Cougars wrestle facial hair, Russian holiday challenges

• Voznesenka team still sends 5 wrestlers to State

By Sean Pearson
Homer Tribune
It’s not like living in the tiny, remote, Old Believer Russian Village near the head of Kachemak Bay doesn’t already come with its fair share of challenges.
Roads to Voznesenka in the winter are often treacherous at best, and high school wrestlers of all sizes have to practice in a cramped classroom, fighting off encroaching desks.
And while the fight to establish a wrestling program for the Cougars hasn’t been an easy one, Voznesenka Head Coach Steve Wolfe takes it all in stride.
As the Cougars competed in the Denali/Kachemak Conference Tournament over the weekend, they faced even more challenges than usual. While they are fairly used to being one of the smallest teams at large tourneys – all but two of the 15 teams at the tournament had a student enrollment that far exceeded the meager 32 students of Voznesenka – a facial hair issue added a whole other component.
According to Wolfe, many of his wrestlers had to wear face masks to cover facial hair.
“The Old Believer religion forbids shaving or trimming beards,” he explained. “And wrestling rules forbid facial hair without a mask.”
And if that wasn’t enough to throw the Cougars off their game, the Friday of the tournament was a Russian holiday, and wrestlers had to spend nearly the entire night attending church before wrestling that day.
Nevertheless, these hardy young men were able to wrestle well, qualifying five grapplers for the state tourney.
Senior Leo Polushkin grabbed the top spot at 285 pounds, coming in as conference champion, while junior Julian Polushkin placed second at 160 pounds. Joe Martishev, also a junior, placed fourth at 135 pounds, while sophomore Zenovei Martushoff took fourth at 145 pounds. Zenon Martushev, a junior, pulled in a second-place finish at 160 pounds. 
All five wrestlers will now advance to the 1A-2A-3A State Championship Tournament at Bartlett High School this coming weekend, where they are expected to do well. 
Even more surprising, according to their coach, was the overall team score. With the help of four other team members – Nick Matveev, David Martishev, Ernie Kuzmin and Mavrik Reutov – the Voznesenka team scored a total of 109 points. The impressive performance gave the Cougars a fifth-place finish, ahead of 10 teams at the tournament.
“Wrestling is the hardest sport for a small team to do well against a big team,” Coach Wolfe said. “To have a good basketball team, you need five good athletes. For football, you need 11 good athletes. In wrestling, you need 14 good athletes and they all have to be in different weight classes.”
Wolfe said the numbers of students to draw from becomes paramount to compete well in wrestling.
“Those who recognize this realize that what the Voz boys did this weekend – competing against teams with 10 times their student population – was practically a miracle.”

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