With a new season comes a new coach and a new philosophy for the Oak Harbor wrestling team.

Mike Crebbin grabs the reins this season, taking over for Brian Farmer who retired after eight years as the Wildcat head coach.

Crebbin served as an assistant under Farmer for two years and was head coach at South Whidbey High School from 1996 to 2002.

He said a major focus he will bring to the mat this season falls on the mental aspect of wrestling.

“We focus on what you did and what you can do better,” Crebbin said. “One of our goals is victory, but that’s not our only goal.”

In his first year as head coach Crebbin gets a solid core of returners.

Leading the way is senior Jeff Lang, who is the only returner to participate in the 2005 state tournament. Senior Sean O’Brien, also a state competitor, will have to sit out his final year because of a knee injury suffered in football.

Oak Harbor also brings back seniors Mark Radach, Rob Lemme, David Marriott and Josh Stratton — all varsity wrestlers in 2004-05.

Other non-senior varsity returners include: junior David Wasickanin, junior Miles Hartt, junior Daniel Varn, junior Andrew Renninger and junior Matt Johnston.

Crebbin expects more wrestlers to make an impact, but many have not shown up yet because they are on the Oak Harbor football team which was in the state playoffs as of this week.

“The confidence those guys building right now is going to be a great thing for the wrestling team,” Crebbin said.

A group that did show during the first week of practice, however, were the freshmen. Over 20 arrived on the first day — more than Crebbin has ever seen in the past.

“A lot of that has to do with a successful youth program,” he said.

Some of those freshmen will be asked to fill in quickly, in particular at the lower weights where Oak Harbor sometimes wrestled without an athlete last season.

“That will be big,” Crebbin said. “Especially in WesCo wrestling, you don’t want to give up six points.”

Although many wrestler have an idea what weight they would like to wrestle at Crebbin has yet to set anything in stone.

“That’s the one part of wrestling I don’t like is the weight,” he said. “I haven’t even taken the scales out yet.

I don’t want guys to think that’s the most important part of wrestling.”

As for competition around the league, the WesCo North will be tough as always.

Lake Stevens and Stanwood bring back the most team experience and are expected to vie for the league title.

Crebbin thinks Oak Harbor, which finished 1-7 in league duals and 2-8 overall last year, will be right in the mix when it’s all said and done.

“I don’t see us being at the bottom,” he said. “We’ll be right in the middle of the pack fighting it out.”