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Photo/Mike Hensley The Charles Henderson wrestling team held their home opener inside the school gymnasium on Tuesday afternoon. For the second year in a row the Trojans hosted Enterprise in a matinée match in front of the student body.

Photo/Mike Hensley The Charles Henderson wrestling team held their home opener inside the school gymnasium on Tuesday afternoon. For the second year in a row the Trojans hosted Enterprise in a matinée match in front of the student body.

Photo/Mike Hensley The Charles Henderson wrestling team held their home opener inside the school gymnasium on Tuesday afternoon. For the second year in a row the Trojans hosted Enterprise in a matinée match in front of the student body.

Photo/Mike Hensley

Messenger photo/Mike Hensley Charles Henderson wrestler John Hatler helps up an Enterprise competitor after winning his match on Tuesday afternoon.

The Charles Henderson wrestling team held its home opener against Enterprise on Tuesday afternoon in front of students and faculty.

The result didn’t come out the way they would have liked, but second-year head coach Matt Raiti saw some progress.

“We’re still shaking the rust off,” Raiti said. “I think there is some improvement there.”

The Trojans entered this season short some key members on the roster, but as a whole, the roster grew compared to last season.

“We lost a few kids from last year, but the numbers on the team have really grown,” Raiti said. “That’s a big positive for us. We are hoping that continues.”

It was a packed house on Tuesday afternoon, full of students and faculty. At times, the noise was deafening inside the gymnasium. Even though the Trojans came up short in the match, Raiti believes his wrestlers took away a lot of positive momentum.

“They all seemed to be pretty excited even after the match,” Raiti said. “Some of them had a tough loss, but they are going to continue to strive and work and get better. The team morale is still pretty high.”

The Trojans hope to take a big step forward in year two. Goal one is a simple one – just do better than they did last year.

“In the team aspect, I want us to do better than we did last year,” Raiti said. “I want us to be competitive and compete better than we did last year. If every year you grow, then that’s the positive. Individually, I would like to send more than one person to the state tournament. Those are my goals right off the bat.”

The Trojans roster if full of youth, some as young as the seventh grade. For the Trojans, each day is a learning experience.

“We have a bunch of young kids,” Raiti said. “We have seventh graders, eighth graders, ninth graders and several tenth graders. We are just trying to promote learning. The better they can be today, the more growth they’ll have tomorrow.”

The Trojans didn’t get their inaugural season underway until January. This year, the Trojans got started in November and with a few matches scheduled for December, Raiti hopes the team will hit the ground running at the start of the new year.

“This year we had a match in November and two in December,” Raiti said. “We’ll pick it up with a pretty good January. We’ll be traveling quite a bit, but we’ll have a couple of home meets as well. The end of January is when the sectional tournament begins and we’re be ready to rock and roll.”

The Trojans next home meet will be next Thursday against Houston Academy and Dothan beginning at 5:30 p.m.

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