By STEPHEN GLOVER

For the Call

If there are two things anyone needs to know about this year’s wrestling team at Lindbergh High School, it would have to be tradition and depth.

The tradition stems back to the past 11 successful seasons. The depth is the abundance of raw Flyer talent.

The Flyers have tallied a winning record 11 straight years and have had a state medalist the past 10 years. They’ve also won a district or Suburban West Confer-ence championship the past five years.

Flyers head coach Tom Gose knows his troops have their work cut out for them with a tough schedule and a realignment of the Suburban West Conference, which now includes powerhouses Oakville and North-west. But Gose believes his team is as tough as ever and was impressed with Lind-bergh’s performance at the Disney Duals in Orlando, Fla., last summer.

“We’ve got two kids back that were at state before, but to be honest, this is the deepest team that I’ve had,” Gose said. “I think that we’ll be able to fly under the radar and surprise some teams.”

Gose has several successful grapplers re-turning to this year’s team.

Senior Jeff Streibig placed fourth last season at the state championships in the 130-pound weight class.

“Jeff is our highest returning finisher at state last year,” Gose said. “He’s very talented and we expect a great season out of him.”

Two-time varsity letter winner Nick Stinebrook returns to wrestle in the 125-pound class.

“Nick’s an excellent athlete who won about 15 matches last year,” Gose said. “I think that he’s going to be able to put it all together this year.”

The 152-pound weight category will see senior Greg Feilner.

“Greg was a state qualifier as a freshman at 119,” Gose said. “He’s a hard working kid and went to a camp in Arizona after the Disney Duals. We think he’ll have an outstanding year.”

Senior Ben Lachmann returns to the Flyers at 160 pounds after racking up 20 wins as a junior.

“Ben is a very gifted athlete who had 20 wins as a junior,” Gose said. “For years I’ve been saying that he’s been our best athlete on the team.”

Senior Chris Tulk is slated to wrestle at 215 pounds after winning the junior varsity Most Valuable Wrestler award last season.

“Chris has really worked his way up the ranks after being the junior varsity MVP last year,” Gose said.

At the heavyweight division for Lindbergh will be senior Matt Lyons, who’s on his third season with the varsity squad.

“Matt’s on his third year with the varsity team,” Gose said. “He’s another guy who had a winning record this summer at Disney.”

The Flyers are scheduled to wrestle in the Parkway South Invitational this Friday evening and Saturday afternoon.