The Morgan wrestling team has the honor of welcoming a familiar face this season, as Coach James Lewis, who has been the assistant coach for MSW football and Morgan wrestling, takes on the role of varsity coach for this season.
Lewis started his coaching career while he was in high school, and he worked with his local youth teams to give back to his community. Later on, for eight years, he coached wrestling at Forum High School. Lewis initially joined the Clinton family in 2019 when he founded the Sled Dogs wrestling team, which allows kids from local towns, pre-K to 8th grade, to wrestle. Then he went on to be the assistant coach for Morgan football and wrestling.
Senior captain, Ariana Farr, has been wrestling since her freshman year. In 2019, she met Lewis when she was on the local rugby youth team, the Shoreline Spartans. “Lewis has given me so many opportunities, especially in the last two years of my high school wrestling season, and he’s been a great father figure to me,” Ariana said.
Ariana expressed that Coach Lewis is a very down to earth person and great to be around. She expects to see Coach Lewis step up and put all of his knowledge into that team. “He is not only a coach but a mentor,” Farr added.
Lewis said he has many goals for this season. “I hope to get certain individuals the opportunity to compete at the level they should be in wrestling,” Lewis said. Lewis expressed how it’s not going to be easy, but by working on conditioning, drilling and movement, he hopes to succeed. “It’s going to be my job to build confidence in kids who don’t have much of it,” Lewis said.
Senior captain, Tyler Farrell, has known Lewis since his freshman year when he was on the Morgan football team. Farrell said that as an athlete, Lewis has always been there for him. “He has made sure to always help me out and believed in me even when I was feeling down on myself.” Farrell also said Lewis has kept in touch with him outside of the season to make sure he is doing well. Farrell said Lewis will help them stay on task going into the season, on and off the mat.
Coach Lewis mentioned that wrestling can be one of the most difficult sports, conditioning wise. “You might think you’re in shape for other sports, like track or soccer with running, but once you step in the wrestling room you find out wrestling shape is its own critical.”
Ariana Farr mentioned the team started working on technique rather than learning new things during practice. “We are focusing on the things that we are good at in practice, and trying new tactics that we can incorporate to make us better.” Farr said. Coach Lewis is excited for the rest of the season, and to see how the wrestlers grow throughout the rest of the season.
In the 2023-24 season, Morgan wrestling had a 3-17 record, and there are currently fourteen returning wrestlers, and five new wrestlers this season. There is a match this Wednesday, against Daniel Hand High School in the Morgan gym starting at 7:00 pm.
