Brian Martin had a message for the local wrestling scene. Andover has arrived.
"This is just great," said the Golden Warriors junior. "It's a great opportunity and I am so excited. We cannot wait for the season to get going."
Wrestling has returned to Andover at the varsity level. After a year at the club level and rotating between varsity and JV meets a season ago, the Golden Warriors will wrestle an open varsity schedule this year.
The team was set to start its first varsity season since 1979 on Wednesday by hosting Winthrop.
Now one of the anchors of the varsity squad, Martin has been with the team since it began as a middle school program in 2005-06.
"My friends introduced me to (wrestling) in the eighth grade when the team started," he said. "From the first practice, I just fell in love with it. It's a one-on-one sport. You are going head to head and the person who works harder comes out on top."
The middle school program was spearheaded by Bill Fahey, director of Andover Youth Services.
"I've been working on it for (10) years," said Fahey last season. "Wrestling is a phenomenal sport, which teaches discipline and is for kids of all different weights. There have been kids and parents every year who asked about it, but it's been tough to get off the ground."
The Golden Warriors faced the task of raising funds and buying equipment such as proper mats. But it did catch on, with the help of head coach Sobhan Namvar, a former Division 1 wrestler at Lock Haven (Penn.).
"It's really amazing that all of this has happened," said Namvar. "This was a whole new sport for them a few years ago. We have a lot of passionate workers who have been on the mat since last season. We challenged them. The kids are ready."
No one is more excited than Martin, who will wrestle at 145 pounds this season after going at 152 pounds a season ago.
"It was a little less intense at the JVs," he said, "but we still had matches and still went to (multi-team) meets. Our coach pushed us hard, because we wanted to be a varsity team really bad."
Martin wrestled in the Division 1 North sectionals last year and took his weight class at the 12-team Natick JV tournament, which Andover won. Now, he looks forward to improving on that effort this season. He attended the Shippensburg (Penn.) wrestled game with teammates and camps in Derry, N.H., and Lowell on his own.
"Being a varsity team shows that we have really come a long way," he said. "A lot of hard work has gone into it and we have triumphed together. We wanted to have an actual wrestling team and we have it now. We are really ready for the season."
