JONESVILLE — The Sims Middle School wrestling team has won the Peach Tree Conference Championship for the past three years and will look to make it four with a talented group of athletes and an excited coaching staff.
“We have had great leadership from our returning wrestlers this year,” said Head Coach Jon Langenfeld. “Our new wrestlers are hard workers and the work ethic at practice is demanded not only by us but by our older kids as well. Practice is easy to run when you have good kids. The harder you push them the more they like it.”
Some of Sims’ returning leaders are heavyweight AJ Hunter, 110 Markevius Glenn, 86 LJ Thompson, 104 Tydreke Flemming, 170 Labrayon Woods and 131 Luke Dill.
Langenfeld said that since Coach G.B. McDaniel took over the program in 2009 it has made tremendous strides. McDaniel is now the head coach at Union County High School and often schedules tournaments for Sims, UCHS jayvee and varsity athletes to participate in.
“He has put Union County on the map in wrestling,” Langenfeld declared. “The kids in the middle school and high school level get tons of mat time with the dual meets as well as the tournaments he has scheduled and the more matches a kid has in the year the more experience they gain.”
Langenfeld is also an assistant football coach for UCHS. While that team was making a State Championship appearance, his wrestling team was in the capable hands of Coach Chris Dill.
“He is a huge reason why this program is good,” said Langenfeld. “All four of his sons came through Sims wrestling and he knows a lot about the sport.”
In Langenfeld’s absence, Dill coached Sims to a first place team duals tournament win at Lancaster and a team win at Woodruff Middle School.
Since then the Tigers have faced Florence Chapel, D.R. Hill, Carver, McCracken Middle and Chesnee Middle, winning all five matches by huge margins.
Sims will take 25 athletes to compete in a State qualifier this Saturday at Hillcrest High School and the coaching staff expects solid results.
“We feel like most of them will qualify for the State tournament,” said Langenfeld. “We expect them to also win the conference again. The bar has been set and they have big shoes to fill but they know that and are they’re going to get it done.”
The next home match for the Tigers is Dec. 17 at Sims Middle School.
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