The 2024-2025 edition of the varsity wrestling team featured a team so young they perhaps could've been called the Cubs instead of the Bears. Senior Night was short. Many of the weight classes – in fact most of them – were filled with freshmen and sophomores.

Regardless, that didn't stop Coach Stacey Davis's bunch from advancing the whole team to Sectionals and then eight to this past weekend's state meet in Macon. If that wasn't enough, four of them ended up placing in Georgia in their respective weight classes.

In Macon this past Thursday and Friday, J.B. Blount took third, Finn Ferrero and Colt McNamara were both fourth, and Thomas Dougherty finished sixth. If that isn't and wasn't enough – and in looking ahead - the Bears will return 13 starters to next year's roster that includes eight state qualifiers.

Moving backwards, the regular season was impressive in getting them ready, with top in state invitationals at the likes of Dunwoody, the huge and prestigious Prep Slam, not to mention the team's annual trip to New Orleans which featured more national competition.

At the regionals at Rockmart High School, the now seasoned "Cubs" came away with two Area champs in Blount and Dougherty, four runner-up finishes in Connor Forgey, Ferrero, Miller Wimberly, and Phillip Griffin, five more placed third – Jack Underwood, Ethan Meisinger, Dyer Fields, Cal Jenkins, and McNamara – and Danny Neumann, Jon Miller Doughtie, and Liam Delaney were all eighth. 

At the Sectionals at North Murray High, eight qualified which included third place Dougherty, Blount, Ferraro, and Forgey; fifth place McNamara; and eighth place Underwood, Jenkins, and Griffin. Meisinger, Fields, Wimberly, and Doughtie (all ninth) were alternates. 

Looking ahead, it appears the state mats in Macon may be filled with Bears in the years to come, and congrats on a season that put high optimism in the future of HIES wrestling.