Photo by Hoopa athletics – Hoopa senior Pamela Houston placed third in her weight division at the weekend Anderson tournament.

By Ray Hamill — The Hoopa Warriors are building momentum on the wrestling mats as they get set to open league dual meet action at McKinleyville on Thursday night.

The Warriors are coming off strong back-to-back performances at a pair of tournaments and feature five or six wrestlers who are expected to challenge for individual league titles this year and perhaps more.

And first-year head coach Robert Baldy likes what he’s seen from his wrestlers so far.

“I like their effort,” Baldy said. “They’re all willing to come to practice and put in as much effort as they can. I’m proud to be a part of this team.”

Seniors Antonio Correa, Nathan Edwards and Raymond Baldy lead a small but quality boys roster, while Pamela Houston, another senior, has been very impressive for the Hoopa girls through the first month of the new season.

This past weekend, Correa placed first in the 215-pound bracket at the Anderson High Beasts of the North tournament, after placing second at the Lou Bronzan tournament at Liberty High School the previous weekend.

Correa, who is the Hoopa boys’ lone returning league champion this winter, gained some valuable experience at the Lou Bronzan tourney, with his only loss coming against the top seed in the North Coast Section.

And Robert Baldy believes the senior standout will benefit from the loss down the road.

“We expect that he can come back and beat that kid in the (NCS tournament),” the new head coach said. “It was good for Antonio to see him there.”

Edwards (190), Raymond Baldy (175) and junior Chago Moon (157) each also impressed at the weekend Anderson tournament on the way to placing fourth in their weight divisions.

“They’ve all been wrestling well,” said Robert Baldy, who has an overall roster of 17 this winter, including 12 boys and five girls.

Junior Donald Hostler is another Hoopa wrestler the new head coach expects big things out of this winter after he placed second in his weight division at the league championships last year.

Hostler placed sixth at the Lou Bronzan tournament, while Allison Mace and Raymond Baldy each placed eighth in their brackets.

One of the main goals for this year’s team — in addition to winning as many individual league titles as possible — is to successfully defend the NCS Division-3 Dual Meet championship they won for the first time ever last year.

Robert Baldy was a longtime assistant coach with the program before taking over from Merk Robbins as head coach, so he’s on familiar terms with all of the Hoopa wrestlers.

“I expect that we can make it back to the team dual (championships) I the NCS like last year,” he said. “And hopefully finish first or second in Division 3.”

Meagen Baldy is coaching the Hoopa girls team and is assisting her son Robert with the boys.

The Warriors will open the H-DNL dual meet season on Thursday against both McKinleyville and St. Bernard’s, with the action getting under way at 6:30 p.m.