Wrestling gaining experience
Dan Ward- Guy yelling things from the corner

Meet the new boss

You probably already know this, but long-time wrestling coach Derek Phillips retired last year to spend more time coaching his daughter and son. Long-time assistant coach Kevin Pettigrew was hired to run the program.
Coach Pettigrew graduated from St. Johns High School in 1995. He played four years of football, four years of baseball, two years of basketball, and, to our good fortune, two years of wrestling, where he was a regional qualifier his senior year.
After high school, Kevin attended Ferris State, playing football for five years and earning three varsity letters. He graduated from Ferris in 1998 and 2000.
Coach Pettigrew brings a wide array of coaching experience to the Redwings; he coached basketball for St. Mary’s Catholic School from 1995 to 2000. From 2000-2006, he coached various youth sports in St. Johns. From 2006 to 2013, Kevin joined the Laingsburg High School Football coaching staff and spent the last 5 years as the JV head coach. In 2008, he coached Morrice High School/Middle School in wrestling. From 2012 to 2014, he was also an assistant baseball coach in Laingsburg. In 2014, Kevin joined St. Johns football coaching staff, where he still coaches today. In 2019, he started coaching wrestling.
Kevin and his wife Karri have three kids, Brandon, Sean, and Olivia. Brandon and Sean wrestled for St. Johns, and Olivia is currently wrestling for St. Johns.
Kevin’s theme for wrestling this year is “Strive to be your best every day and never back down from a challenge.”

I asked Coach Pettigrew for some insight into the year’s wrestling team.
“This is a young squad with lots of [Youth/Middle School] experience,” Pettigrew said. “We are growing as individuals and as a team. The development of our new wrestlers has been phenomenal. Watching all these kids wrestle on the mat and learn how to listen and apply what they are taught is one of the greatest things so far. This group of wrestlers have a great work ethic and are coachable. I’m excited to see how far we can progress throughout the year.”

This year, the CAAC decided to run JV jamborees on Monday nights to give JVs more mat time. It’s an excellent chance for our large JV squad to gain valuable experience. The JV squad took the mats on Tuesday night at DeWitt and quickly served notice that St. Johns wrestling will be a team to reckon with for years to come.
The results for the CAAC DeWitt JV Jamboree were:
Dray Findlay went 1-1
Noah Demo went 1-1
Roman Berkhousen went 0-1
Owen Parker went 1-1
Ayden Scheffler went 0-2
Garrett Bloom went 1-1
Keegan Hamilton went 0-2
Logan Finn went 2-0
Cam Lange went 2-0
Austin Clark went 0-2
Jackson Densmore went 2-0
Aedin Besonen went 2-0
Michael Grow went 2-0
Jesse Mason went 2-0
Zayne Martinez went 1-1

The Boys and Girls Varsity team traveled to Haslett on Wednesday night to face off against The Haslett Vikings and the East Lansing Trojans. St. Johns dominated the Haslett Vikings team with a score of 76-6. For those who don’t know, a “perfect score” in wrestling is 84 points (14 weight classes x 6 points for a pin). St. Jons was 8 points shy of a perfect score and only had one match go beyond the 1st period.
won for the Redwings were:
Tyler Riedel received a void
Xavier Benjamin won by Fall :54
Hayden BIllings won by Fall 1:29
Fletcher Whitford won by Fall 1:10
Brady Heibeck won by Fall 1:10
Will Wharton won by Fall :36
Brody Abendroth received a void
Abram Matice received a void
Gavin Moreno won by Fall :49
Connor Skaryd received a void
Colton Robbins won by Major Decision 17-5
Reagan Ward won by Fall 1:08
Tristan Demsore won by Fall :24

Next up for St. Johns were the East Lansing Trojans. This one came down to the final two matches. With 84 being a “perfect score” wrestling matches come down to who can get to 42. The Trojans were leading 36-23 going into the final three matches. Knowing that they would void 2 of those weights, it came down to the 2nd to last match. A win by the Trojans would have put the dual out of reach at 39-29. However, coming up big for St. Johns was Freshman Tristan Densmore, winning by decision, and those three points, coupled with Tyler Riedel’s void, pushed the score to 38-36.
Also winning for the Redwings were:
Xavier Benjamin received a void
Brady Heibeck won by Fall 5:01
Greyson Osborne received a void
Gavin Moreno won by Tech Fall 2:57
Reagen Ward received a void
Tristan Densmore won by Decision 12-7
Tyler Riedel received a void
Also competing against the Trojans last night were the Redwing Girls. Women’s High School wrestling is still very new and most teams do not have complete line-ups. St. Johns wrestled three match-ups and came away with three pins, besting East Lansing with a score of 18-0.

Results were
Haley Prohaska won by Fall 2:52
Olivia Pettigrew won by Fall 4:00
Lori Morris won by Fall :45

Varsity Boys are back in action on 12-28 at Ionia for a tournament. The Varsity Girls and the JV don’t return to action until after the Christmas break.

Additionally there is a MYWAY (youth) Tournament in St. Johns on the 22nd. Also the Christmas Sparty at the Lansing Center on the 28-30 which will feature some of the best youth wrestlers in the nation. Check out MYWAYwrestling.com and nuwaycombat.com for more info.