Last season was a good one for the Richmond Hill High School wrestling program, which had its first ever state runner-up in Ethan Wampler, the area’s top wrestler who came within a match of winning the 120-pound title in Class AAAAA.
Wampler graduated, along with fellow state qualifier Ian Phifer, and neither will be easy to replace.
Still, the expectations for success haven’t gone anywhere, as the Wildcats return three state qualifiers and a host of talent and will play host to the Region 3-AAAAA traditional meet in February.
“We took 10 wrestlers to regionals and five to state last year,” said second-year Wildcats coach Robert Parker, who coached five state champs at Pelham High School in Alabama before coming to Georgia. “This year I’m hoping to take the whole team to regionals and looking to take eight wrestlers to state. That’s what would be a great success for us this year.”
Parker would also like to see the Wildcats earn a top 10 finish this year and he obviously believes he has the wrestlers to keep the program’s momentum going forward.
“We have a solid group of seniors, they’re hard workers in the mat room and they’re great leaders for us, and the junior class I have to go along with the seniors also are very good wrestlers,” Parker said. “And we’ve got some good young guys, good solid wrestlers.”
Leading the way are seniors Zach Bringer, who will compete at 138 this year, Zach Perez, who will move up from 138 to 152, and Logan Rooker, who wrestled in the152 weight class last season and will wrestle at either 160 or 170 once he heals from a broken hand suffered during football season.

Read full story in Dec. 18 issue of the Bryan County News.