The wrestling team at
Raines High School achieved a school landmark by bringing home the first Wrestling Gateway Conference Tournament Championship since the naming of the Gateway Conference in June of 1983. The Vikings won the tournament with a score of 202.5. Fletcher High came in a close second at 197.
Raines has been the runner up in the Gateway Conference Tournament the previous two years, falling narrowly 16.5 points behind champion Fletcher in the 2010 tournament.
“I knew we would have to fight hard this year to earn the conference title. These young men committed themselves to winning and have done everything I have asked of them,” said Vikings Coach Brian Gilbert. Although this is Gilbert’s first year as the team’s head coach, he has been on the coaching staff for four years and the team has finished its season in the top five all of those years.
Out of the 12 members on the wrestling team, 11 of them placed in the tournament. The Vikings had four champs, two runner-ups, two third places and three fourth-place titles. The four titles included Da’rell Love (103), Paris Simpson (112), Malik Bolton (140) and Kenny Bynum (215).
Bynum was the standout. Bynum beat and pinned Reggie Northup, a former Viking who won the 189 title last year. Without Bynum’s win and pinning of Northup, the Vikings would not have won the conference title.
Because Northup is a former member of the Vikings team, tensions were running high and a lot of heckling was coming from the stands.
Coach Gilbert told his players not to react or respond to the comments, but to have outstanding sportsmanship throughout the tournament.
“Our team motto is ‘mental toughness’ and this weekend really tested their mental toughness,” said Gilbert.
After the Vikings were declared the conference champions, the team shook all of the players’ and coaches’ hands and walked away from the mats with athletic grace.
Even Coach Gilbert was very humble when the team was presented with the conference trophy, and he stood off at a distance as the players displayed the trophy for cameras.
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