Wildcat Wrestlers Celebrate Season at Annual Banquet
by Dr. Hunter Norris [Photos]
  The Tullahoma High School wrestling program held its annual banquet at Trinity Luthern to honor the team members for a record setting year. Head coach Wayne Otto presented awards and gave recognition of thanks for a wonderful first year for him at the helm of the program. Mike Basham entertained everyone with a DVD collage of still pictures of the wrestlers and managers taken over the whole season set to rock music. Keith Gilliam catered the meal of roasted pork loin and chicken with sides of cream corn, scalloped potatoes, and green beans.
  The night was dedicated to the senior wrestlers Ziad Aboulmouna, Scott Church, Josh Davis, Sunny Knight, James Pino, Cody Quick, and Taylor Roper. The team went 18-8 with dual matches and made only their 2nd appearance in the Tennessee State Team Duals. Maybe the culmination of the year for the team as a whole was their first round upset win against Greenville High School at this tournament who at the time had only lost 3 times all year. The Tullahoma team then qualified 9 wrestlers for the State individuals at UTC where captains Ziad Aboulmouna, Sunny Knight, and Cody Quick lead the team to an all time unprecidented high of 8th in the final team points. Cody also became only the 3rd State wrestling champion in the school history.
  As far as individual wrestling awards Emily Gessler took home both the most dedicated and best attendance awards. Wesley Foutch had the most takedowns for the year while Sunny Knight and Will Norris were tied for the most reversals on the team. Ziad Aboulmouna had the most wins at 39 and Cody Quick scored the most falls as well as points for the team. The most improved on the team were Anthony Lemons and Dillon Crouch. Also in a tie were Ziad and Sunny winning the Wildcat Award. Then the distinction of the best wrestler or most outstanding was Cody Quick. Cody was given a framed bracket of his State championship outlined around the edge with all the emotional pictures of his incredible win.
  Anyone of any age interested in wrestling can attend special Tues/Thurs seminars 6-7:30pm with 2 time Tennessee MVP wrestler Kelley Felix and our own Cody Cleveland at Old West Wrestling Gym for the next 6 weeks. Then this Saturday March 15th the THS wrestling program will be hosting the State AAU Youth Championships at the high school gym all day.