Gibson takes over as new wrestling coach

There’s a new head coach in town for the Weiser Wolverine wrestling squad. 

 Chad Gibson has been tasked with taking over the storied program, but he is no stranger to the wrestling world or to the Wolverines. He has been the middle school coach for many years now and an assistant coach to Drew Dickerson at the high school level. The timing was right for Gibson to take the reins and move forward. 

 Gibson grew up in Rapid City, South Dakota and attended Northern State University, a division II school in Aberdeen, South Dakota. He married his wife, Lindsey and they taught school in South Dakota along with Wyoming. 

 They were looking for an adventure when they saw that the little town of Weiser, Idaho needed both a shop teacher and a physical education/health teacher. 

 Making a call to Tim Erhard the principal at the time of the Weiser Middle School was just the sign that they needed to head out here and check it out. They have been here in Weiser for the past six years teaching and mentoring the youth of Weiser Middle School. 

 Close to one and a half years ago they added Bearett to the family and there is no lack of love for the cute little boy. 

 As stated before, Chad isn’t new to the Wolverine wrestling program. He is just taking it in his own direction this year. He has admitted that he has some large shoes to fill with a successful program coached in the late '90s by Kevin Knight and also followed by very successful coaches such as Matt Cobb and Drew Dickerson. 

 Chad’s outlook for the position is one that can be described as being a “servant leader”. He is eager to see what kind of personal growth he can get out of each one of the individuals that he coaches. 

 He stated, “I was given the opportunity for greatness by my coaches and I want to do the same for these athletes; they deserve that.” 

 This year the Wolverines will have nine seniors who also have big shoes to fill. Weiser had a talented class of athletes and the seniors this year are already clearing the path to success. 

 Maddox Stevens, Tristan McMahill, Trenton Hawker, Willy Sudderth, Aaron Despain, and Billy and Bobby Nevarez are all returning for the Wolverine men’s squad. Two young ladies that are seniors and wrestling on the girls side is Payzlee Wilkins and Anika Nunez. 

 Weiser also has a lot of young talent coming up as well to make their mark on Wolverine wrestling. 

 Not only are their new faces on the mat, there are a few new ones behind them and coaching them to success. 

 Kristian Claudio is a returning assistant coach along with Tara Wilkins on the ladies side. Former Wolverines Kaden Fager and Ty Johnson will also help the gentlemen to success at the high school level. 

 At the middle school, David Perez and Dustin Ingle have already completed their season and had a great year coaching. 

 Weiser wrestling is trying to build the program starting with the youth and this year the coaches will be Kooper von Brethorst and Eric Torres. 

 Coach Gibson has high expectations for the kids and the coaches, but has all the faith he needs in his coaching staff. 

 The Wolverines opened the season this past weekend at the Donnelly Duals at Capital High School. This is a tournament that is a team tournament instead of different weight brackets. It is a dual within your pool of competitors and then once a winner becomes clear the different winners of the pools face off. 

 In Weiser’s pool was Capital, Bishop Kelly, Mountain Home, and Battle Mountain. Weiser came out on top of the pool with some nice wins by fall 54-21 against Capital. They also beat Battle Mountain handily 66-18 and Bishop Kelly, 58-12. Mountain Home was a little bit of a tighter dual with Weiser still winning 54-25. 

 After the pool play, Weiser faced Eagle and won again 59-23. Next they faced New Plymouth and lost a heartbreaker 42-40. The last team they faced was Canyon Ridge and Weiser lost 57-30. 

 Weiser experienced some great wrestling matches and competed in seven duals in a day and a half of work.  They were also second place overall with number of pins during the entire tournament recording 42 overall. 

 Individual records for the opening tournament are:

 113 pounds: Charlie Nevarez 5-2.

 120/126 pounds: Cole Ingle 4-3.

 120/126/132 pounds: Billy Nevarez 1-2.

 126/132 pounds: Weston Black 5-2.

 138 pounds: Luke Sarich 5-1.

 138 pounds: Jahir Cervantes 0-1.

 145 pounds: Stockton Young 4-1.

 145/152 pounds: Bobby Nevarez 1-2.

 152/160 pounds: Kash Cobb 4-2.

 152/160 pounds: Aaron Despain 3-3.

 170/182 pounds: Maddox Stevens 7-0.

 170/182 pounds: Willy Sudderth 5-2.

 195 pounds: Caleb Grove 7-0.

 220 pounds: Trenton Hawker 5-1.

 220/285 pounds: Austin Ashley 1-1.

 285 pounds: Tristan McMahill 4-2.

 The Lady Wolverines travelled to Homedale and competed in a tournament this past weekend as well. Tara Wilkins is in her second year coaching the ladies and they are making strides each day and getting better and better. 

 Individual records for the opening tournament are: 

 Daena Padilla 1-2.

 Mackenzie Fletcher 2-2.

 Audrey De Leon 4-2.

 Payzlee Wilkins 1-2.

 Aliyah Alhilla 4-2.

 Weiser will be traveling this next weekend to La Grande, Ore., for the Muilenberg Invite. 

 Go Wolverines!