A new era began in Georgia Military Prep athletics with the weekend’s Social Circle wrestling tournament.

“We have some really athletic and excited young men willing to do whatever I ask,” said GMC wrestling head coach Davis Lewis. “We had moms and dads, grandparents, brothers and sisters, and friends watching our kids. The excitement is really outstanding right now from all our supporters.”

That level of excitement shouldn’t come as a shock as the GMC faithful are the diehard-type fans that follow their teams, no matter who or where they play.

With the unenviable task of facing 16 seasoned teams, GMC goes in this year as a first-year program. With Tyler Pye hitting the mat for the Bulldogs in the team’s first-ever match, the other 15 teams knew the Bulldogs would be nobodies patsy or pushover.

Jared Sowell will go down in the record books at GMC as the first-ever wrestler to have his hand raised in a match with his victory Saturday. Not to be outdone, Chet Freeman and Dylan Effird, whom Lewis said had really progressed over the last two weeks, would also push their opponents to the brink in their matches. But then Gage Clay laced his boots up tight as he took his opponent and show him why before long GMC Bulldog wrestlers will be ones to be reckoned with. Clay proceed to move, twist, roll and eventually pin his foe for the first ever Bulldog pin for a win.

With 20 kids on the team, Lewis said the team has five more matches in the season with on scheduled for today in Monticello and the season finishing Dec. 12th at Holy Innocence in Atlanta.

Lewis said his team has shown tremendous improvement and he is looking for great things in the years to come. He said he hopes to schedule some home matches next season for his team to be able to show their friends and family how they have honed their craft and show their opposition that the Bulldogs are full of bite when it comes to the mat.

“I really do hope that wrestling will become another mainstay in GMC athletics in the future and one everyone can enjoy watching and be proud of,” said Lewis.

So for all those wanting to get in on the ground floor of excitement in a new program, wrestling is the new game in town at Georgia Military Prep School.