[Professional Blog] Wrestling history reversal

A few days ago, we ran a story about a fledgling wrestling program and Mobile Central High School. The coach, Robert Basha, had contacted me following the Newfoundland and Labrador Winter Games where his small team won a pair of medals. The story came about rather quickly and we were lucky enough to have photos of the Southern Shore wrestlers leftover from my Games coverage in Grand Falls-Windsor. Maybe the story came about too quickly. I had heard of many sports having been played over the years on the Shore; basketball, cross-country running, hockey, heck, even hurling and handball. But, in my experience, never wrestling. And neither had my sports department cohorts, or Basha himself. Turns out we were all grossly uninformed. Local pavement pounding road racer and all around athlete Ben Dunne was the physical education teacher at Mobile high for nine years, during which time a team of Monarch wrestlers competed against a team led by Ern Condon a former varsity wrestler at Memorial University at Baltimore High School in nearby Ferryland. Dunne, who was joined by fellow teacher Loyola Sullivan, says the team did quite well in competition against teams from St. Johns and the provinces west coast. The programs didnt last long, but they were quite successful. Heres hoping Basha is able to create a new, lasting legacy of wrestlers from the Southern Shore.