Although wrestling is considered an individual sport, what type of program a school has goes a long way to determine how far an individual goes in the state tournament.

That is one of the big things Warsaw coach Tony Boley has tried to establish since returning to his alma mater two years ago.

"The mental part, once you get to that point, the kids know what it takes, and they really start believing in the system," Boley said. "After that, you have a good shot at taking somebody every year. The same thing has happened to Wawasee as a team. They feel like they can take the team down every year. When I was at Elwood, we took someone down every single year. Before we started going, we weren't that much different than the teams that started taking people. It was just the mental part of it."

Boley had taken a wrestler to the state meet in his last seven years at Elwood. He had hoped to keep that streak alive last year for Warsaw, but the streak died. He intends to start a new streak this year, and having six wrestlers this year instead of just one like last year increases his chances greatly.

"It is a major step in your program when you are able to take a handful to semistate," Boley said. "And hopefully things will work out, and we will be able to take some down to state.

"That was the disappointing part of it last year," he said. "We had kids who could have advanced to the state. We had a kid who had beaten three kids who did advance to the state meet. We didn't have the mentality to do it. I think we do now. We are real focused, and the kids are real eager."

Robbie Boley (125 pounds), the coach's son, and Chris Wilson (160) are one step away from the state meet as regional champions of their respective weight classes. They both will receive first-round byes and only have to win one more match to gain a top-four place, good enough to advance to the state meet.

Also trying to advance to the state meet will be Adam Harter (112), Aaron Banks (140), Matt Zellers (152) and Steve Fribley (189).

Wrestling gets under way Saturday at the Fort Wayne Memorial Coliseum at 9:30 a.m.

Warsaw first-round matches at semistate

112 - Adam Harter (Warsaw, 15-7) vs. Travis Sibery (DeKalb, 17-13)

125 - Robbie Boley (Warsaw, 35-2) receives a bye

140 - Aaron Banks (Warsaw, 32-8) vs. Matt King (Tipton, 25-2)

152 - Matt Zellers (Warsaw, 32-9) vs. J.J. Davis (Wawasee, 27-9)

160 - Chris Wilson (Warsaw, 31-6) receives a bye

189 - Steve Fribley (Warsaw, 26-11) vs. Nate Canady (Monroe Central, 32-2) [[In-content Ad]]