BOLIVAR, N.Y. — The Taylor family and Bolivar-Richburg wrestling have started to become synonymous.
When Todd Taylor first took over in 2007, the program was a shell of what it has grown into now. Like many other small schools in New York state, B-R struggled to draw a large number of athletes to the sport.
After a two-year hiatus from 2009-10, Taylor has been the head coach of Wolverine wrestling since 2011. Now, with the help of his sons, Andrew and Obert, Taylor has turned B-R into one of the Southern Tier’s premier wrestling programs. And in his 10th year as coach, Taylor was named the Big 30 Wrestling Coach of the Year.
The Taylor-led Wolverines had a historic 2019-20 season, three-peating as champions of their Section 5 class, sending three athletes to the New York State tournament and placing a wrestler in the state finals for the first time ever.
“IT WAS a very exciting year. Words can’t explain it,” Taylor said. “All these kids right now are the last of the big group that we had come through the youth program. Plus, we’re taking it to a new level with workout programs and how we condition.”
The B-R wrestling season doesn’t start in November and end in February. As Taylor explained, his wrestlers work year round to chase success in the winter.
“We call it the ‘Wolverine Den,’” Taylor said of the team’s popular workout center in Bolivar. “They practice hard up there all year. We try to get them to go to the ‘Den’ and work out and keep wrestling fresh in their heads.”
When his wrestlers aren’t on the mat, Taylor encourages them to play other sports to stay active. Many of the team’s wrestling stars go on to play baseball or run track in the spring, and play football or soccer in the fall.
“We try to drive it in their heads: Don’t go home and play on the computer,” Taylor said. “Play baseball. Run track. And a lot of them continue on to play other sports. Our other athletic programs do the same thing for us, and help us recruit.”
POSTSEASON success was just on the surface of the accolades that B-R obtained this year. Three wrestlers reached 100 career wins (Dominic Stone, Dawsen Yates and Kaidin Thompkins), and the Wolverines won an impressive 32 dual meets, including a big victory over Southern Tier powerhouse Canisteo-Greenwood.
Trey Buccholz (99 pounds), Rayce Carr (120), Yates (126), Hudson Evingham (195) and Tyler Smith (220) were each Section 5 Class B3 individual champions, while the Wolverines compiled 255.5 team points, blowing away second-place finisher Perry, who finished with 202 points. Yates, Evingham and Smith each went on to win the Section 5 state qualifier tournament before Smith placed eighth and Evingham placed second at the state tournament.
The Wolverines were the Big 30 team poll champions and Evingham was named Big 30 Wrestler of the Year, giving B-R a clean sweep of the region.
“(Taylor) doesn’t give himself as much credit as he deserves,” said Andrew Taylor, a B-R assistant coach. “If it wasn’t for him putting his roots in when he did, the program would not be as strong as it is now.”
ANDREW AND Obert Taylor also play a big role in training Wolverine wrestlers, taking them around the nation to compete and demonstrating techniques in practice. Andrew had a trip to Virginia Beach for high school nationals planned for the summer.
Andrew Taylor, like many who follow wrestling locally and throughout New York, felt that B-R made a name for itself on the statewide stage this year.
“There are a lot of good wrestling schools,” he said. “To be able to stick our name out there has been great. And I see us being tough for the next five or six years.”
With much of its starting lineup returning next season, B-R will aim for its first-ever trip to the NYSPHSAA Dual Meet Wrestling Championships. The Wolverines were edged by eventual Section 5 champion Palmyra-Macedon in the semifinals of the section’s qualifying tournament a year ago.
“The rewarding thing for me isn’t wins and losses, it’s seeing kids accomplish things,” Andrew Taylor said. “In other sports, you can be good, but in wrestling you have to be great if you want to achieve big things.”
Whether B-R can duplicate this season’s success is to be determined. For now, however, Todd Taylor is proud of his wrestlers and the way that the community has rallied behind them.
“It’s getting bigger and better every year,” he said. “We had a whole section at Brockport filled with B-R people (for state qualifiers), and most of that group went to Albany to watch those kids (at the state tournament).”
The Wolverines not only made a name for themselves in 2019-20, but showed that they could be a Section 5 powerhouse for years to come.
“It starts with older guys leading by example for the younger kids coming up through,” Andrew Taylor said. “It’s nice to finally have Bolivar-Richburg wrestling on the map.”
