Missouri Military Academy wrestling has a ton of experience coming back this season.

The Colonels have a roster of 54 kids, with 20 of them being returning wrestlers from last year.

Mexico High School graduate and former Mexico coach Levi Iman goes into his first year as head coach at MMA after being promoted from his assistant position and coaching at MMA since 2019. Iman is a former wrestler and football player that wrestled at the collegiate level with St. Louis Community College-Meramec. Iman has coached wrestling and football at Mexico Middle School, Mexico Youth Wrestling and has some football coaching experience with the Optimists club before being an assistant football coach with the Colonels this year.

“After I got done in college, I came back to Mexico and coached over at Mexico – football and wrestling a little bit – and then I got the bug again,” Iman said. “I went out on my own and wrestled a few more years, picking up any sort of competition I could. Four years ago, I got a call from (former head coach and current assistant) Tom Allen over at MMA when he was taken on as a head coach, and he was wanting me to come over and help out.”

Iman is happy to inherit a roster with so much experience even after losing a couple seniors, like 30-win wrestler Bryson Powell.

“We have a good group of sophomores that are coming back so that’s got us excited for the next few years,” Iman said.

Of course, MMA has some potential for success this year with even some of the newcomers to the academy bringing previous wrestling experience. The Colonels are coming off a season where they set the school record for dual victories with 17.

Several returners had a part in that accomplishment, including a strong group of sophomores Sam Stevens at the 132-pound weight class, Trae Griffiths at 144 and Evan Corley at 175. Griffiths was a Greater Missouri Conference champion a year ago and Stevens was second at conference, and both were two of the seven Colonels who were 20-match winners last year.

Junior Ryan Miles at 150 was a 20-match winner and will be a team captain this season along with juniors Adam Swenson at 190 and Michael Pfeifer at 138.

“We’re going to perform really well in the middle of the weight classes on the lighter ends,” Iman said. “On the light end and heavy end, it’s going to be young guys filling those roles for us.”

Iman said he would like to see a full 14-kid varsity lineup that contains two or three 30-win wrestlers and eight with at least 20 wins.

“We’re working on building that foundation for the team and working on team success,” Iman said. “This year, we’re going to start looking at those individuals that have experienced a lot of team success. Now, we’ll want to start building up these individuals so we have some guys you can build the team around.”

MMA started its season Monday in a Fulton tri meet against the Hornets and Eldon before it wrestles in a Borgia quad in Washington today and a Thursday quad in Wright City.