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In his first season as Upperman High School’s head wrestling coach, Cameron Stinnett said he expects his team to work harder and practice more than any other program.
Stinnett stepped into this role in March and said his first order of business was to find as many wrestlers and athletes as possible. The Bees roster consists of 30 wrestlers, 29 boys and one girl, Stinnett said practices can be challenging due to the variety in wrestling experience on his roster.
“It is hard to satisfy both needs there,” Stinnett said. “So, I have to kind of split the practices up. I’ll have one coach work with one group and I’ll be working with another group and we’re trying to just bring everyone up to speed. But, our mindset is to put in a good two hours on the mats and work as hard as we can.”
Upperman’s season starts Thursday at White County.
With TSSAA not having any practice restrictions on wrestling, besides the mid-summer dead period, Stinnett said the Bees have practiced approximately 60 times since he took over. He also scheduled the Bees to participate in the most regular season events in school history.
“I want to try and provide opportunity, you want to have that depth” Stinnett said. “There’s always injuries in wrestling. Obviously with the proximity to other people, you have the prospect of stomach bugs, viruses, things like that will shut a team down. So, it’s important to have the depth and it’s important to have multiple dates. So, if something falls through, you’re not left with five events when you scheduled ten.”
Before taking over as the high school head coach, Stinnett started the middle school program a number of years ago. This season he has taken on double duty of coaching both the high school and middle school.
He said it has been an advantage to take over a program that is filled with wrestlers that already know him and his style of coaching.
“I could not be happier with the group,” Stinnett said. “And as far as the kids I’ve coached, if they are still with me, they know what they’re getting.”
