Moose let loose on the mats

PALMER — Luke Heun walks the halls of Palmer High School with two distinguishing facial features. The first is discoloration. Green, purple and an assortment of disgusting colors make up bruises all over his face. The second is a slight smirk.

He smirks because it’s wrestling season.

Heun is the highlight of a strong underclass for head coach Dale Ewart and the Palmer Moose wrestling squad. Headed by Heun and fellow sophomore Cole Frohling, the Palmer Moose hosted the Lancer Smith Invitational this past weekend with an eye toward their season in a tough Northern Lights Conference, which features four-time defending champ Colony and the formidable Wasilla Warriors.

Heun came off his second-place finish at the Bob Bailey Invitational at Chugiak High School and did not place in the Lancer Smith Invitational. Heun wrestles at 130 pounds.

Cole Frohling was the top finisher for the Moose at their invitational tournament, taking fifth at the largest meet of the year except for state.

The Moose are very young with only two seniors, and about two thirds of the 30-man roster is made up of underclassmen.

“My hope is that each wrestler gets better each week,” assistant coach Daniel Graham said. “With so many underclassmen, the rate of growth is so high, each week I want them to improve.”

Ewart, Graham and a cast of helpers have started to mold the young Palmer wrestlers early in the season.

“They started the freestyle program and just working with them the last few years I’ve learned so much,” said Heun. “The coaching is really great. It’s really helping.”

Frohling echoed Heun’s praise.

“It’s really good,” he said. “Ewart sets everything up, and it’s good to have Graham actually wrestling with us. They’re helping us a lot with our technique and our conditioning.”

The Moose coaches have a tough task ahead, because if Palmer is going to make any noise this year, the Moose will have to go through the four-time defending state champion Colony Knights, and the team that will likely give them their best test this year, the Wasilla Warriors.

The tough competition doesn’t have the Moose worried, though.

“It’s great. I love wrestling them,” Frohling said. “It’s good for the competitive edge. Colony and Wasilla are always good. It’s good to go out there and wrestle and know you’re going against the best.”

Palmer’s strong core of underclassmen has the Moose shooting for the top in a few years.

“We have strong guys at almost every weight. In a couple years we can go for state,” said Frohling.

“The guys are doing great so far. They’re winning matches and beating expectations. We’re getting better fast,” said Graham of his young squad.

The Moose are young and unproven in the fierce Northern Lights conference, but that doesn’t seem to worry anyone connected to the team. The Moose are looking toward a bright future in wrestling.

Tim Rockey is a senior at Palmer High School who also writes for the Frontiersman’s Sports section.