Luke Salzman is one of the longest tenured coaches at Fountain Hills High School, and his wrestling program has had a long history of success. He’s had two volunteer assistant coaches for 20 years, Jim Tait and Rob Trulson, and alumnus Dan Butler returned to coach this year, too.

From teaching the basics to newcomers, to having an extra set of eyes at large tournaments, the three assistant coaches helped all 19 Falcon wrestlers this year. Trulson and Tait have helped the program since their sons wrestled, and Butler is young and was able to wrestle with the team in practice as well.

“It’s a necessity when it comes to tournaments. We need coaches on deck when there’s multiple guys,” Salzman said. “When you have an extra coach to talk to a kid that just maybe lost, heal the wounds a little bit, verses just me running around coaching and not getting that chance, is a big benefit.”

The Falcons sent six athletes to the state tournament, and the youngest was sophomore Yahshua Harris. Harris was the only sophomore, and he was eliminated after going 1-2. Still, that lone win at state was much more than Harris originally expected of himself.

“Realistically, I never thought I had a shot this year,” Harris said. “Once I got to sectionals, I’m like ‘I’m going two and out’…I was really surprised, to be honest.”

Harris took fourth place at sectionals and that earned him a trip to state. He wrestled at 138 lbs. for the majority of the year but competed in a higher weight class for sectionals and state. He didn’t add any extra weight but wrestled in the 144 weight class.

Harris has done jujitsu for two and a half years and said it’s helped him with wrestling. It’s a double edge sword, because he can be on his back in jujitsu, and he said it takes some time for his mind to shift gears to stay off his back in wrestling.

Harris placed second at the Millennium tournament in late January when he filled in for injured junior Tyler Flynn in the 132 weight class. Harris usually wrestled with Flynn and senior JP Flynn (120) at practices since they were in similar weight classes, and that proved beneficial for all three of them.

Flynn and Cahill each placed fourth at the state tournament this year. This was Cahill’s first time placing, and Flynn repeated his placing last year with another fourth-place finish.

“It’s been a few years,” Salzman said about having multiple wrestlers finish in the top four. “It’s getting very tough to place at state. Kids are pretty competitive now, so to have two guys consistently in the finals throughout the whole season was fun to coach and watch.”

The Falcons’ season began outside of the gym with team hikes and outdoor workouts put on by the Marines. They also went to an ASU wrestling match before their first tournament.

Six Falcons placed in the first tournament, and five of them took that momentum and carried it all the way to state. Cahill took first at the Wickenburg Invitational and Flynn took third to start the season. Junior Ty Langer also placed third at Wickenburg and went on to state.

Seniors Ty Jablonsky, Wyatt Mowers, and Cy Dethlefs all placed fourth at the Wickenburg Invitational. Jablonsky and Mowers each wrestled for several years at Fountain Hills and represented the Falcons at state.

The Falcons had five freshmen this year and only Tyler Trapani wrestled on the middle school team. Adam Oberg, Conner Davies, Riley Murdock, and John Varga were all new to the sport this year but they grew as athletes over the winter months.

Cahill, Jablonsky, Dethlefs, Mowers, Tyson Rynearson and Brandon Despain made it to the end of this season and will all graduate this year. Fellow seniors Franklin Fiola and Heath Edwards did not finish out the season because of injury but were around the program this year.

The Falcons will miss all eight of those seniors next year and Salzman will try to regrow their ranks with rising ninth graders currently on his middle school team. The Falcons have four rising seniors to lead next year. Flynn will look to improve in his last chance at state, and he’ll be joined by Langer, Lucas Phillips, and Tyler Tolis as they try to make the best of their final seasons.