BY TERRY DEVEREAUX

Correspondent

The Cony High School wrestling program took some big strides this season. Cony won the Tiger Invitational for the first-time ever, set a school record for dual meet wins with 24, third finished third in Eastern A and 10th at the Class A state championships. All this was accomplished by a team with only two seniors.

Setting the course for the Rams was second-year coach Shawn Totman. Although relatively new as a head coach, Totman has been involved with building the program for the past six years as the middle school coach.

"I think part of the reason for the success of this year's team is that almost everyone on the team wrestled in middle school," said Totman. "Having coached them in middle school has given me the opportunity to work on the things that I think are important for success in high school. Once these kids have that basic wrestling knowledge and experience we can then build on it at the high school level."

Having the ability to develop a young group of wrestlers into a highly competitive team is why Totman has been named the Kennebec Journal/Morning Sentinel Wrestling Coach of the Year. Skowhegan's Al Wilson was also considered.

Totman said winning the Tiger tournament was one of the highlights of the season. "This was a sort of mid-season validation to the coaches (former Cony wrestler, Jeremy Mahns, is the assistant) and kids that our hard work in practice was paying off," Totman said.

On an individual level, Totman said having sophomore T.J. Vallee (171) and junior Shawn White (215) winning Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference and Eastern Maine championships was being another highlight. Vallee finished second at the state tournament while White was fourth. Cony qualified a total of seven wrestlers to the state championship tournament.

"He's a great guy to have as a coach," Vallee said. "He finds ways to incorporate fun activities into practice that still help build on our skills and conditioning level."

Totman, who teaches social studies at Cony and also is the varsity coach for the cross country and outdoor track and field teams, derives much of his coaching style from his own high school wrestling coach Jim Coffin. Totman competed for Coffin while a student at Morse High School in the 1980s. Coffin produced a long string of quality teams and individual state champions over a 20 year period at Morse.

"Jim Coffin taught me that being dedicated as a team to a single purpose, pushing each other to improve, and respecting individual efforts and achievements that happen each day are just as important as wins and losses," Totman said. "Another thing that I have taken from Coach Coffin is to recognize that there are many things you can teach these young adults about the larger scheme of what life may hold in store. Things such as having high aspirations, being responsible and respectful, and having pride in oneself are all very important ideals."

Cony could also be a force to be reckoned with next year as well, according to Gardiner coach Matt Hanley.

"Shawn has worked both the middle school and high school teams really well," Hanley said. "He has the numbers to do well in both dual meets and tournaments and should be a contender for an Eastern Maine championship next year."