Ocean Springs has built Mississippi’s first wrestling dynasty on pride & competition

Jay Snow is humble.

The Ocean Springs High School wrestling coach is acutely aware of everyone and everything that has helped lead his program to where it is today.

Long trips to Florida, Alabama and Louisiana, colleagues crisscrossing Mississippi with a sales pitch, and students dedicated to creating a standard while practicing out of a dimly lit, off-campus gym.

As eager as Snow is to distribute credit, there’s no mistaking what the Greyhounds have done: winning three dual state championships in three years and building the first wrestling dynasty in the state.

“We’ve marked our place in history,” senior Gabe Shanks told the Sun Herald. “Just putting our mark on the school and showing out for our school, it’s great.”

It’s a reality made possible by a sharp uptick in interest in the sport around the state and subsequent increase in competitive matches.

At the center of it all are the boys and girls hitting the mat in blue and white uniforms and dominating a scene they played a pivotal role in setting.

“We can really take a lot of pride in it,” senior Trent Schlosberg said of his team’s accomplishments.

Snow’s work behind the scenes in holding the program together and taking his teams to face strong competition in nearby states over the 11 years he’s been at the helm has culminated in the Greyhounds dominating wrestling in its infancy within Mississippi.

“We had a jump start on everybody else,” Snow said. “We were wrestling Alabama, Louisiana, so we were getting tough competition.”

Wrestling’s growth spurt

The Mississippi School for the Blind began a wrestling program in 1974. It was the only such program in the state for decades.

During the late 2000s, Ocean Springs started its wrestling team and the two schools existed alone within Mississippi for just over a decade.

Snow and Cody Solari then began the Mississippi Wrestling Foundation and joined forces with Brian Fox from Tupelo. Solari and Fox then traveled around the state, pitching wrestling to schools and offering to pay to supply a mat to any school who would add the sport.

“That’s really what jump-started it,” Snow said.

Schools across the state, and particularly on the Coast, hopped on board. During the 2020-21 school year, Mississippi became the 50th state in the country to play a full high school wrestling season.

Snow had been taking his team on trips out of state before competition began sprouting up. Vancleave, East Central, St. Martin, St. Patrick and Picayune all began wrestling programs in the area.

This was a key moment for Snow’s program, which had survived a previous attempt by school administration to knock wrestling down to club level.

“I didn’t want to make wrestling smaller in the state, I wanted to make it bigger,” Snow said.

Snow’s dream is becoming a reality. Not only are there six wrestling programs on the Coast, there’s even a budding rivalry. Vancleave is led by former OSHS coach David Sutherland and has several former Greyhounds on the roster.

The Bulldogs dominated in individual championships a year ago, but the Greyhounds controlled the series this season and defeated VHS in the final round of the dual state meet on Feb. 3.

“It’s helped us a lot, just having (competition) in the state,” Shanks said. “We only had, like, seven or eight meets each year. Now we’re getting 20, 30 meets. ... You can easily get over 100 matches in a year doing that. That’s just a ton of experience, especially wrestling tough competition like Vancleave.”

Impact of wrestling

Shanks has an opportunity ahead of him that wouldn’t have happened without the opportunity to wrestle. Shanks committed to Gannon University in January and will put pen to paper to the official beginning of his collegiate wrestling career in April.

Wrestling has opened up a new postgraduate avenue for the students at OSHS, and Snow’s athletes are beginning to take advantage.

“We have a lot to thank for the coaches in Mississippi,” Shanks said. “Our former coach (Sutherland) helped me a lot with getting colleges and kind of just getting the spotlight on Mississippi.”

Snow said Schlosberg — who hasn’t lost a single match this season — and Lucas Hall are both considering wrestling at the next level, as well.

Ocean Springs also has a girls side that is growing and opening opportunities. Several Greyhounds were a part of the girls South All-Stars in its win over the North during state championship competitions.

The next-level opportunities and potential for competition for both boys and girls wrestling in the state has a growing ceiling, according to those involves.

“It’s just going to keep on growing,” Schlosberg said. “Other schools are finally going to recognize that wrestling is here to stay and more people are just going to keep on joining. I hope it really becomes a bigger thing for everyone in the state of Mississippi.”