Pleasant Valley’s wrestling program sees a fresh face taking over the head coaching vacancy for the Bears.

Former Wilson Area wrestling assistant coach Alex Depew took the PV job in August and is looking to re-build the Bears program from the ground up.

“It’s great,” Depew said. “I learned a bunch of good knowledge from the previous coaching staff at Wilson. Taking over Pleasant Valley was a great opportunity. A lot of great kids, technical kids, gritty, hard-working and I’ve got a great coaching staff with me as well. It’s a great opportunity and great to see these kids wrestle.”

Depew also wrestled in high school and gave his impression of facing Pleasant Valley over the years.

“Growing up, and just watching them as a coach, PV always had kids thicker-skinned, hard-nosed, tough,” Depew said about Pleasant Valley. “Maybe at times, the numbers weren’t always there or their kids might’ve not always been the most technical, but always tough kids to wrestle. That really appealed to me.”

The toughness of the PV program was another reason Depew took the job. He will have a big task at hand to revamp the Pleasant Valley program.

“When I was selected for the job and I took the opportunity, I got the right coaching staff in place and what we’re going to do is build on that foundation of toughness,” Depew said. “We’re going to implement a lot more techniques and score points in the kids. We want to dominate matches and control pace and really set the tone in developing a new culture for the kids and the youth program to look up to and get them excited to wrestle at the high-school level for Pleasant Valley.”

Depew inherits the PV program that went 4-2 in an abbreviated 2020-2021 season. The Bears completed the year with a 19th-place finish in the District 11 tournament in February. The geographical location also attracted Depew to the program.

“It’s close,” Depew said. “I like the tradition of Pleasant Valley. They’re hard-nosed, tough kids. I’ve got really close friends. My father’s on staff, so I got a great staff with me. I was attracted to the kids, there’s always room to grow. I think that with the right culture in place, we can build really something special at PV.”

The Pleasant Valley Bears are led by team captain Everett Lata, who is slotted in the 126-pound spot. Depew noted Lata’s work ethic and stepping up in the process.

“I got the position in August and I started preseason workouts as soon as possible and he didn’t miss a single workout, so he’s been a great leader by example,” Depew said. “He’s a great vocal leader and he’s a great kid, hard-worker, good in the community and the classroom. Just a good mentor to the kids and gets along with everybody, so he’s the kind of kid that’s going to help us get the ball rolling and develop this new culture.”

The Bears also have James Syracuse, who played for PV football during the fall. Syracuse isn’t the only wrestler on the team who is a little banged up right now, as 132-pounder Josh Griffith is also suffering from some injuries before the season begins.

“Once he gets healthy, he’s got great opportunities and really make some noise and advance in the district tournament, hopefully go to Hershey in March,” Depew said about Syracuse. “Josh Griffith, he’s getting over some injuries, but an extremely hard worker. Very technical, and those three kids feed off each other’s energy and they really motivate and push the rest of the kids. When the kids see them grinding every day and putting in work, they want to do that too. They’re great role models for the kids and hard-workers.”

The main thing Depew wants to focus on is rebuilding the Pleasant Valley program from the beginning. It’s starting and implementing new things for the Bears.

“This is rebuild mode,” Depew said. “It’s going to start from the ground up. I’ve already developed a solid relationship with the youth coaches. I’ve talked with them. I got two great junior-high school coaches who are doing really great things for the junior high level. It’s a complete rebuild. I’ve got the seniors who are hungry for that and I wish I had more time with them, but they’re eager to be a part of that change.

“We’re putting a lot of new technique in and practices are a lot more difficult than they used to be. Conditioning’s tough and we want these kids ready to compete. As far as expectations, we don’t necessarily have any set goal, but our goal is every single match we’re going to compete and make teams not want to wrestle us next time. Whether we win or lose, our opponents are going to know that they wrestled Pleasant Valley.”