By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

St. Cloud and Harmony will host holiday wrestling tournaments drawing large fields this weekend.

County teams Poinciana, Gateway and Celebration will be among the 32-team field at St. Cloud High's Bulldog Brawl, a 32-team bracket tournament that includes West Virginia wrestling power Parkersburg South High.

The tournament begins Friday at 3 p.m. and concludes with two sessions Saturday at 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Admission is $5 per session.

A junior varsity tournament will run concurrently in the cafeteria.

Bulldogs Coach Matt Milton hopes his team will be healthier for the Brawl after two Bulldogs were injured at the Danny Byron Duals.

“We were already giving up two weight classes, so on Saturday we were down 24 points before the match started,” Milton said. “That's a lot to overcome. We lost three matches by three points or less, so in that sense we didn't have a very good tournament. But, our kids wrestled hard, we just need to do a little better job of winning those keymatches.”

St. Cloud beat Countryside twice at the Byron Duals.

Milton, the school’s athletic director, said he should have more time to work with the team after hiring Brad Lennox to be the school’s football coach Monday.

“(The interview process) has taken away some of my time with the kids,” he said.

Harmony High will hold its 16-team Longhorn Christmas Tournament presented by the U.S. Marines Friday (3 p.m.) and Saturday (9:30 a.m.).

The duals event features teams from Seminole, Belleview, Pinellas Osceola, Gainesville, Lake Nona, Orange Park, Palm Harbor, Viera, Dunnellon, Pine Ridge, Oviedo, Villages, Jacksonville Terry Parker, Cypress Creek and Space Coast.

The championship session Saturday begins at 6:30 p.m. Admission is $5 per day.

The Longhorns competed at Brandon's Graves Invitational last weekend, where Tanner Williams (220) finished sixth against a field composed of the state’s best.

"Overall, I think it was a positive experience for the kids," Horns Coach Chris Todd said.