Alpena football coach Aaron Sims took the job back in August, but stepped down in the middle of October leaving a head coaching vacancy.

With two weeks before practices started, previous head coach Matt Hepburn was approached and offered the position and with such short time before the season started, Hepburn was given a choice to coach and if he didn’t accept the position, the program would have likely been dropped.

Hepburn, a former Wildcat wrestler, wasn’t going to let that happen and despite a busy schedule, the passion for the sport and love he has for the school meant more to him than not seeing a wrestling program at Alpena, so Hepburn returned to coach the team for the 2018-19 season.

“I wasn’t fully prepared to come back, but it’s like riding a bike and I decided to get back into it. I have a lot on my plate, but it is what it is and I wanted to do it,” Hepburn said. “I love it and did miss it, so the reward outweighs everything else.”

News File Photo Alpena senior 215-pounder Wyatt Romero, right, wrestles an opponent from Gaylord.

The Wildcats are low on numbers and lack experience, but still possess some talent on the mats.

Senior Noah Connon is back and will look to build off an impressive season a year ago. Connon was a regional qualifier last year in the heavyweight class and has the goal of placing at states this year. Junior Matthew Barrett also has potential to do big things this season for the Wildcats.

With only 11 wrestlers on the roster, Alpena has just two seniors in Connon and Dominique Agar.

Junior Wyatt Romero returns and will be relied heavily upon to score big for the Wildcats, along with freshman Mason Bray who despite only has one year of wrestling under his belt has already showed improvement and is developing quickly.

Juniors Aiden Chism and Heidi Garant, along with freshman Riley Justice, Cameron Kubbe, Sethan Pierce and Eduardo Spressao make up the rest of Alpena’s roster.

“The familiarity between the kids and myself helps a lot. We do have a handful of freshman that I have had the opportunity to work with at the junior high level and obviously the returners I’m familiar with,” Hepburn said. “Everyone here knows what to expect from me and how hard wrestling is and how hard I’m going to push them to be better. Everyone understands that, along with the grades as well, I hold them to a higher standard than what some other teams do so despite low numbers and the fact we don’t have much experience, my expectations for these kids still remain the same.”

With the low numbers it is going to be challenging for Alpena to win team events, but the team still has potential to win in the weight classes that they do have.

This is Hepburn’s fourth year and might be his most challenging to date, but the goals and expectations for this group of Wildcat wrestlers are still high.

“I’ve been here for four years now and I’ve watched these kids grow over the past few years and I wasn’t going to let the program drop. I’m going to make sure these kids have the opportunity to compete. They put in the hard work and they deserve to be here,” Hepburn said. “It’s a blessing to be able to coach at a place where I wrestled. I get to keep on working in the school that I had the opportunity to compete for and have the opportunity to come here and coach these kids as they compete and represent the Alpena Wildcats. It gives me an opportunity to teach them the same things that I was taught and that is special.”

Alpena will wrestle in Oscoda on Saturday and at Rogers City and Caro next week. The Wildcats’ only home meet of the season will be their annual Alpena Quad in January.