Team Preview: St. Michael the Archangel Catholic

Head Coach’s Name: Matt Infranca

Team: St. Michael the Archangel Catholic

2019-2020 dual record (overall, conference):

14-9 in duals
SMA is not in a conference at this time

Top Returning Wrestlers

Wrestler’s Name (First & Last)	Grade	Predicted Weight
Zach Berry	12	285
Jacob	Edmundson	145
Ellis	Edwards	152
Jakson	Wimberly	182

Other departures/injuries

Wrestler’s Name (First & Last)	Weight	Reason not back	Previous state results
Noland Boyer	170	Football Knee Injury

2020-2021 Outlook

Keys to success in the 2020-21 season:

St Michael returns everyone from last season with the exception of Noland Boyer who had a season ending knee injury in football. We have added Lucas Barry at 106 who I think should be able to make some noise at the state tourney. We have also added Junior Drew Stanfield who transferred in from Lee’s Summit West. We are hoping to get Drew eligible as he would be in the mix for a state title right away in my opinion. We will continue to build on the success the team had last season. They had a good year, but bumped up to Class 2 last year and fell into the district with Odessa, Oak Grove and Excelsior Springs. We drop back down to Class 1 this year and I expect us to surprise some people. This is a very coachable group that works hard.

Concerns about the lineup or challenges for the team this season:

Depth is a concern right now. We can fill a lineup from top to bottom for the first time in the young school’s history. I feel good about that. That is the first step. However, with Covid and injuries that happen, we need depth in case we have some quarantines or injuries. We will look to add depth over the next couple of years.

Please list any impact freshman or transfers

Freshman- Lucas Barry, 106. He has the opportunity to do as well as he wants. It’s up to him. He has a bright future at SMA. He has the opportunity to be our first state placer at St. Michael since he will be first one out at 106.
Transfer- Drew Stanfield, 126. He is the type of kid that walks into the room and raises the intensity immediately. He is a wrestler. He wrestles 365 days a year. He has a chance to be really good for St. Michael

How will the newcomers/transfers help?

For the first time, we have a few wrestlers on the team. At SMA, most kids play 2-3 sports. It’s a small school and that is what they do. The wrestling team’s makeup over the last three years has been these other student-athletes that have wrestled to help them in the other sports they play, mainly football. For the first time in the school’s history, we have two kids in Lucas and Drew that are wrestlers first. For me that is huge. As a program, we need to start bringing in more wrestlers to the program and then mix in the football players, baseball players and cross country kids. In order for us to win state titles, we need those kids that have wrestling experience before they get into our program at St. Michael. These two are the first of what I hope is many coming down the line.

Coach’s quote on overall thoughts about the team:

We have been stressing Attitude and Effort. Control what you can control. So far, the attitude and effort has been great. I have been fortunate to be a part of winning programs my whole life whether as a competitor or a coach. I expect it to be no different here. It’s up to the kids, but I think we are getting better every day and I am anxious to see how we finish.

Coach’s quote on expectations for this year’s team:

I expect to win. I didn’t come to St. Michael to not win. It’s a process. But we have the foundation from the previous coaching staff and we just need to continue to build on that. We need to get everyone eligible, healthy and at the right weight classes. If we can get that accomplished, I think we can sneak up on some teams. I expect to qualify 6-8 kids for the state tourney this year. Whoever those 6-8 kids are, these kids need to figure that out. This is year one and we want to set a precedence of what type of program we are building.