It may not have quite the tradition of Notre Dame breaking out the green jerseys for special games, but when Ryle wrestling coach Tim Ruschell decided to return the white singlet to his team for Saturday's Region 6 championship round matches it had a similar positive motivating effect.
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| Regional Champs! |
Ryle wound up with seven individual champions and 13 state qualifiers in rolling to its seventh straight Region 6 team title by an almost 82-point margin over runner-up Campbell County at Walton-Verona High School.
The Raiders lost use of the white singlet after what Ruschell described was a disappointing performance in the finals of the GMVWA Tournament in Fairborn, Ohio, Dec 28-29. His initial threat was he wasn't going to give them back the rest of the season.
The way his team wrestled in Friday's first two rounds helped him change his mind on Saturday.
"I opened up the bag that had them in it and said, 'You guys have earned it,' '' said Ruschell. "I don't think they were expecting that and you should have seen them - especially our seniors - fighting over them. It's nice to see it means so much just to put on a singlet. Half of it was mind control games. This sport is so mental anyway you try to find anything you can as a motivator."
"We were all excited; we always get excited to get to wear the white ones," said T.J. Ruschell. "We didn't deserve to wear them again until today and we wore them proudly."
In addition to T.J. Ruschell, also winning individual titles for Ryle were seniors Caleb Lonkard at 145, Josh Parker at 152, Connor Coyle at 160, Court Mace at 171, Taylor Pruett at 189 and sophomore Gus Adams at 112 . It was Coyle's second straight regional title after he won at 152 last season.
To read the entire Ky Enquirer article: Ryle wins seventh straight regional title
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