It is time to separate the men from the boys as the Eastern wrestlers gear up for competition this season under the guidance of head wrestling coach Ralph McCausland.

The Panthers will be making their debut this season at the Eastern Michigan Open this weekend where they will test the endurance and strength of their team.

After having a sub par record last year during an injury-ridden season, McCausland is pumped and ready for this season to begin.

“We have a pretty heavy lineup,” McCausland said. “Injuries played a significant role last year. As long as we keep from getting nagging injuries, we will be in good shape.”

The Panther roster consists of four seniors, three juniors and 22 freshmen and sophomores. The team has lost just a handful of grapplers from last season.

“Hopefully, nothing will have to change this year,” McCausland said. “With injuries last year, we had no choice. This year, we have a lot of strong guys. Senior Kyle Bracey is back and healthy this season, as is Joe Gleissner.”

With the risk of injury haunting the team from last year, McCausland has changed some of his training regimen to help insure his wrestlers will remain injury-free.

“We’ve changed training strategy,” McCausland said. “After last year’s knee injuries and operations, we formatted differently and it has shown a positive affect.”

With many returning wrestlers to the roster and the addition of a few new faces, McCausland is confident in the leaders of the team to help draw out the skills of the other younger wrestlers.

“Last year was a transition year,” McCausland said. “We were missing leadership more last year than anything, but now there is Kyle Bracey and Frank DeFilippis who know, and Louis Taylor who made it to nationals last year.

“They have developed good leadership skills, and the rest of the guys are looking solid.”

The Panthers will be competing in the Eastern Michigan Open this weekend to get a feel for what the rest of the season will have in store.

“This group has three tournaments in a row,” McCausland said. “We are bringing the majority, so this will be a good tournament.

“We are hoping the young guys will have a good tournament. That will be a real pump and that is what we are counting on. Some of these guys can come out of these tournaments wrestling 15 to 16 matches.”

The competition this year will be formidable for the Panthers, but McCausland will be able to get a feel for the duals that lie ahead for Eastern.

“There will be some great competition this year,” McCausland said. “It is more individual at this junction. Frank Defilippis has to wrestle five out of the 10 best in the country this season.

“This tournament will show me how things will layout.”