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The Renamed Titan Duals Succeed In A Different Setting

Story and photos by Tris Wykes

Wrestling replaced lunch on the menu in the Lakeland High cafeteria last weekend during the Cavalier Duals.

SUFFOLK_ Last weekend's Cavalier Duals wrestling tournament at Lakeland High was a longtime event at a new location and under new management. The onetime Titan Duals, hosted for years by Lake Taylor, were moved across South Hampton Roads and rechristened with a 12-team field comprised of schools from throughout Southeastern Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina.


The successful move came thanks to John Bostick, Lakeland's first-year coach, and his athletic director, Ron Robertson. When it became apparent the Titans couldn't host their annual event, Bostick asked Robertson if the Cavaliers might host it and the wheels began to quickly turn.


``It gave me a chance to show our administration and other teams and coaches around here that we could put on a first-rate event,'' said Bostick, a longtime amateur wrestling official and volunteer coach in his first season at the Cavaliers' helm. ``It's also a chance for our program to make more money than we would if we had the kids pounding the pavement selling candy bars.''


About 200 paid admissions had been collected by noon of the day-long event and Bostick said he hoped to pull in a couple thousand dollars for his team. He'd like to use the money to defray the expense of taking the Cavaliers to a week-long summer camp in wrestling-mad Pennsylvania in six or seven months.


``There's real potential for wrestling, not just at Lakeland but across Suffolk, because the city has good athletes,'' said Bostick, who doesn't teach at Lakeland but owns and operates a local pest control business. ``I think the sport would come naturally to a lot of them if we can build a youth club and the high school programs to attract them.''


Bostick approached Robertson in early November, asking if he'd go along with taking over the Titan Duals. To his credit, Robertson said he'd support the event if the school administration signed off on it, which subsequently happened.


Given that Lakeland's 3-day holiday basketball tournament occurs in late December, adding another big event on the schedule shortly thereafter wasn't ideal. But Robertson said he couldn't obstruct a positive step for a growing sport.


``Once John showed me how he was going to set things up and manage it, I was sold,'' Robertson said. ``It's a long day but the kids benefit from it and we've gotten a lot of positive feedback.''


A factor that made the tournament unique was its use of the Lakeland cafeteria space as a wrestling arena. Two mats from King's Fork High were lugged over and set up by the Bulldog and Cavalier teams and the large room's low ceiling and the natural lighting from long windows made for an intense grappling experience.


``It opens things up so people can surround the mat and they can sit on a chair rather than on the bleachers all day,'' Robertson said.


Added Bostick: ``We also make more off concessions, because fans like that they can eat and drink and watch bouts at the same time out here.''

It's not clear if Lake Taylor will take back its tournament next year, but both Robertson and Bostick said they hope to put on another big show for the 2008-09 wrestling season. Bostick (above) said he's aiming for the week between Christmas and New Year's and that he'd like to see 24 teams, including six from outside Virginia, entered in a 2-day event.


``We've done as well as we could with the hand we were dealt in a short period of time,'' he said of the Cavalier Duals. ``We're trying to build a program and this is a way to let people from all over know what we're about.''