Yellow Jackets bring experienced lineup to the mat

If experience is a leader, than the Fort Mill wrestling team should be in good hands this season.

The Jackets open the season this week against Weddington at home and will head to Eastside for the Southern Slam this weekend.

Fort Mill has seven returning starters in this year’s lineup.

“It’s going to be an unusual situation for us because we are loaded with seniors this year,” said head coach Chris Brock. “There is going to be a lot of experience in the lineup.”

State champion AJ Leitten, who is about 10 wins away from hitting the 100-win mark for his career, returns. Leitten, a junior, will wrestle in either the 132 or 138 pound weight class, depending on where Brock needs him.

In addition to Leitten, Fort Mill has three state qualifiers back, including Jack Debbout and John Brotemarkle, who also is closing in on the 100-win mark and should get it within the first week of the season.

Besides those state qualifiers, Fort Mill will also have two freshmen filling in a roster that should be full this season; gaps in some weight classes plagued the Jackets at times over the previous couple of seasons.

“We have some underclassmen capable of doing very well,” Brock said. “We shouldn’t have the holes like we have had in the past.”

Fort Mill will host the Beef O’ Brady’s Classic Dec. 11-12 and will go to two tournaments during the holiday break. The first tournament will be the Tigerland Classic in Hickory, N.C., and then the Wildcat Duals Dec. 29-30 in Lexington.

After the holiday break, Fort Mill will open the Region III schedule at Gaffney Jan. 12. They will travel to Rock Hill Jan. 14 for a key region match and will host Nation Ford Jan. 25.

This story was originally published November 30, 2015 at 9:44 AM with the headline "Yellow Jackets bring experienced lineup to the mat."