LAURINBURG — Carver Middle School will make history on Jan. 3 as it hosts the county’s first middle school wrestling match.
In March, the Scotland County Board of Education approved funding for a county-wide middle school wrestling program and track in the spring, with each school being represented by a team.
The county-wide wrestling team is made up of wrestlers from both Carver and Spring Hill Middle School. The young Fighting Scots will host teams from Lee County and Crain’s Creek.
Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for students with matches beginning at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 3.
Carver Middle School Athletic Director James McLean encourage community members on his Facebook page to come out and be part of the historic event.
“Don’t miss an opportunity to witness HISTORY! It will be the first middle school wrestling match in the history of our county,” McLean wrote. “These kids have worked extremely hard. We hope you will come by and support their efforts.”
Most of the middle schools in the Cape Fear region — Western Middle School, West Hoke MS, Hope Mills MS, John Griffin MS and Lewis Chapel MS — already have established wrestling program that feed the Sandhills Athletic Conference teams at the high school level.
This is the first year for Scotland’s wrestling program, but Scotland High head coach Thomas Havener is confident starting kids out in seventh and eighth grade will be a tremendous help to the Fighting Scots program.
St. Andrews head wrestling coach Joe Baranik has been encouraging school officials for years to add wrestling at the middle school level. He and some of the members of the Knights wrestling program have offered their assistance to help teach the middle school wrestlers the basics and what they need to know to get started.