Steve Bower faced a number of challenges when he took over as the Keyport High School wrestling coach.
“We lost a lot of wins to graduation from last year, which was one of the best teams ever with 10 wins (10-8),” Bower said.
Last year was the first winning season for the Red Raiders after six straight losing years.
Trying to match last year’s team with a number of newcomers was one of the challenges. The other was getting the numbers on the wrestling team up. He has 22 wrestlers on the varsity and junior varsity teams this winter.
Help could be on the way, as Keyport just started a middle school program. All of the Shore’s top teams have such feeder programs.
Bower’s goal for his first season was to have a winning record. At 6-4, the Red Raiders are headed in that direction.
“We’re going to get there little by little,” Bower said.
Ted Smith (113 pounds) and Darnell Holmes (152), who both finished fourth in the NJSIAA District 22 Tournament last year and missed out by one place from going to the region championships, head the Red Raiders’ returnees. Bower pointed out that they are both “ready to step up” and move up on the medal podium this year. Holmes was a 20-match winner in 2013 (20-8).
Holmes started his season with a win at the Ewing Tournament and a third-place showing at the Holmdel Holiday Tournament.
Smith took third at the Holmdel Tournament as well.
Alex Erven (106), Alex Meza (170) and Dan O’Steen (220), who were starters last year, have upped their games this season.
Erven gives the Red Raiders a nice one-two punch at 106 and 113 pounds, and Meza and O’Steen shore up the upper weights. All three have had fine tournament results. Erven joined Holmes as a winner at the Ewing Tournament. Meza took second there, while O’Steen was third.
O’Steen won the 220-pound weight class at the Holmdel Holiday Tournament, where Meza was a runner-up.
Jake Andrews, another returnee, was a runner-up at 145 in Ewing.
Keyport finished a very respectable fifth in both tournaments.
At the Buc Classic in Red Bank, Meza and O’Steen were runners-up, and Erven placed third.
The dual meet record is very encouraging for the Red Raiders. They climbed back over .500 by defeating Monsignor Donovan High School, 48-29, and Camden High School, 48-25, in a double-dual in Toms River on Jan. 25.
O’Steen, Smith, Andrews and Holmes all won by pins against Monsignor Donovan, and Meza won by a technical fall.
The Red Raiders’ last home match was Feb. 5 against Middletown High School North.
Bower is the son of Doug Bower, the former head coach at Howell High School who helped build the Rebels into a state power. He faced a similar situation in Howell when he took over in the 1980s, with a program that lacked numbers. His son would like to duplicate Howell’s success at Keyport.
Bower also has a brother to follow. Jeff Bower is the head coach at Point Pleasant Beach High School, which went 20-5 and was a division champion last year.
Keyport and Point Pleasant Beach just happen to be in the same division — B Central. Steve Bower wants his program to reach the point where it is challenging Point Pleasant Beach for the division title. The first round went to Jeff this year, 45-16.
While winning hasn’t been associated with Keyport wrestling, the Red Raiders only need to look to 2011 graduate, Greg Velasco, to find inspiration. Velasco, a district and region champion and state placewinner, is the starting heavyweight for Rider University. He won a school-record 116 matches at Keyport.