By BUTCH HARMON
Popping up out of the corn fields and woods of lower Michigan are the small communities of Hudson, New Lothrop, and Hesperia. While the three communities are small, they carry plenty of weight during the winter when it comes to high school wrestling.
Since the Michigan High School Athletic Association went to the Division format in 1996 for team wrestling, these three schools have dominated Division 4. The trio have won a combined seven state titles and finished runner-up a total of six times.
This year in Battle Creek, those numbers will only increase, as the three teams are far and away the cream of the Division 4 class.
Hudson finished the regular season ranked No. 1 in the state in Division 4, with Hesperia was ranked second and New Lothrop third. This year’s D4 state finals in Battle Creek will be a battle royale, as the three teams appear as strong as ever.
Hudson, which has won the last four D4 state titles, comes in with a team that has 11 individual state qualifiers, including six regional champions. Hesperia and New Lothrop also bring 11 individual state qualifiers to the fray, including five regional champions each.
Hudson has to be considered the team to beat, especially considering it defeated No. 4-ranked Addison 46-18 in the regionals.
“We’ve had a pretty solid year,” Hudson coach Scott Marry said. “We’ve wrestled some real good teams. We’ve wrestled some of the better D1 schools in the state and some pretty decent Ohio schools. We’ve wrestled Detroit Catholic Central, Oxford, Bedford, Richmond, Dundee; anybody we could get our hands on.”
The rugged schedule was designed for a reason, as the Tigers graduated six key seniors from last year’s team.
Like the Tigers, New Lothrop has also faced as rugged a schedule as it could put together.
“We had a pretty competitive schedule,” New Lothrop coach Jeff Campbell said. “We tried to wrestle some of the better teams in the state.”
New Lothrop fell just short of an appearance in last year’s state final, as it lost on criteria to Shelby in the semifinals.
“We’re hoping to put it all together at state,” Campbell said. “Win or lose, it will have no effect on the season. The guys have definitely had a great season.”
The three teams are not strangers to each other, and all share similar winning traditions.
“There always seems to be familiar faces,” Marry said. “There’s Hesperia and New Lothrop and Bronson again. They are all well-coached teams and well-prepared. They have great wrestling traditions and are well-conditioned, so we know we will have our hands full.”
Something that Coach Campbell knows full well. “These other programs, Hesperia and Hudson and several others, they have lasting tradition and great coaching staffs. They are small communities and the kids have wrestled together since they were little. You see them at competitions from the younger grades to high school. We’ve been chasing Hudson and Hesperia the last couple years and we hope to catch them this year.”