SYRACUSE - In the two weeks leading up to last Sunday's Super Bowl, Green Bay Packers coach Mike Holmgren talked often about the "journey" his team took to get there, how the journey this season was different than last season.

Increased expectations after winning the Super Bowl the year before make the journey rougher. Each loss is magnified even more.

The journey by Wawasee's wrestling team ended at the state finals last season. One year ago, the Warrior wrestlers destroyed their competition yet toiled anonymously until the Northern Lakes Tournament, when they cracked the top 20 for the first time.

That team, which received no recognition until the end of the regular season, won the sectional, regional and semistate.

Now the expectations have been raised. The Warriors have been ranked eighth or ninth in the state throughout most of this season. The journey is expected to end deep in the tournament.

"You go through something like what happened last year, it's almost like a dream," Wawasee coach Scott DeHart said. "You kind of wake up. We talked about that. What you have to understand is, these kids have been in these matches the last three years. They're not awed by going anyplace. They're not awed by wrestling. They're going to go in there and give six minutes."

Wawasee's wrestling team went 15-1 during the regular season. DeHart's attitude? That's nice. Now -Êbeginning Saturday at the East Noble Sectional - is when it counts.

"You take one step at a time," he said. "We went into our first set of duals, which happened to be with Concord. By the time we hit the conference tournament, we wanted to be hitting on all cylinders. We're getting ready to go into the state tournament. Everything else to that point is practice. We're playing for keeps starting this week."

Can Wawasee make it back to the state championship again? DeHart and his wrestlers plan on it.

"You always want to win the conference," he said. "You always want to win the sectional and regional. Our ultimate goal is the state finals. (Winning the NLC Title) is one step in that direction."

Wawasee competes in the East Noble Sectional along with Central Noble, DeKalb, West Noble, Westview and East Noble.

Warsaw Sectional

Warsaw second-year coach Tony Boley and his staff have taken a Warsaw team with only three seniors and guided it to a 13-2 record.

The Tigers finished third in NLC dual matches with a 4-2 record and finished third in last Saturday's NLC Tournament.

Now they enter Saturday's Warsaw Sectional as the favorite to win the championship for the second year in a row.

"I feel we have a chance to get anywhere from 11 wrestlers to all of them out of the first round," Boley said. "Once they get to the finals, it will probably come down between Plymouth and us (for the sectional title) if things go well."

The Tigers are guaranteed to get off to a good start -Êbecause of forfeits, their wrestlers in the first three weight classes are already in the finals. One of those three - 112-pounder Adam Harter - is already a sectional champion without wrestling one match. Everyone else in his weight class forfeited.

The Tigers, who were missing two key wrestlers at the NLC Tournament, still finished just 26.5 points out of first place. Scott Snyder, a 103-pounder with a 20-7 record, was out with a fractured hand. Matt Zellers, a 152-pounder with a 27-3 record, was out with an upper respiratory infection.

Zellers will return to wrestle in the sectional. Snyder finds out this morning.

Another Warsaw wrestler to watch is 125-pounder Robbie Boley, who enters with a 29-3 record. Boley has won 22 of his 29 matches on pins. If he gets two more pins this postseason, he will set the school record.

Adam Harter advanced the furthest of any Tiger in the tournament last season, going to semistate. That broke a streak for Boley, who previously was the head coach at Elwood High School.

He hopes to start a new streak this season.

"I'd tak#en someone to state seven years in a row when I was at Elwood," he said. "I missed that trip to Market Square Arena. We want to change that."

Tippecanoe Valley, Triton and Plymouth are the other schools competing in the Warsaw Sectional.

Manchester, NorthWood Sectionals

Whitko finished 16-6 overall and 6-1 in the TRC, its best season in years.

The Wildcats compete in Saturday's Manchester Sectional along with Northfield, North Miami, Peru, Wabash and Manchester (9-8). The Manchester Sectional starts at 9:30 a.m.

NorthWood hosts Bremen, Fairfield and Goshen in its sectional, which starts at 10 a.m. The Panthers went 4-9 this season. [[In-content Ad]]