The wrestlers on this year’s Bainbridge High varsity squad are mean and lean.

Really lean.

Their current heavyweight doesn’t top 182-pounds, and most of the team weighs in at considerably less.

“It’s a little hard,” said BHS Head Coach Dan Pippinger of the lack of heavier wrestlers. “That’s difficult. It will be hard letting another team get points for not having someone on the mat.”

Still, Pippinger said he believes the slightly smaller Spartans will bring just as big a fight as last year’s squad, which not only made the trip to state but brought home a seventh-place finisher.

“One hundred-seventy pounds is the biggest that we have,” Pippinger said, indicating returning senior grappler and current co-team captain Joaquin Gurza.

This year’s squad of 19 is made up of five seniors and a large number of returners, he continued.

“The guys that have come back have good experience,” Pippinger said. “It’s pretty evident when we get on the mat they know what they’re doing.”

The team’s ability turned out to be more than pretty evident to the Spartans’ first opponent of the year when they defeated Chief Sealth 58-18 earlier this month.

They won every single match in which they had a weight-appropriate wrestler to enter, losing only three forfeits and enduring one early double forfeit in the 106-pound class.

“Part of that’s the level of competition,” Pippinger said of the team’s initial victory. “But you can’t argue with — I think we had nine matches or eight matches — and seven of the eight were pins.”

“It was a good start because it kind of got us rolling and the kids feel success,” he added. “But, it’s easy to see places where we can improve.”

In addition to the swath of returners, Pippinger said that the team was fortunate this year to have eight freshman join up.

“It’s a really good, hardworking group,” he said of the newbies. “If I had eight to 10 kids in each class, that’d be awesome. But this young group, they’re enthusiastic, they work hard, they’re coachable, they’re learning [and] they learn really fast.”

“They’re keeping up with the older guys just in terms of technique and what we’re working on” he added.

With the addition of some new names to the Metro League roster this season, Pippinger said the Spartans’ toughest foes may be the least known.

“There’s three new schools in the Metro League,” he said. “I have no idea what they look like.”

Some opponents, however, are the same old threats, he added.

“This year I would guess that O’Dea [will be]; they just have the numbers that’s always helpful for them,” he explained.

“Each team has a good wrestler or two, so you always have to be prepared,” Pippinger said. “The challenge for us is just to wrestle the same regardless of the opponent. We always train to our own standard and try to accomplish that, no matter what.”

Returning BHS junior wrestler, and previous seventh-place state finisher, Jack Miller is one of the team’s experts on setting personal standards. He said that the squad was shaping up well so far this year and he expected everyone to do well.

“We go through a lot of technique, just focusing on our moves and getting them right,” Miller said of the season’s earlier practices. “Then we pick up the intensity.”

Miller is one of the team’s few year-round wrestlers, and said he intends to compete at 145 pounds for now and hopefully cut down to 138 later in the season.

“I think I’m going to do good,” Miller said during a recent practice session.

Fellow Spartan returner, BHS senior and team co-captain Jonathan Gallivan, is also coming back from a stellar season.

“I won Metros, I took fourth at Regionals and I didn’t place at state,” he said.

Considering what it takes in order to be a successful wrestler, and trying to impart some of that knowledge to such a large crop of freshman grapplers, one word keeps coming up this season, Gallivan said.

“Coach has been using this word called ‘grit,’” he explained. “I think that’s true, because I sucked freshman year, but I just stuck with it. Then, sophomore year, I only lost one Metro match.”

Whether or not grit will be enough to see them return to the state tournament in Tacoma again this year remains to be seen, but the Spartans are off to a good start and are definitely out to showcase the advantage gained through the weight of their team experience.

No matter what the scale says.