Nothing has changed for the Pleasant Valley wrestling team for the 2018-2019 season.

“We pretty much kept everything the same,” head coach Justin Micklos said. “Our numbers coming up this year are good. Our program’s on an upswing right now. Our junior high is doing excellent with numbers and our Bruins, which is our midget program, are doing phenomenal with numbers down there.

“We’re trending in an upward path, which is very exciting for me because the more kids, the merrier. You see the talent level rising as all these kids get older and as they go through the levels.”

The Bears will have a nice blend of veterans and youth as they look to improve on a 4-12 record from a year ago when they failed to advance anyone to Regionals for the first time in quite a few years.

Micklos said he has some ideas as to where he wants the program to be, and how he plans on getting it there.

“I’m not looking at this as a rebuilding year because we have seniors that can do very well and we have a couple of juniors in there that will also do well,” said Micklos. “I think we have some upperclassmen that can go onto the next level.

“At the same time, there’s always different things you can fix technique-wise, mental-wise and so forth. Especially for the younger guys, we’re looking at this as more of a building-block kind of year.”

Something Micklos is stressing is mental toughness from his wrestlers, and so far, he has seen it in all aspects of the program.

“So far, they’ve all been mentally tough,” Micklos said. “They push through conditioning well. That’s one of the first things. As you get into matches, some kids tend to break down, some kids push through it.

“I’m hoping they can all push through it, especially because we have a good senior and good older leadership in our room. If we can continue to do that, we should do alright.”

Anthony Mazzella leads the senior returnees after finishing up the football season in the fall. Mazzella will wrestle at 195 pounds for the Bears.

“He’s a strong-minded kid and an athletic kid,” Micklos said. “He has the mentality to do it and he works hard. He comes in the room and does his job, so I don’t think he should have any problem flowing right into the start of the season.”

Sophomores Chris Tartamella (182) and Chris Frable (145) both had winning records a year ago, while Everett Lata (106), Hannah Hunter (120) and Trevor Kibbler (126) also will be counted on.

“We have a lot of young guys,” Micklos said. “We have freshmen and sophomores that are coming up. They’re willing to learn and they’re hard-working. The younger kids are benefitting from the fact that we have a couple upperclassmen that really control the wrestling room and mindset of the younger kids pretty well. They instill the hard-working mindset in our program.”