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GREG AUMANCOACH OF THE YEAR: A first district title and an individual state championship mark Ridgewood's season as one for the school's record books - and banner collection.
NEW PORT RICHEY - Ridgewood's wrestling room, at first glance, looks like some kind of high-security prison compound. A room within a room, it has 10-foot blue-and-orange concrete walls with chain-link fence extending above that, isolating Rams wrestlers in a world of their own.
For the past five years, it has been Vinnie Lowe's home away from home, a part of the Ridgewood program he literally built himself.
His wrestlers laugh in remembering the day he fell off a ladder painting the "W" in "RIDGEWOOD WRESTLING" on the wall and smile at the gruff-looking, 6-foot tall Ram that Lowe drew himself, lugging an overhead projector onto the mats.
It is, like his program, a work in progress: he sees the outer room's high ceilings and dreams of making it a two-story facility, with mats on a higher terrace and a weight room below.
One more modest but long-awaited addition he'll proudly make this offseason to his "Wall of Champions" is an area to commemorate the program's first district title.
A year ago, Lowe thought he had that title, but a recount awarded the championship to Land O'Lakes. A narrow loss to Gulf in the Sunshine Athletic Conference tournament left the Rams with one chance for a senior-dominated group to leave a mark on the school's sports history.
"If you look at the banners in the gym, all you see for us is one region," the 39-year-old coach said. "We wanted to be able to add two things there, and after we lost conference, there was no way we were losing districts."
Ridgewood held a slim seven-point lead entering the finals round at districts, and the Rams not only won but earned bonus points for winning by pins and technical falls.
Ridgewood wrestlers went 6-0 in the finals and 3-1 in the consolation finals, sweeping district titles in six consecutive weight classes from 112 to 140 pounds, all won by seniors.
Four of the six - Matt and Billy Bullwinkel, Keith Coghlan and Anthony Jackson - have been renowned since their sophomore year, but the district marked the first time all four won in the same tournament. Josh Rupe and Micah Marcano joined them at the top of the podium.
Coghlan and the Bullwinkels went on to qualify for the state tournament, with Billy taking third and Matt winning the state championship in Lakeland.
Graduation will hit the Rams hard, but this season's success has Lowe optimistic about the potential a new class of young unknowns. There are some wrestlers returning, led by Shane Higgins (112), John Moreno (145) and Patrick Kelly (215).
"It's going to take a lot of work, but with the exception of my very first year, we haven't had a year without a state qualifier," he said. "We'll start working on that next week."