Copper Hills wrestling team taking a new approach in hopes of new outcomes

The Copper Hills wrestling team, and their head coach of seven years, Jeff Humphries, have taken a different route to the mats for the 2011-12 season. They spent the summer months developing and working on a new regimen.

Humphries started Victory Wrestling Club. The club is composed of about 30 kids from high schools all over the valley, but mostly Copper Hills wrestlers. The club met and worked out at the Ultimate Fighting Experience gym in Kearns. They followed a strict mixed martial arts conditioning workout and hit the weights hard.

“Our guys have a different attitude this year,” Humphries said. “We were in shape and ready to go for October, after years of not doing much in the offseason.”

In 2010-11, no wrestlers from Copper Hills placed in the region tournament and thus were unable to compete at the state level. The squad is looking to avoid the same outcome this season. “Everyone is looking to make a change,” Humphries said. “Our seniors are helping the underclassmen and new wrestlers.”

The offseason focus has led to new focuses in the wrestling room as well. According to Humphries, the grapplers are focusing on defense on their feet. “If we defend the shot, points will come,” Humphries said. And, the Grizzlies are scoring more points this season, individually and as a team.

There are multiple standouts on the team of 61. At 160 pounds, senior Jarom Putvin has lost only one match thus far and Dan Olsen, also a senior, is doing well at 220 pounds also. Jason Hatch, 126 pounds, is also a force on the mat. Six of the varsity squad’s 14 wrestlers are seniors, but the team as a whole is young, which brings depth. The junior varsity group went undefeated through the December and into early January.

There are underclassmen wrestling well on the varsity squad as well. Eric Johnson, 152 pounds; Christian Reese, 170 pounds; and Troy Humphries, 182 pounds; round out the junior leaders on the team, and sophomore Wyatt Green is an animal, according to his coach.

The Grizzlies haven’t been known as a tenacious crew in the past, and the 2011-12 group wishes to transform that perception. No Copper Hills wrestlers are ranked in the state, which Humphries thinks is unjust. But the group will get its opportunities as Region 3 match ups take place more frequently as the winter progresses. West Jordan is notoriously tough, but the Grizzlies have some very tough wrestlers of their own. They took 2^nd place in the Stansbury Stallion Stampede tournament earlier this season and look to continue their winning ways.

The Region 3 tournament is the first week of February and the state tournament is two weeks later. Copper Hills has a tough road ahead, but has made changes that are already paying off. “Things are really coming together; we are bonding as a group, a family,” Humphries said.