As they embark on a new wrestling season at Whitehall, the focus will be on acclimating a young team to the rigors of a varsity season in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.

The Zephyrs have been able to hold their own inside the EPC as evidenced by last year’s 5-5-1 record (15-7-1 overall), but this season brings a new challenge as they’ll have just a handful of seniors with varsity experience to lean on as they battle with their league counterparts.

While their roster may be inexperienced, they do have the benefit of numbers. Head coach Tim Cunningham said that over 30 student-athletes will be part of the Zephyr wrestling family this season.

However, this season they’ll be without two wrestlers who had extensive varsity experience as Joey Gladish and Matt Schuler are no longer with the program.

Cunningham can’t dwell on what he’s lost, but will focus on helping the young wrestlers take advantage of those opportunities.

“It’s the next man up, that’s kind of the philosophy we have,” said Cunningham. “So we’re going to look forward to having some of these young guys step up.”

As they gathered inside the wrestling room last week in preparation for the upcoming season, these young wrestlers teeming with sweat will now become the face of the program.

“I think this year is going to be a building year,” said Cunningham. “We have a lot of young kids, which is really promising.”

Their roster features 12 sophomores and freshmen.

“Some of them just started wrestling last year, some of them just started wrestling this year,” said Cunningham.

He said it’s up to the juniors and seniors on the roster to lead by example.

“We keep stressing how they’re going to be really important for the future of this program,” said Cunningham.

Those seniors include Justin Maicks, Jake Sinkowski, Tyler Schaeffer, Jesse Werkheiser, Andrew Sanchinelli, Dan Mittura and Tyler Oswald. Schaeffer was 18-4 last season, a cornerstone to build on for the Zephs.

They’ll also rely on juniors Paul Helman, Amadou Fall, Rafat Yacoub, Jason Kassis, Nikitas Davis, Kori Zacarias, Jesiah Davis, Thomas Klotz, Noah Rex and Marwan Rajha. Rex finished last season 22-9, while Davis was 13-16, and Mittura was 7-17.

Sophomores who will contribute include Julio Diaz, John Kaintz, Luis Arzola, Gavin Morber, Jovany Belman and Mike Ajami. Among the sophomore class, Kaintz finished 9-19 last year.

Freshmen who will help the Zephs on the mat this year include Ian Kulp, Nicholas Demean, Caleb Staub, Joshua Grol, Brandon Vega and Marino Colazzo.

Cunningham said that leaders are still to emerge from their roster, and believes they’ll find wrestlers who will take that role.

He said this year it will be important to stay positive and not get discouraged.

“We want them to enjoy the sport as much at the end of the year as you did in the beginning of the year, so we can continue to build the program over the next few years,” said Cunningham.