When you participate in a sport that is as one-on-one as wrestling, you better be healthy.

That’ll be a problem for the Chesterton Trojans when they open the 2009-2010 season Saturday at the CHS Super Duals against a field that includes Munster, Elkhart Memorial, Delphi and McCutcheon.

“If we are healthy and we have everyone back at the weights they should be, we should be very competitive,” Chesterton coach Chris Joll said. “If you look at the teams we’ve had in the last seven years, this team has more experience, but we’re having trouble getting everyone ready to go.

“The injuries will hold us back for a little bit.”

The Trojans return two State Qualifiers from last year, but only senior Zack Thornton will see action on Saturday.

“Zack is coming off the flu and missed a couple of days,” Joll said. “He looks really good and his attitude as a leader is really good. We’re expecting Zack to go one step further than he did last year. We’ve been to State and now we want to get to the next level.

“He’ll be certified at 125 and he’s ranked 3rd in the State at 130. We’ll decide down the road what’s best for him.”

The other qualifier was Anthony Quiroz, who finished runner-up at 152.

“Anthony has a lot of things working against him right now,” Joll said. “When we take care of his broken thumb, we’ll stick him in there somewhere. If we had him today, he’d be at 189.”

The Trojans will be more than a two-man team this year though.

“The kids that have been doing stuff in the summer and in the preseason are ready to go,” Joll said. “We’ve got other kids that started later that’ll take a while. We’ll be a much different team at the DAC Meet than we will be this Saturday.”

Returning Trojans who saw action on the mat last year include sophomores Joe Kelly, Tom Petrocelli and Justin Zosso.

Juniors Will Butz, Joel Gillespie, Vinnie Quiroga, Tony Sanchez, Alex Boatright and Ryan Thomalla also provide a solid foundation.

“That’s a nice core group of juniors that can do some nice things for us this year,” Joll said. “They’ve been working really hard and drilling really well. They’ve put the time in.

“Boat(right) has some injuries that we have to take care of before we can get on the mat and wrestle too.”

In the senior class, Bill Petrocelli, Chris Copollo, Brandon Garvey, Cameron Harbrecht, Gus Hultman and Donovan Hamilton will be counted on.

“Billy should see time at 125 and Cameron will help out at 152,” Joll said. “Chris Copollo is at 135 and should be able to crack the lineup and he’s wrestled really well. Brandon has really busted his butt in the preseason and should fit in nicely at 152.

“Sevante Yates is out with a hernia and he was our 189-pounder last year.”

In the freshman class, Chris Katsafaros will be the only one to crack the lineup immediately, but could be joined by some classmates as time goes on.

“Chris Katsafaros will fit in the lineup at 130 or 135 and I’m not surprised at all,” Joll said. “He’s our varsity guy right now. He loves practicing and he’s ready to go. We have a really good freshman class I think. They’ve been working hard and doing some nice things in the room.”

The biggest question mark for the Trojans will come at 103 and 112.

“We have to fill in some people at 103 and 112 that haven’t wrestled before,” Joll said. “We’ll bring them along slowly and put them in position’s they can be successful.”

Posted 11/20/2009