The Fountain Hills High School wrestling program is growing this season with one of the team’s biggest rosters in the past couple of years. With this new blood, head coach Luke Salzman said he is looking to set a solid foundation for the future of Falcon wrestling.

The wrestling season kicks of this Saturday, Nov. 30, with a freshmen meet at Perry High School. The first varsity meet is on Dec. 6 at Wickenburg.

At the moment, Salzmann said he is very happy with the state of FHHS’s roster.

“We have a large team compared to the last two seasons,” Salzmann said. “We are currently at 21 enthusiastic young men; 10 freshman, eight sophomores and three juniors.”

Salzman said there are wrestlers in nearly every weight class that the fans should keep an eye on this season.

“In the lighter weights, look for Marcus Nelson and Stephen Broetsky; I expect them to pick up some points for us,” Salzmann said. “In the middle weights we will have some good competition fighting for a couple weight classes between Brandon Becher, Caden Lupen, Matt Chandler and Dom Flynn. In the upper weights, sophomores JT Despain and Hector Leon are a lot stronger this year after much time in the weight room and should be fun to watch.”

A lot of the athletes are new to wrestling this year but Salzmann also has some returners that he wants to push further.

“(My goal is to) get everyone on board,” Salzmann explained. “I want to get the new guys to learn and love the unique sport of wrestling. Along with that, I want to build on the experienced guys and get them to the next level of confidence. I also want to have the experienced guys teach the new guys the ins and outs.”

After such a positive start to this season, Salzman said he is excited to see where his wrestlers end up in the coming months.

“We have a lot of kids out that want to get stronger and work hard and are eager to learn,” Salzmann said. “There is nothing better as a coach than when it clicks with an athlete and they see success from the hard work they put in.”