By Michael Butler

The Tallassee girls wrestling team has one season under its belt. The program had its share of successes in last year’s debut.

The team placed fifth overall in Class 1A-5A at Huntsville last spring with five individual state qualifiers. Three are back in Milly Crain, Kaylee Fannin and Abbi Carwile, who went 25-7 and was the state runner-up at 120 pounds.

There is also a new head coach in Brooke Barron. She will be working with Brent Tennyson, who helped coach last season.

“I’ve been a wrestling mom for several years, wrestling fan growing up. I’m from Tallassee. Y’all know the program that John Mask, Jared Jones and that whole crew built,” Barron said. “Stepping into the coaching role is a little bit different. The responsibility falls on mine and Brent’s shoulders now.

“It has been a lot of fun watching the growth of these girls. They’ve bought in. It’s been incredible. I can’t say enough about what Brent and the girls have done to make the quote – ‘head coaching role’ – a lot of fun.”

Tennyson has worked with a lot of the kids, both boys and girls, in the MatCats program, the feeder for Tallassee High School wrestling.

“We had Alli Smith, who’s at Huntingdon now. She was one of the big pushers for this,” he said. “We’ve got Abbi Carwile, who wrestled some when she was little. We’ve seen girls for other schools who’ve been wrestling youth. You can tell. Girls’ wrestling is coming along, fast.”

Participation has increased at Tallassee as well.

“There are 12 weight classes for the girls,” Tennyson noted. “Last year I think we filled eight at sectionals, which was great for a first-year program. This year we have more than enough.”

Barron added that the sky is the limit moving forward.

“We listed out some of the goals,’ she said. “Making it to Huntsville with everybody was definitely a goal.”

The Jamie Blakely Duals will be at Tallassee High School on Nov. 24 and 25. Varsity boys’ matches will be on Monday with varsity girls and junior varsity boys hitting the mats on Tuesday. Matches begin at 10 a.m. both days.

Schedule