Like other sports, the Knoxville Wrestling Squad went through a strange season with having to adhere to COVID-19 mitigations, plus being forced to pause early in the season due to positive COVID tests. Head Coach Doug Hatch tells KNIA/KRLS Sports it was indeed a strange season but he was happy with how the guys responded and made a tough stretch better by working through the season.

Hatch:
“Wasn’t until after January when we had the entire team there. The JV got very few matches some got ten matches in and others got less than ten. It was a strange season but in the end we did some good things.”

Hatch adds that the early-season shut down hurt his team more than others due to having no seniors on the squad this season. Hatch says the younger guys missed out on the mat time and were behind when the season resumed in January. He says he is very proud of how many of his wrestlers responded from midseason on to come back and be competitive with some of the top wrestlers in the state.