BELL BUCKLE — Six years ago Andy Giel introduced wrestling to Cascade High School and started up a program which joined Shelbyville Central High School as the only two schools in Bedford County with wrestling squads. 
Last year Luke Bowling did the same at Community High School and kickstarted the Vikings’ program.
On Thursday night, the three schools came together for a historical tri-match as the Cascade Champions hosted the first annual Bedford County Brawl.
“It’s fantastic that we’re able to host all three schools here for a wrestling meet,” Giel said. “Growing the sport is what guys like me, who have been in it for a while, are all about. It’s great to see everyone wanting to wrestle and sticking with it.”
Shelbyville Central’s program has been around since the mid 1970’s and has enjoyed an abundance of success over the years, including multiple state tournament appearances. 
With the growth of wrestling throughout the county, Eagles’ head coach Tyler Moore is excited to see it continue. 
“It’s great that the sport is growing and keeps expanding,” he said. “I hope that Community’s young program continues to grow and has success.”
However, growing a wrestling program from the ground up doesn’t come without difficulties. 
The main challenge is finding and recruiting students to participate and stick with it over the course of their high school careers. 
Winning is strenuous without enough students to participate across the many weight classes, but wins and losses don’t weigh heavily on Bowling and his fresh program. 
“I told the guys that last year we wrestled a lot of junior varsity and had a lot of losses, but this year we’re wrestling against varsity guys and being more competitive,” he said. 
“It’s tough to win as a young team, but I’m just happy that we’ve doubled in numbers this year and are competing.”
Bowling shares the same excitement as Giel and Moore in the growth of the sport across the county. 
“I would love for Bedford County to be one that has strong wrestlers like we have with the other great athletic programs throughout this county,” he said. 
“The great thing about wrestling is that we support each other and help each other’s programs along the way.”
In the Bedford County Brawl, the Eagles’ came away with a clean sweep of their opponents with a 48-27 victory over the Champions, and a 54-24 win over the Vikings while Cascade came away with a 54-6 victory over Community. 
Five Eagles’ grapplers secured wins via pin over the Champions with Zachariah Conner being the quickest in just a minute and 15 seconds in the 160 class. 
Logan McBee won both of his matches of the meet via pin with a victory in the 220 class against Cascade and a 49 second win in the 285 class against Community. 
For Community, James Bowling and Gavin Garcia secured their squads only victories not by forfeit against the Eagles by pinning their opponents in the first round. 
Bowling was also responsible for the Vikings’ lone win against the Champions with a 56 second pin in the 170 class. 
Outside of the six forfeits between the Vikings and Champions, every other match was decided by pin with Hayden Dowell and Dylan Warren securing wins in less than a minute for Cascade.
Dowell was dominant in the 182 class against both squads as he pinned his Eagles’ opponent in 43 seconds.