Thrush Thrives in Farwell's Mat Return
February 6, 2019
By Jeff Chaney
Special for Second Half
Jay Thrush admitted once he bought the new shoes, he knew he was back.
Thrush was a promising wrestler at Farwell High School three years ago, finishing in eighth place as a 171-pound freshman at the 2016 Division 4 Individual Finals. He followed that up with another Finals trip as a sophomore, falling just short of the podium in 2017.
That momentum was stopped last year when the Farwell athletic administration had to cancel the season because of a lack of participation.
"My freshman year six of us went to state and three of us placed, and I thought that was going to help build the program – but it didn't," Thrush said. "I thought people were going to join, but no one did. Wrestling is a hard sport, and it is hard to convince people to go out."
Then a new coach showed up.
Marcus Wilkes, a former Farwell wrestler, was asked to come back to his former school by Farwell baseball coach Josh Higgins to try and get the wrestling program back up and running.
"The last few years I was a manager at Walmart in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and I was sick of working 100 hours a week and I just got married," Wilkes said. "So I ended up quitting and going back to school. Now I go to Ferris and coach."
Higgins did a good sell job to convince the energetic Wilkes to come home.
"I wrestled for Farwell for my first two years in high school, and then I moved to Wisconsin and wrestled the final two years," said Wilkes, who also played baseball in high school. "I lost every match I wrestled my freshman year, but as a senior I finished 32-13 in Wisconsin.
"I did talk to Josh and asked if he needed any help with the baseball team, and he said none this year, but wanted me to come back and coach wrestling. I was hired in the fall and began to recruit kids."
Obviously one of the first Wilkes reached out to was Thrush, but Wilkes admitted he wasn't sure Thrush was all in to come back for his senior season.
"I knew Jay wasn't sure he wanted to wrestle when we started, but he got new shoes a month into the season, and then I knew he was in it for the long haul," Wilkes said.
Thrush agreed.
"Yeah, once I got the new shoes, I was trapped after that," Thrush said.
Luckily for Wilkes, Thrush picked up right where he left off after his sophomore season.
Heading into this past weekend, Thrush had a 25-4 record wrestling at 189 pounds. And he has been a help to Wilkes in the practice room, showing some of the new wrestlers – along with Wilkes – moves the younger athletes can build upon.
"He has been a huge asset," Wilkes said. "He has become a leader. He is teaching techniques that I am rusty at, helping the younger kids improve."
Thrush has been a leader in the classroom too, carrying a 3.5 GPA.
How many kids have Wilkes and Thrush had to work with this year?
"We had 12 to start, but we have lost some during the year," Thrush said. "Wrestling is mentally tough on first-year wrestlers; it takes a while to understand the sport. Experience goes a long way in this sport.
"We have a youth program, and I hope the young guys stay in the sport," he added. "And having a new coach helps."
One of those young wrestlers to build the future around is freshman Chase Burchette, who has won more than 20 matches this season at 160 pounds.
Wilkes is looking forward to the future.
"I'm excited," Wilkes said. "When I set up our schedule I only had four wrestlers. And I set up a somewhat difficult schedule, and with what I've seen, I'm excited for the future. It was good to see where our team stood against same-level teams with limited weight classes, and we have done well. But this year I wanted to concentrate on individual, and next year we will concentrate on team."
Farwell is in Division 3 and starts its MHSAA Tournament with Team Districts on Thursday at Clare High School and Individual Districts on Saturday at Freeland.
PHOTOS: (Top) Jay Thrush is again a mat standout as Farwell brought back its wrestling program this winter. (Middle) As a freshmen in 2016, Thrush wrestled Clinton’s Verneri Korkee at the Finals and took eighth in Division 4 at 171 pounds. (Top photo courtesy of the Farwell athletic department; Finals photo by HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
LakeVille's Hammond Not Seeking Spotlight, but Thriving Amid Pressure as Reigning Champ
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
February 4, 2026
Fred Hammond remembers what a thrill it was to have Otisville-LakeVille Memorial varsity wrestlers at his club practices when he was younger.
So now that Hammond – the reigning Division 4 Individual Finals champion at 165 pounds and school record holder for wins – is doing the same, there’s no doubt the current LakeVille youth team is experiencing that same thrill.
At the same time, Hammond is finding it just as exciting to be on the other side.
“One of my coaches is our club coach and talks about how his son, when he goes home, he’ll talk about me being there,” Hammond said. “But I just like seeing their smiles. I like being in the room, playing dodgeball with them and teaching them moves. That was a real cool experience for me (as a kid), and I imagine that’s how those guys look at me now.”
Hammond is giving back to the program that has given him so much, all while still helping to elevate the Falcons to new heights.
This past weekend, he picked up his 200th career victory, which tied LakeVille great Stan Marshall for most in school history. Hammond then surpassed that mark to take the record for himself.
He’s now 41-0 on the season with 23 wins by pin fall and seven by technical fall. In his LakeVille career, Hammond is 202-10 and has placed three times at the Individual Finals, taking sixth at 150 pounds as a freshman and third at 165 as a sophomore, both in Division 3. As a junior, he became LakeVille’s first champ since 1999 when he pinned his first three opponents and won by tech in the championship match to claim the 165-pound crown in Division 4.
“Stan Marshall was a three-time state champ, four-time placer, and Stan held every record we had,” LakeVille coach Dan Huggler said. “Ever since Freddy was a middle schooler, he wanted to break all those records. He’s trained hard, and he’s pretty much broke them all. He has the career takedown, pins and wins records. He’s only allowed five takedowns in the past three seasons. He wrestles a lot of tough matches – we’ll wrestle Dundee, (Detroit Catholic Central), as much as we can. His sophomore year, he gave up three takedowns. Last year, he gave up two. This year, he hasn’t given up any. It’s pretty amazing.”
While Huggler had plenty to say about his star wrestler’s exploits on the mat, his voice raised in excitement when talking about the type of person that sits on top of his program’s record books.
“He’s a National Honor Society student, student council member, has over a 3.8 GPA,” Huggler said. “He’s the kindest kid you could imagine – just friendly, smiles at everyone, part of everybody’s group and gets along with everybody. He relates to the people in the Chess Club. He can relate with everyone. He never makes it about himself.”
To that point, Hammond’s milestone victory was achieved while his team won the Tamonta Hill Team Tournament and helped Huggler reach a milestone of his own: his 300th career dual coaching victory.
“I’ve been through LakeVille’s program for a long time, and having these guys coaching me and around all the way through my career, it’s been great,” Hammond said. “It’s pretty cool that on the same day I hit 200, he hit 300. It was cool to do that in front of our home crowd.”
LakeVille is back in Division 3 this season and No. 8 in Michigan Grappler’s latest team rankings. The Falcons won the Mid-Michigan Activities Conference for the third straight season, and three other wrestlers – Adam Hoch, Jake Hascall and George Gavan – have collected career victory No. 100 this season.
As Hammond has been looking at new goals following his individual title a year ago, all of that team success has him thinking big.
“Honestly, I’ve been thinking about college a lot and what I could do there, and obviously helping my teammates,” he said. “Now I’m thinking about team state titles and all of that. That would be real cool to win a team state championship.”
He’s also chasing another individual title, and along the way has accomplished quite a bit outside of the career milestone, having won the Detroit Catholic Central Invitational and Genesee County titles.
As a returning Finals champion, Hammond is well aware that he’ll have a target on his back, but he’s not only prepared for that – he welcomes it.
“I feel like even over the summer, I kind of took a little break just to relax and I hadn’t taken a break from wrestling in a while. But every day since I got back, I always try to get a little better, and I feel like I’m wrestling well going into the postseason,” Hammond said. “I like that feeling of being tracked down. I like being the guy to beat.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Otisville-LakeVille Memorial’s Fred Hammond (in yellow) works toward a win during last season’s MHSAA Individual Finals. (Middle) Hammond celebrates his championship at Ford Field. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)