By Staff
It is only the second full week of February, however, the post season begins on Saturday in Michigan High School wrestling.
The post season begins with conference wrestling tournaments throughout the state.
Locally, Brandywine is hosting the Lakeland Conference Tournament on Saturday.
Buchanan, Edwardsburg, Cassopolis, River Valley, Coloma and Berrien Springs will join the Bobcats.
Wrestling action is slated to begin at 9 a.m. with the junior varsity matches.
Varsity matches will begin on the first available mat.
This tournament should be an outstanding one with Brandywine and Buchanan slugging it out for the league championship.
Buchanan defeated the Bobcats during the regular season and will need to finish no worse than a tie for first place to win the championship outright.
While the team title is on the line for the Bucks and Bobcats, each individual wrestler will be trying to win weight class championships.
There are 14 weight divisions in high school wrestling and several quality grapplers in each class.
The wrestling will be intense throughout the day.
We would like to invite everyone to stop by Brandywine High School on Saturday and take in the action.
If you have never seen a high school wrestling match, then by all means, come and watch this tournament.
You will be hooked.
Over at Coldwater, the Big 16 Conference individual tournament will be held beginning at 10 a.m.
Niles and Dowagiac will compete against Lakeshore, Benton Harbor, St. Joseph, Portage Northern, Portage Central, Kalamazoo Central, Kalamazoo Loy Norrix, Mattawan, Battle Creek Central, Battle Creek Lakeview, Battle Creek Harper Creek, Sturgis, Marshall and host Coldwater.
The Big 16 tournament is so tough, that coaches consider it more a regional-style wrestling tournament (the second round of the state tourney) than a conference championship.
The Vikings have done extremely well this season against Big 16 competition and will be among the favorites in many weight classes.
Dowagiac will not take a full team on Saturday due to the high number of freshmen and sophomores in its regular line up, but is looking to bring home some solid finishes.
From there it is on to the state tournament.
Beginning on Wednesday Brandywine, Buchanan, Edwardsburg, Cassopolis and Dowagiac will kick off the team tournament portion of the state playoffs.
Brandywine and Cassopolis will be at Eau Claire, while Dowagiac will be at Buchanan.
On Thursday, Niles will host the Division 3 districts. There the Vikings will meet Lakeshore in a long-awaited rematch.
The Vikings defeated Lakeshore earlier this season to win the Big 16 Conference West Division.
Good luck to all the area teams as they begin their first steps toward a state championship.