournament during the season, so he knew that he had the ability to get the job done. We needed to get better in all positions to ensure that he made it to state as a senior,” Johnson said. “He worked very hard during our off-season lifting and practices to further develop his skill sets and adopt our style of wrestling.”
Smith agreed off-season conditioning, hard work and dedication have paid off. He also credits the Blacksburg coaching staff for their help in reaching a 32-7 mark.
Last season, he was an alternate to the state tournament but has placed in the top five of several local tournaments this season. He started wrestling when he was 13 in middle school and fell in love with the sport.
“I would like to place first,” he said when discussing the state tournament. “But realizing how tough the competition will be, I will be happy to finish in the top 3,” Smith said.
Saturday will be the last time he suits up for Blacksburg and probably his last time as a competitive wrestler. He plans to attend New River Community College this fall but would like to continue to be involved in the sport, perhaps as a coach for the club team.
“But if an opportunity presents itself, I would be interested in wrestling at the college level in the future,” he said.
The success at Christiansburg (16 straight state titles) has not gone unnoticed especially with the Bruin coaching staff.
Johnson is the head coach for BHS after serving as an assistant to then-Christiansburg coach Daryl Webber. Two of his assistants, Brandon Taylor and Ryan Wade, both wrestled at Christiansburg while in high school. Taylor also wrestled at Virginia Tech.
Johnson calls this season as being fairly successful.
“I had a full team at the beginning of the year, however, grades, injuries, and the grind of the sport took its toll on several of the kids and we finished the year forfeiting three weight classes. We focused on coaching and developing the wrestlers that we had and didn’t worry about the weights that we didn’t,” he said.
This showed during the regional tournament where the Bruins had to forfeit four weight classes, but still finished third, the highest for any wrestling program at the school.
The team’s state qualifiers are: Logan Eberhardt (freshman at 113 pounds), Matthew Lucas (sophomore, 120) who missed last year due to a pre-season knee injury that required surgery, Christian Vance (senior, 126), Shane Mitcham (junior, heavyweight) and Smith at 132.
No matter what happens in the state tournament this weekend, Johnson is optimistic about the future of the program.
“I think that our future is bright. We will return three state qualifiers, two guys who placed fifth in the region and two more that were sixth,” he said. “In addition, we had over 45 kids come out for the middle school team, several of which will be able to contribute immediately next year.”
Blacksburg also recently got its charter for a new wrestling club, called the New River Wrecking Crew and will start off-season strength and conditioning and wrestling shortly after the state tournament.
Johnson also plans to introduce Freestyle and Greco to the kids during this off-season and compete in all three styles during the off-season.
The program will also add former Christiansburg wrestlers Ryan Wade (an assistant coach at the middle school) Jacob Bonds and Dave Jennelle to the club coaching staff.
