Eastpointe

East Detroit wrestling team pushes on, despite injuries

By Jason Carmel Davis
C & G Sports Writer

» click to enlarge « Photo by Donna Agusti The East Detroit High wrestling team battled a number of injuries during the latter part of the regular season. Pictured is Shamrocks coach Nathan Thompson. Photo by Donna Agusti The East Detroit High wrestling team battled a number of injuries during the latter part of the regular season. Pictured is Shamrocks coach Nathan Thompson.

EASTPOINTE — If it weren’t for injuries, the East Detroit wrestling team’s Macomb Area Conference Silver Division season would have ended differently, according to Shamrocks coach Nathan Thompson.

St. Clair Shores Lakeview (5-0) won the Silver this season.

“We’ve just had so many season-ending injuries over the last month that have hurt us,” Thompson said Feb. 5. “They haven’t been big injuries, but the timing of them is what really hurt us.”

Voids at certain weight classes are the result of the injury bug. That means that opponents of East Detroit have been awarded three points during matches when the Shamrocks don’t have a wrestler to compete in a particular weight class.

Senior 215-pounder Vince Jordan, at press time, had a record of 33-1 and was nursing his own injury. The senior, who won one match all of last season, said he knows health played the biggest factor in his team’s fate this season.

“There’s really nothing you can do when somebody gets hurt, but it hurts to know how much better our team would be this year if everybody was healthy,” Jordan said.

“Everybody’s handled it well, though. Nobody quit or anything like that. We don’t have any quitters on this team.”

“The effort’s been phenomenal by everybody, but that injury bug killed us,” said Thompson, whose team finished 1-4 in division meets. “I know we would have won the MAC Silver, had we been healthy all year, because we have some really good wrestlers.”

Those good wrestlers include five seniors: Jordan, 171-pound grappler Zach Nevedal, 160-pounder Jason Burge, 103-pound wrestler Stephen Cowing and 215-pounder Josh Taylor.

Each of those wrestlers has the skill and potential to make a run in the individual portion of the Michigan High School Athletic Association state wrestling tournament, according to Thompson.

The East Detroit team fell to St. Clair Shores Lakeview Feb. 6 in a MHSAA D-1 district semifinal at Grosse Pointe North.

“Because of the injuries and voids, I know we’d have a tough time doing anything in the team portion of the state tournament, but I have a lot of guys who could place individually,” Thompson said.

You can reach C & G Sports Writer Jason Carmel Davis at jdavis@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1107. Follow Jason Carmel on Twitter.