The final weeks of the 2020-21 high school wrestling season will look decidedly different than in years past.
Safety precautions put in place due to the continuation of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will significantly reduce the number of persons in attendance during the postseason and alter how those present move from one location to another.
As for the competition itself, Indiana High School Athletic Association assistant commissioner Robert Faulkens anticipates the tournament, which starts Saturday at 32 sectional sites, to deliver the way it always has.
“I expect a great tournament, I really do. I’ve seen some great wrestlers this season, and I expect no less,” said Faulkens, who oversees wrestling for the IHSAA along with football and baseball. “What you normally see at the sectional, regional and semistate you’ll see, except for spectators.”
Faulkens is hopeful that the state finals at Bankers Life Fieldhouse can accommodate at least some spectators, but he says a final decision on that might not be made until that week. The state quarterfinals on Feb. 19 are likely to be split by weight class into two sessions, with the first beginning at noon and the second at 7 p.m.
Four of Johnson County’s five wrestling teams compete at the Mooresville Sectional; those advancing return to the same gymnasium the following week for regional. The south semistate on Feb. 6, normally hosted by the 11,000-seat Ford Center in Evansville, has been moved to Jasper High School.
Indian Creek starts the postseason at the Bloomington North Sectional. Any wrestlers making it to regional will then compete at Bloomington South.
Mooresville athletic director Mike Mossbrucker said he and his staff are taking the necessary steps to make sure his school’s sectional plays out as seamlessly as possible. It will be challenging given the number of wrestlers, coaches and trainers, but Mossbrucker, who was the Pioneers’ wrestling coach for 14 seasons earlier in his career, remains confident.
The biggest difference is that Mooresville’s spacious venue won’t be filled with spectators.
“We’re going to make a few modifications facility-wise and will allow two parents per athlete,” Mossbrucker said. “Wrestling has kind of been practicing this for a long time because of skin issues. We mop the mats, kids shower religiously. Those are things wrestling people have been doing, so that’s a plus for us.”
The plan for the Mooresville Sectional is to roll out the bottom seven or eight rows of bleachers on the lower levels. This provides each of the 11 competing teams its own assigned section to sit in so there is less moving about the gymnasium than in previous seasons.
Five teams will be on one side of the gym, six on the opposite side. Parents will enter one of two upstairs entrances and be seated in the upper portion of the gym. Mossbrucker feels this will help with social distancing, as it greatly reduces the number of persons using stairways to and from the main floor.
In the past, parents have been allowed to come downstairs and take photos of their sons on the awards podium during the announcement of top finishers in each weight class. Mossbrucker feels that even with the emphasis on social distancing, parents will likely be permitted downstairs the next two weeks. He hopes a new-look sectional provides the necessary blueprint for the following week’s regional.
The majority of local teams have been idle in recent weeks to lessen the possibility of being quarantined and having to miss sectional. Seventh-ranked Center Grove hasn’t competed since taking third at the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference meet three weeks ago.
“Our conference meet actually got pushed up a week for that reason,” Trojans coach Maurice Swain said. “We would have had a dual match against Avon on (Jan. 21), but it was kind of my decision not to to stay safe and have everyone be able to not have the risk of being contact traced. This is the first time this has happened, and that’s what I explained to the kids.
“We’re doing everything we can because the state tournament is what everyone wants to compete at.”
