G-C wrestler aims for state championship

GREENFIELD — If Josh Holden has his way, Josh Farrell will leave Bankers Life Fieldhouse late Saturday night with two titles: a 152-pound wrestling state championship and the Ward E. Brown Mental Attitude Award.

Ranked No. 2 in the state and undefeated (44-0), Farrell, a Greenfield-Central senior, is one of the favorites to earn his weight class championship by winning four straight matches in downtown Indianapolis this weekend.

The IHSAA wrestling state finals begin Friday with the first round, with winners advancing to Saturday’s quarterfinals, semifinals, wrestle-backs and championships.

As for the Mental Attitude Award, Holden, the Cougars’ head coach —biased as he may be — believes Farrell has already done enough to deserve the honor, which is presented annually to only one State Finals wrestler for exemplary leadership, scholarship and ability.

“When I wrote the nomination letter, one of the things I included was that, on the day his father died, Josh was more worried about consoling everyone else than he was about himself,” Holden said of Farrell, whose dad, Duffy, passed away following a motorcycle accident the summer before Farrell’s junior season. “That’s just way he is. He’s very conscientious of other people and their feelings. He wants to do right by other people. He wants people to look at him as, not only a good wrestler, but as a young man with character and good sportsmanship.

“The fact that those things matter to him, it says a lot about him, in my opinion.”

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