Gig Harbor wrestling looks to improve with abundance of young talent

If you watched Gig Harbor football this year, you likely saw Trevor Zeitner at running back.

Zeitner would go on a run, get hit, and somehow make his way out of the tackle, en route to an impressive 4.8 yards per carry during his senior season.

“You’re [thinking] ‘alright, he’s going down,’ and then all of a sudden, he squirms out of the tackle,” said Jacob Spadoni, Zeitner’s wrestling coach at Gig Harbor. “That’s definitely a wrestling thing.”

With the door closed on the Tides’ football season, Zeitner turns to wrestling. It’s quite a transition, when comparing the team aspect of football to the individualized sport of wrestling.

Zeitner sees no disconnect between the team and each player’s performance on the mat.

“We’re well acquainted,” Zeitner said. “We spend a lot of time together. If we see each other in school, we’ll say ‘Hey, what’s up.’ And I think we all have the same goals in mind of becoming better and seeing past the obstacles that we have. We’re able to say ‘Hey, if I can do it, you can do it too.’ I think that’s a good team aspect if we can all push each other to do better than before.”

The Tides return to the mats with hopes of improving on last year’s 5-2 league mark, a record that earned them a fourth-place finish in the 3A SSC.

The goal for this year? Quite simple, according to Spadoni.

Improve on the year before.

“Third or higher [in league],” Spadoni said. “We’re always looking to do better.”

And despite a season-opening loss to Yelm, there’s optimism looking forward for the Gig Harbor program.

In fact, the 30 points Gig Harbor scored on Yelm was the most in program history.

“That was good for us, getting a couple of wins there against some tough kids,” Spadoni said. “We’ve had some kids that have really stepped up. Some kids have been thrust into the varsity position as a freshman, and now they’re finally starting to get where they are as varsity-level athletes.”

Gig Harbor’s program only continues to grow. The team currently sits at 32 kids, and has increased each year since Spadoni took over as coach in 2016.

He attributes the growth to the wrestlers that enter the program as freshmen after wrestling in middle school, opposed to joining as a senior three years later.

That growth helps the team bond, and creates a desire to play for each other as much as playing for themselves.

“That’s been the culture shift lately,” Spadoni said. “I came into the program and we were a team, but were we really a ‘team?’ I’ve definitely pushed the envelope on [the idea that] we’re a team that needs to win duals but (also) a team that needs to place in tournaments. We can’t just have two of our stallions running out in front with everyone else left in the stables. Our goal is to have everyone contribute. If you see your teammate do well, you’re cheering them on.”

And for a guy with a “laid-back attitude,” Zeitner, one of the state’s top-ranked wrestlers in the 152-pound weight class, has taken over as leader of the Tides team, stepping into a role that is somewhat unfamiliar to him.

“[Zeitner has] come in with a new focus,” Spadoni said. “He’s never had to be the leader, but he has really stepped into that role. … I message him on our ‘remind’ app, and he’s like, ‘I’ll inform the troops,’ whenever I tell him anything.”

According to Spadoni, Zeitner’s wrestling skills have improved, too.

“He is always ready to learn,” Spadoni said. “When he came in as a freshman, it was like taking the reins off a young little bronco. He was just flopping around out there and accidentally winning a lot. Now, it’s more on purpose.”

One match Spadoni looks most forward to is the crosstown matchup with Peninsula.

It’s a meet that didn’t always happen every year when the Seahawks competed in a different league.

Now, the trophy that the two schools hoist with a victory over the other is up for grabs every season, instead of collecting dust on one campus for years at a time.

“It’s super exciting that [Peninsula] is in our league now,” Spadoni said. “It used to be a special thing when I was back in high school where maybe we get an opportunity to wrestle them. The trophy has been around forever that we pass back and forth.”

Though Peninsula currently owns the crosstown trophy, the teams are consistently competitive against each other, and one match could make the difference any year.

But there’s more than one wrestler on the Gig Harbor team looking to make an impact for the Tides, and Stone Anderson (160-pound weight class) is one of them.

Anderson earned particularly high praise from his coach.

According to Spadoni, he’s “just the nicest guy ever.”

“He’s always the one that makes friends with freshmen on the first day and is always making sure they’re included in everything,” Spadoni said. “They always do Moctezuma’s (restaurant) after meets and I’m totally about that. They go to fro-yo and he’s always the guy setting it up.”

This story was originally published December 12, 2019 at 6:00 AM.