“I didn’t do anything differently except raise the expectations of the athletes. We’re a 1A program and we wrestled against 6A schools. We got out there and competed against the biggest and best we could. And our guys competed well. We thought we were just as good as anybody else,” said Turner County wrestling coach Ryan Alfau.
Coach Alfau came to Turner County from Camden County, where he was an assistant wrestling coach and a middle school football coach. He had been at Camden for seven years, but he wanted to be a head wrestling coach. Though he loves football, wrestling is Alfau’s passion. It’s something he has done his whole life, and he wanted to get to a school where he would have a greater opportunity to share his love of the sport with others. He found it at Turner County.
Before he arrived, Turner had placed 14th in the area in traditional and didn’t place at all in the duals. Last year – his first in Ashburn – the Rebels placed fourth in the state in both traditional and duals. They had a state champion (J.J. Alfau, Coach Alfau’s nephew, who was also a high school All-American and now wrestles at Iowa Central), a state runner-up, two third-place and two fifth-place finishers, respectively.
Two of those athletes have graduated – Alfau and Alton Lawson, one of the third-place finishers. Four of the six who placed at state return for this year: Malik Holley (160 pounds, runner-up), Antozio Dawson (126 pounds, third), Tanner Crawford (138 pounds, fifth), and Wes Poke (145 pounds, fifth).
“We’ve got these kids back and we also have a great group of underclassmen as well,” said Coach Alfau. 
This year, Coach Alfau would like to take the success his wrestlers experienced a year ago and use it as a springboard to something even bigger.
“Last year, we built off every competition. We want to keep building this year. Our kids are working hard, and they’re committed to becoming one of the best teams in the state,” he said.
Right now, Coach Alfau has about 30 kids showing up for preseason conditioning. The season is still several weeks away, but the kids are already working hard in preparation for another great year. Most of the wrestlers who are showing up are middle-school athletes; many of the varsity wrestlers are also varsity football players. Right now, they’re in football season and just aren’t able to wrestle. While the high school wrestlers have been preoccupied this fall, the commitment of the middle-school wrestlers demonstrates the overall health of the program.
“Many of these seventh- and eighth-grade wrestlers are more experienced than our high school athletes. They’ve been wrestling year-round, and they have the time right now to practice. I want to have a top-tiered program and we’re headed in that direction. Our kids are committed and willing to work, and that’s a big deal in a blue collar sport like wrestling,” said Coach Alfau.
Special Feature/South Georgia/November 2014
Turner County wrestling on the rise after making unexpected showing at state last year
Robert Preston, Jr.
