Lisbon coach Mark Stevens pleads guilty to reveling in a little nostalgia with his coaches this season when the Greyhounds have visited the scenes of some of their greatest triumphs past.

“We’ve had many discussions,” said Stevens, now in his 15th year at Lisbon. “We can’t sit back and rest on our laurels and talk about the old days — ‘Remember when we placed second at the Noble tournament? Do you know how many times we won the McDonald’s tournament?’ We get caught up in that, and it’s hard. So our coaches have made a pact to correct each other when we talk about the old days.”

There is plenty to talk about from the “old days,” including seven Class C titles in the past 11 years and dozens of individual championships. But now the focus at Lisbon is on the present and future as Stevens and his staff try to rebuild a program that is more used to reloading than the other “R” word.

“It’s exciting to coach kids who never wrestled before because you watch the growth. It’s a different way of life for us, but at the same time, it’s exciting,” Stevens said.

The Greyhounds returned just a handful of wrestlers with varsity experience, most of them sophomores, including Nick McNamara and Zach Stevens, who won state titles as freshmen. McNamara left the team last weekend for unknown reasons, but the Greyhounds were bolstered this week by the return of senior Zach Splude from a broken hand suffered during football season.

Tyler Bard and David Moore continue to show improvement, while fellow sophomore Dylan Dall, a newcomer, has impressed.

“I like his work ethic. I like that he has no fear,” Stevens said. “He’s a first-year wrestler, and he’s got a good double leg takedown where he’s kind of got that instinct of where to keep his body. He’s got good skills.”

The hope is that Dall and the rest of the sophomore class can eventually restore Lisbon to Class C powerhouse status. But Stevens is telling his wrestlers not to look too far ahead while reminding himself and his coaches not to look too far back.

“I tell the kids ‘It’s not your job to look towards, you know, three months from now. It’s our job to look to the next year and the year after. Your job is to be prepared for tomorrow and this next match,'” he said.

Raiders’ rebuilding requires Swett

Rebuilding is the focus on the other end of Route 9, too. But the ranks are thin at Oak Hill and getting thinner, which is surprising to coach Ric Swett.

“With the popularity of MMA fighting and the like, I am surprised more kids aren’t interested in learning the fundamentals of wrestling and its necessity to the MMA-style competition,” Swett said.

Swett, who is in his second tour of duty at Oak Hill after a four-year hiatus, took over a program that graduated a trio of state qualifiers and started the season with only seven wrestlers. With two athletes academically ineligible, another one on the verge, and senior Jared Richard (160, 170) battling illness for the last month, the Raiders have been competing with four or five wrestlers for much of this season.

Complicating matters further for Swett is the fact that three of the five wrestlers are in the same weight class. That includes his best wrestler, Keith Madore (152), who is 6-2 on the season with five pins and closing in on the 100-career victories mark.

Swett said Madore has wrestled up to 160 to give junior Donnie Vannah some experience at 152. Vannah just missed the cut for 145 last Saturday at Cony, but Swett is confident he will do well once he reaches that weight.

“It’s tough to have five team members with three holding the same weight class,” he said.  “Olivia Labrecque (a two-time Maine Girls State champion) is in the same slot and battling her own confidence and weight cutting. I had hoped she would make 138.”

Junior Britin Kramer has spent time at 132 and 138 but has yet to win a match. Swett expects him to be more competitive once he becomes more disciplined and confident. Sophomore Sadiee Austin has split time at 170 and 182 and “is progressing wonderfully in her ability, but she also lacks experience to be competitive among those bigger weights,” Swett said. “She is a fighter and has avoided being pinned in many of her matches, a significant accomplishment.”

Swett is focused on rebuilding from the ground up, going so far as to invite middle school students from Lewiston to join Oak Hill’s middle school program (wrestlers from non-wrestling schools are allowed by rule to participate with another program).  Students in grades 6-8 can visit the Sabattus Rec Club web site for more information (http://www.sabattusrec.com/html/wrestling.html).

“We will rebuild and become a stronger team for the future,” said Swett, who first coached the Raiders from 2001 to 2007. “This is a challenging and rewarding sport that requires hard work, persistence and support.”

Cougars claw competition

Dirigo started the new year off in style with meet wins over a couple of rivals and an impressive tournament championship. After dominating Lisbon last Wednesday, the Cougars had nine wrestlers place at Saturday’s Nokomis Warrior Clash to win the 15-team tournament. Two days later, they dominated Mid-State League foes Mountain Valley and Fryeburg Academy in a tri-meet at DeFoe Gymnasium.

The Nokomis win featured individual champions by Eric Holman (113) and Caleb Hall (132) and runners-up Brett Whittemore (138) and Jesse Hutchinson (145), Dirigo finished with 149 points to overcome five individual titles by runner-up Skowhegan (135.5). Mt. Blue (116), Wells (101.5) and Fryeburg (90) rounded out the top five. Oxford Hills finished sixth. Mt. Blue had three individual champions: Tyler Craig, Kevin Moore and Caleb Farrington.

The week ahead

Dirigo, Lisbon and Mountain Valley are among the dozen schools slated to compete in the Kennebunk Duals on Saturday. The field also includes last year’s winner, Noble, and fellow Class A powerhouse Marshwood… Dirigo and Monmouth will then travel north for the Winslow Duals at Winslow High School on Monday. Six schools are expected to participate, including defending Class C champion Foxcroft Academy.

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