Iron Mountain, Mich (WZMQ) – The Iron Mountain Wrestling Team is heading back downstate tomorrow morning, and they are getting support from some of their biggest little fans. The students at North Elementary School in Iron Mountain got a visit from some of their favorite role models, and they could hardly contain themselves.
The little Mountaineers made signs, waved pom poms, and jumped for joy chanting “Go Mountaineers! Go Mountaineers!” as the finalists walked the halls and gave away high-fives during their visit to the nearby school.
The varsity team’s Head Coach Cory Mclaren says the team is looking forward to the Individual State Finals in the Motor City, but it is really a joy to include the younger kids in the glory. He wishes the schools would do that more often.
“That send-off ceremony was great,” Coach McLaren began, “We got to do it last year just through the high school, and this year they took us to the grade-school, and all the little kids were chanting before we even started, and we come out and there was like a roar of them, and they had pictures and signs,” exclaimed the coach. He said the team was given so many signs that they didn’t even know what to do with them all.
The little Mountaineers are giving the role-modeling wrestlers a sense of school pride, and a confidence boost as the champions head to the big state finals. 11th grade Fulton Stroud, who is former State Champion Parker Stroud’s little brother, is feeling confident heading into the competition.
“A couple kids on our team with their parents working at North, they said they were pretty happy they met all of us so, I feel like they think it was pretty cool,” Stroud remarked about meeting the young fans.
11th grade Alex Wilson thinks the champions are in the right mindset to succeed. “Now they’re probably going to come up and become wrestlers just seeing us walk the halls and stuff, so, it’s always a good time. Everyone’s working hard to, you know, keep going and strive for that state championship,” said Wilson.
Coach McLaren thinks the team has put in all the preparation, and now it’s all about mindset for these finalists while they work to keep their skills sharp. “We’ve had a few injuries, lost some kids to it, but to keep our team rolling into districts, regionals, U.P.’s. It’s been a great season, and we’re thankful for everyday we get here,” he added.
Stroud and Wilson will head to the Motor City for Individual State Competitions along with 5 other advancing Mountaineers: Shawn McGuire, Daniel Manier, Shayna Hruska, Tyler Winch, and Evan Haferkorn. They will wrestle in the competition at Ford Field.
