After late coaching hire, Conestoga building on talented base

SPRINGFIELD >> Coming into the season, Conestoga had the makings of a pretty competitive wrestling team in the Central League.

The Pioneers had a solid mix of talented seniors and promising underclassmen. One thing, and a major thing at that, was missing: They had no head coach.

Gary Baker was officially hired three days prior to the start of the season, and while he was thrown into the fire of figuring out weight decisions and competition points, his time in the Conestoga youth program brought more than enough familiarity with the team.

Wednesday, Baker’s boys went on the road and defeated Springfield (Delco), 59-15, to stay undefeated in the Central and kept hope alive for the Pioneer’s first league title since 2006.

“Our goal is to get better, faster,” Baker said. “Everyone is getting better, but it’s our goal to get better, faster than our opponent.”

Senior Jake Allred (189 pounds) is a returning state qualifier, and Miles Warkentine (127), Hayden McLellan (172) and Bryce Beltrante (215) made regionals last season. There was certainly a nice base for Baker to build on, but his procrastinated reintroduction meant everyone would have to figure some things out on the fly.

That started with the schedule. By the time Baker stepped in for former coach, Tom Elicker, the schedule was pretty much set. Any chance for Baker to increase the difficulty had passed, so his Pioneers (6-0 Central, 17-1 overall) have had to make do.

“It’s been a clean transfer (to Baker),” McLellan said. “I wish he came in earlier so we could’ve gotten the schedule strengthened, but we all pretty much go hard with each other each day and get good technique and some high-level goes.”

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