Cody Thorn
FORT WORTH — As the days on the calendar ticked away toward the trip to Fargo, the coaching staff put together Team Texas through its final workouts this week.
Wrestlers from all over the Lone Star state converged at the Spartan Mat Club, a gym where freestyle/Greco director Ray Bedford and his wife, Leslie, run. The former head wrestling coach of Texas Wesleyan will guide the boys’ team at Fargo, while The Woodlands College Park head coach Lindsey Spjut will lead the girls during the tournament.
Both programs have some returning wrestlers, newcomers and even new coaches on both sides. Rockwall head coach Cody Johnston and assistant Chase Brennan are helping out the boys’ program with the returning staff.
One of the girls’ teams’ assistant is a former state team member in Samara Chavez. The former standout at Arlington James Martin High School is now a wrestler at college but is giving back.
“I think it’s fun and then I kind of relate to them,” said Chavez, who will be a junior this upcoming school year at King University. “So I know like, when they need breaks or when they need a hard push. And coaching them actually helps me break things down even more because I just it just clicks for me and then I gotta break things down even more for them. So it helps me help a lot to help them.”
She’s a sports management major at the Bristol, Tennessee school and she sees herself coaching after college.
The two-time UIL state championship was also a three-time All-American at Fargo. She’s been there and knows what some of these girls will experience….
