Wrestling

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Comment by Byron Nelson Booster on June 20, 2009 at 9:15am

Byron Nelson High School hired Ron Gatlin to head up the school’s wrestling program this next school year, and Gatlin said the most important thing for him is that his wrestlers be good "student" athletes.

Gatlin comes to Byron Nelson from Putnam City West High School in Oklahoma and said he became interested in the school for a couple of reasons.

"It is a brand new high school, and coming from Oklahoma to Texas and being able to start a program in a sport that I love is great," Gatlin said. "Being able to come down and get things started off on a good foot and watch the sport grow will be a lot of fun."

Gatlin’s team went 6-5 in dual meets this past year at Putnam City West.

The Bobcats wrestling coach said he doesn’t see the move from coaching a varsity level team to a junior varsity squad as being that big of a transition.

"For me, its one of those things where, yes, there is a varsity and JV level, but the kids compete in high school, and what I have done is scheduled my wrestling matches to where they meet similar competition levels," Gatlin said. "We may wrestle a team that is young, but they are a varsity level team.

"For instance, at the school I coached at two years ago, of my 14 starters, 10 of them were sophomores, so I’ve been in this boat before. We still went to varsity level competition, and we qualified some guys for state."

Gatlin said, to make Byron Nelson the best it can be in the sport of wrestling, he would like to see his wrestlers start early.

"I want to see kids by the time they get to high school having wrestled about 120 to 150 matches," Gatlin said. "Once kids get to that range, their confidence level changes and they start to wrestle with a different swagger, so to speak.

"I’m all for club wrestling. I, myself, actually have small children who have wrestled in club in Oklahoma, and that’s where it starts."

Gatlin has coached at Putnam City West High School for the last three years.

The Byron Nelson wrestling coach said a successful season this year for the Bobcats would mean a couple of things.

"First, I want to make sure that we can field a varsity and JV lineup," Gatlin said. "If we get 30 kids out for the team, I think that’s a huge step in the right direction.

"Secondly, I want to see all of those kids above a 3.5 grade point average. That is something near and dear to my heart, because when a kid is getting it done academically, it makes my job so much easier when a coach calls. I would also like to see our kids get take downs and be dominant on our feet. I want to see a 3-1 ratio of take downs for our team."

Comment by Byron Nelson Booster on April 5, 2009 at 11:41am

2009-10 Division for Bobcats Wrestling
Region 2 - District 11
Argyle
Lewisville
Lewisville Flower Mound
Lewisville Hebron
Lewisville Marcus
Lewisville The Colony
Northwest
Northwest Nelson

Comment by Jim Papin on June 16, 2008 at 12:34pm

If anyone in the area has any questions about anything related to wrestling please feel free to reach out. I don't know much about what is going on at Byron Nelson yet but I have coached in the area for years and know about the sport, camps, etc.
Jim
817-929-1442