All Saints’ brought in many new coaches and wrestlers hoping to create a winning culture for All Saints’ Wrestling. The All Saints’ Head Coach is Coach Greg Duke who has been the head wrestling coach here at All Saints’ for a while now. Coach Duke brought on former Texas Wesleyan Head Coach, Coach Ray Bedford.
Coach Bedford has coached many National All American Wrestlers and World Team Members. His biggest accomplishment as a coach is that he turned a college with no wrestling program into a top five ranked team in the nation within five years. He also is the Head Wrestling Coach of Spartan Mat Club which is one of the most dominant clubs in Texas. Coach Duke also brought on Coach Justin Berg who is a coach at Texas Elite Wrestling Club.
With all these great coaches coming in, we also have talented athletes coming to All Saints’ as well. Kody Tanimoto is a member of the Spartan Mat Club, and an incoming Junior to All Saints’. Tanimoto’s biggest accomplishment is placing at the toughest tournament in the world, also known as Fargo. Tanimoto placed fifth the same year and also wrestled at World Team Trials, but fell short and placed seventh. Tanimoto also wrestled at the UIL 6A State Champions, but fell short of his goal of winning. Tanimoto brought home a fourth place medal from the event.
Saints Wrestling also has another new athlete, Larry Layman who already has some accomplishments under his belt. Layman wrestled at the UIL 5A State Championship, but fell short of his goal and finished sixth. This past weekend Layman showed his toughness in Des Moines, Iowa. Layman lost the first match at Pre-Season Nationals, and then proceeded to wrestle seven matches on the backside and come home with a seventh place finish.
Another notable wrestler is an incoming freshman, Brodie Bedford. Bedford is a tough wrestler that won the Middle School State Tournament. It is going to be interesting to see how his season is going to unfold because he is a tough freshman that a lot of people don’t know about. According to Coach Duke, he is “most excited for a culture change and hoping to capture a prep state title for wrestling.” Coach Duke also wants to keep a winning tradition at All Saints’ for the years to come.
