All sports ends come with an award ceremony. Many recieve local, state, or national titles which is a massive deal. Today we’re bringing it back to a hometown award that isn’t like the rest. Honeoye Falls-Lima Wrestling is proud to call it their own.
The Cougar Award is a 20 pound bronze cougar on top of a marble slab that costs about $250. It features an engraving of the members name and their records. When a senior is about to qualify for the trophy, the coaches will reach out to the establishment that makes the award.
It all started years ago when senior Anthonyn Noto was a 4x state champ for HFL’s wrestling team. Head coach Scott wanted to honor him with an award that celebrated his huge achievements during his time with the program, and the tradition continued with Noto’s younger brother Nick, along with Jazz, son of assistant coach Don Spaulding, only years later.
Now, senior Waylan Winseman is the fourth to receive it. There are no set qualifications for the award, but mainly having over 100-150 career wins, or any other huge accomplishments will automatically place you among the rest. In total Winseman has 167 points, 100 pins, is a a 2x NYS Place Finisher, and a 3x Section V Champion.
When reflecting on this Spaulding stated “It was a little emotional… I’ve coached Waylan since he was in kindergarten… whenever you give that award out knowing you’ve been coaching them for a long time its bittersweet…”.
Although Spaulding has only been coaching on varsity for 3 seasons now, he shows true admiration for these kids and puts an ample amount of spirit into furthering their careers. “We’re going to continue this award…it doesn’t mean we’ll give it out every year…” he remarks.
One cannot get this trophy for simply graduating through the program, rather its only awarded to seniors who have shown a high level achievement, whatever that qualification may be.
This is a prime example of athletic teams shwoing up for their team members in effort to celebrate them. I’m very excited to see what comes forth for the team next season as its confirmed that there will be another four seniors on the cusp of obtaining it.
