State Champion!

This past weekend was the NCHSAA State Championships and it was a great weekend for North Henderson. We left the tournament with two state placers, including the 2A State Champion at 103 pounds!

Colby Langford is a sophomore wrestler at North Henderson. The kid was not even a starter at the regional tournament last year as he wrestled behind some kids he could not quite beat out. This year, he had a great opportunity and made the most of it. Colby finished with a record of 52-3. In the state tournament, he had pins in 3 out of 4 matches including the finals match. No only did he collect a fall in the third period of his finals match, he avenged a 5-4 loss from the finals of the regional tournament the previous week.

Colby finishes the season tying the North Henderson school record for wins in a season with 52. The old record was held by our last state champion, Brett Williams (2006). He also set a new record for pins with 36. Best of all, Colby is a great kid with a great attitude. He's a terrific student (even if I had to make him take my honor's class), has a supportive family and has taken ownership of this team as a sophomore. Pretty cool that we get him for two more years.

Colby sported the old Edneyville (the school North replaced) singlet in the finals

I don't want to leave out German Ramirez. German finished 4th in the state. Wish you could have met the kid as freshman. He's one of the greatest success stories that I've had as a teacher and coach. German had just moved to the United States and spoke no English but somehow ended up on the wrestling team. We had to translate everything (luckily, we had some Hispanics since my Spanish is nonexistent).

Now look at German. He speaks great English. He's an excellent and admired young man. He's a terrific and tough wrestler. He's a wonderful teacher. He'd be a great wrestling coach someday...