Hawks wrestlers dealing with low turnout

The Shawano Community High School wrestling team is going to be challenged this season.

The Hawks’ numbers have fallen, while Bay Conference teams that usually have turnouts comparable to Shawano’s have grown.

Returning Bay Conference champion Luxemburg-Casco looks primed to make another title run.

“Luxemburg-Casco will probably take the conference this year,” Shawano coach Adam Bieber said. “They’ll probably take state as a team in Division 2. We’re just really hoping to beat the guys we always beat: West De Pere and Marinette. Those are the teams that we battle with. They struggle with numbers just like we do.”

Shawano has only 15 wrestlers out for the team, down from the 22 the Hawks started with last year.

“We’ve got really bad numbers, really low,” Bieber said. “We were disappointed with that. It’s just something with our program that we’re going through right now. In a few years we’ll be back to normal.”

Bieber expects to have the fewest wrestlers in the Bay this season.

“It’s just one of those years. We’re going to have to fight hard, practice hard,” Bieber said. “We have low numbers, but maybe we can focus on these guys and get them up to speed.”

The team returns three wrestlers who qualified for sectionals last year: senior Cody Urban (152 pounds), senior Mike Meisner (170) and junior Dalton Parson (120).

“Those are the guys that we’re really counting on,” Bieber said. “They should have good seasons.”

The trio will be counted on to provide leadership for the team, which lost two graduated seniors: TJ Hawpetoss and Kodiak Mahkimetas. Mahkimetas was a sectional qualifier as a heavyweight, came one win away from qualifying for state, and won the team’s most valuable wrestler and Heart of the Hawk awards the last two seasons.

Bieber predicted his team will produce a few surprises this year.

“A big surprise, I think, might be Jayce Hinkfuss, who is a junior who will be wrestling around 220,” Bieber said. “He was on the team last year, a beginner last year. He’s put in a lot of work over the summer, and he’s really doing well in practice.”

There could also be surprises from the ranks of the five underclassmen on the team.

“We have new kids coming out, new to the sport,” Bieber said. “It’s a real good mixture of kids this year.”