With their first meet at Groves cancelled last week, Head Coach Adam Moret and his 2009-2010 wrestlers are chomping at the bit to get their season started and try to better what was a very successful season last year. Richmond Hill finished last year with a 17-5 record and sent a handful of wrestlers to the state tournament, so an improvement over that for the second year coach will not come easy. But he is confident in their chances.

"We lost some good wrestlers in the lighter weights but our middle to heavyweights are all returners," Moret said. "We have no holes at any weight classes on varsity or junior varsity, so no forfeits this year."

With the heavier weights being his team’s strong suit, Moret was cautiously optimistic about the lighter weights.

Moret says the loss of both Peacock brothers at 103 lbs. and 112 lbs. will hurt, but he has some wrestlers working very hard to fill their shoes, which is difficult to do at the high school level with most high school students’ natural weights being heavier. The coach feels like his team will more than make up for any lack of experience with his returning mids and heavys.

Zach Sheffield is returning at 125 pounds, after a very successful season that ended at the state tournament last year. Charles Zhu returns at 135 pounds, Shih-An Hsu at 140, and Michael Early is return from an injury that sidelined him last season at 145 pounds. Early will have the task of replacing region champion John Phifer. And in what Moret called his strong suit, his heavyweight class is rounded off with Dylan Lyle at 215 pounds and Josh Bryant at 285 pounds.

The schedule this season includes three home meets in January - better than the one home meet last season but not as good as the coach would like.

"We have to wait until the basketball schedule is set then try to schedule our home meets around the basketball schedule; there is only one gym," he said.

Moret credits some of the area’s stiff competition as good experience for his team to try and unseat the region 3-AAA champions from West Laurens.

Tournaments at both Effingham County schools and a couple of match ups with Benedictine will provide some competition for Moret to better gauge his team’s post season aspirations. The Mustang Invitational will be held this Friday and Saturday at South Effingham High School.

This will be the team’s final year at 3-AAA as next year will be at the AAAA level and likely will include some of that local competition, like South Effingham and Effingham High Schools in their region.

Richmond Hill will open their season today at Savannah Arts Academy that includes Savannah Country Day - 5 p.m. start.