A young team usually goes through a transition period as wrestlers and coaches discover their own expectations and skills. This certainly holds true for Dirigo, which face an uncertain future this season.

But now the Cougars are off to their best-ever start after having won eight of 10 dual meets. This has been accomplished with a lineup consisting of 10 sophomores and freshmen.

“There’s a lot of team unity,” Cougar coach Doug Gilbert said. “It’s nice to see because the kids are a lot more vocal on the side of the mat when a teammate is wrestling. It’s some thing that has been pointed out because that type of spirit had been lacking on the team the previous year.”

The lone seniors are Jamie Bedard (140 pounds) and Kyle Dolloff (171). Dolloff is currently sidelined with a knee injury.

Junior Randy Hall has been making strides at 160 and his efforts will be needed. The Cougars have tried to avoid falling in to a routine to keep things interesting.

“Last week was the best practices we’ve had since I’ve been coaching,” Gilbert said. “I scrapped the format that I’d been using for years. We divided the team in to three groups and went station to station and concentrated on different things. The kids really enjoyed it and then we went in to our live wrestling.”

Sophomores include Josh Ronan, Aaron Patenaude, Devin Brann and Nate Conley. Brann led the team in wins last season. Freshmen starters are Mike Jonaitis 112, Matt Smith 125, Justin Jackson 130, Nate Carrier 135, Kyle Meile 13 wins at 145 and Pat O’Leary 189.

Ringing in the new year

A rare feat was accomplished on New Year’s Eve by Jing Mai of Cony, Josh Laird of Oxford Hills and Justin Nesbit of Winslow. The trio each reached 100 career wins during the Cony duals.

“To reach 100 wins is a feat in itself,” Cony coach John Martin said. “You usually hear about one or two reaching 100 at a state meet, but I’d never heard of three wrestlers getting the milestone during the season, especially at the same location.”

It’s in his blood

Once an athlete discovers wrestling, the odds are that the sport will stay with them throughout life. Just ask Steve Cobbett who is currently enjoying things in a different light as a referee. The former Oxford Hills coach decided enough was enough and returned home, sort of.

“It’s in my blood,” Cobbett said. “I’ve been involved with wrestling since 1969 and being a referee keeps me involved. I’m enjoying it, but I’ll admit that there was some rust to work out at first. It was different being on the mat after having been coaching.”

Cobbett certainly received a solid foundation when he started wrestling at Sanford five decades ago. The coach was the late Jon Caramihalis who introduced wrestling to the state of Maine in 1959. The Redskins program turned into a strong tradition, including having won the most state championships (17) in the state and also won the state’s lone New England crown in 1964.

Cobbett has actually been close by because he has continued coaching the Viking pee-wee program. Still, there was a void during the high school season and Cobbett passed the test to don the zebra jersey.

“I do feel a little old,”Cobbett said. “One of the kids that is in the pee wee program is the son of Shawn Dexter. I coached Shawn at Oxford Hills a few years ago.”

Making progress

The progression in wrestling usually involves advancing to the next level and that’s exactly what a trio of former Dirigo wrestlers are currently doing. Nick Gurney, Derek Turnbull and Matt Waite each belong to teams in college.

Turnbull and Waite are both sophomores at the University of Southern Maine. Waite, who redshirted last season, won a tournament at Roger Williams College last month.

Gurney is a freshman at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire.

The trio won a combined eight state championships, including Waite’s latter two at Mt. Blue.