Brian Smith
Missouri wrestling coach Brian Smith admittedly couldn’t remember the last time his Tigers hosted a dual on a high school campus. But after some thought, the 21-year head coach estimated it last happened in his fourth or fifth season at the helm.
“You’d like to have an event where your seniors grew up, and this year I have a couple seniors that have done some amazing things that are from the Kansas City area,” Smith said. “It’s going to be a great dual. (Virginia has) four or five nationally ranked guys. When we wrestle these teams a lot of times we are the biggest match on their schedule. They circle that date and they bring their A-plus game, so we have to show up and be consistent and be prepared. It’s going to be a great atmosphere.”
The rarity of Missouri hosting an off-campus event changes Thursday when Smith brings his Tigers to Park Hill High School for a 7 p.m. sold-out dual against Virginia.
The event, which follows Park Hill’s 5 p.m. varsity dual with Liberty, officially sold out on Dec. 12, eight days ahead of the dual, which will be streamed on flowrestling.org.
Smith, the winningest coach in the program’s history, listed many benefits of hosting a home dual in an area they regularly recruit from — 11 of the 39 rostered wrestlers are from the greater Kansas City area. But the main benefit comes down to rewarding some of his veteran wrestlers.
“Honestly, these kids sacrifice so much to be here and compete and go to school,” Smith said. “If you have the opportunity where you can go back and compete, if it works out, it’s a nice thing to pay respect to a young man.”
There are three Park Hill graduates on the current roster — senior John Erneste and freshman Weston Diblasi at 133 pounds and sophomore Canten Marriott at 184. Erneste, a two-time MAC champion and NCAA tournament qualifier, is 7-1 on the season, while Marriott owns a 6-3 mark. Both are listed in Missouri’s projected lineup for Thursday, according to a press release, with Marriott listed next to Dylan Wisman with a ‘or’ between them.
Missouri (5-0), ranked sixth nationally, enters Thursday with a streak of 25 straight dual wins, while Virginia owns a 4-3 dual mark on the season.
“It’s a pretty awesome event for us to be able to have in our home gym. It’ll be pretty sweet,” first-year Park Hill coach Jason Beck said. “Liberty’s looking great and it should be a great test for us. It’s an awesome situation for Kansas City wrestling.
“Most of our kids’ goal is to compete at the Division I level so just having the eyes of Division I wrestling fans looking in on them, and kids that want to be Missouri Tigers growing up is awesome,” Beck added.
Hosting off-campus duals may just be the start of a trend for Missouri, as Smith said he’s always looking for ways to grow the program’s fanbase.
“I know there’s probably fighting over having this next year. We’re looking at that and I’ve already had a ton of high schools already ask me to do it at their place, so I have to figure out a way to be nice people,” Smith said. “But that’s a good problem. We’ll look at it, whether it’s Kansas City or St. Louis or somewhere else.”
Smith said in those earlier years he remembers wrestling at Oak Grove, Helias Catholic in Jefferson City and Hazelwood Central in St. Louis. Now, 15-some years later, the Tigers are back in a hometown, starting with Park Hill.
Former Missouri coach Wes Roper tweeted he remembered a dual at Park Hill in the late in 1980s.
“The younger kids can’t always make the two-hour drive to watch a dual, but they’ll get to see us wrestle (at Park Hill),” Smith said. “The impact on recruiting, the impact on being in a major city and the media will take notice and talk about Missouri wrestling. So there’s a lot that can encompass why we do it, but it’s worked out better than we thought.
“Now we just have to wrestle the match and get a win.”