- February 19, 2026
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Felix Osuna-Cotto shifted his gaze toward the visiting team bleachers at Austin Smithers Stadium. For a moment, he looked hard at the empty area behind them, seeing opportunity.
The coach dreams of building a wrestling facility there — a place his athletes can call home. As it stands, there is no wrestling room on the campus of Cardinal Mooney Catholic High School.
On the afternoon of Feb. 11, his team was forced away from the mats, moving outside for practice. The main gym, secondary gym and other athletic rooms were filled with other sports.
It wasn’t the first time he got creative to hold practice. For a program that’s building from the ground up, such situations come with the territory.
Cardinal Mooney’s wrestling program is near the end of its second season of competition. The FHSAA Class 1A-District 11 individual bracketed tournament has already concluded, held Feb. 13 for girls and Feb. 18 for boys.
The Class 1A-Region 3 IBT is up next. It will be Feb. 21 at North Fort Myers High School for girls and Feb. 27-28 at Bayshore High School for boys.
Should any Cougars qualify for the state championship, they’ll be in action March 5-7 at Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee. And Osuna-Cotto believes more than one will.
“It’s possible, which would be a crazy story all in itself,” Osuna-Cotto said. “It’s your second year and you’re making it to states? That’s bananas. I’m very confident that’s going to happen.”
He served as an assistant under former coach Will Schenerlein, dean of students at Cardinal Mooney, for the team’s inaugural season in 2024-25. Now he sits in the driver’s seat.
The foundation those two laid has encouraged wrestlers to return while also attracting newcomers. There were 16 on the roster last season, per Osuna-Cotto, and 22 were listed at the beginning of this season.
To bring more attention to the program, he dug into his connections with other coaches around Sarasota and Manatee counties during the offseason. He was out and about spreading the word.
Osuna-Cotto paid particularly close attention to local youth camps during that time. It’s those settings where he hopes to develop future Cougars.
“We want to start these kids young and (have them) grow into it,” Osuna-Cotto said. “It’s super hard whenever they’re already this age. We can do it, but we want that foundation so we can just start running as soon as (they) get here.”
Luke Ladle wasn’t around for year one. The sophomore transferred from Sarasota, but has been wrestling since he was 5 years old — when his father put him in the sport to learn self-defense.
As a fresh face, he’s embraced what Cardinal Mooney is trying to build and has excelled on the mat accordingly. He’s accumulated a 25-4 record through Feb. 17 in the 120-pound weight class.
No Cougar owns more wins than him.
“I did some high school stuff over the offseason, but it just meant a lot that I could go to a good school with a nice program starting up,” Ladle said.
He’s one of the few who showed up to tryouts with genuine experience in tow. For the most part, this team is composed of first-time learners.
Osuna-Cotto welcomes anyone who has the willingness to get better. That’s his ultimate goal for everyone who dedicates themselves to the program.
There are challenges, though, that come with picking up this sport at the high school level. Immediate success is rare, but immediate failure is all too common.
“That’s a brutal thing for people to accept because they’re probably going to get their butts beat,” Osuna-Cotto said. “This is a super hard sport to start brand-new. It just is. Everybody has to go through that process of grinding and losing.”
Regardless of their skills, all members of the team were part of a major milestone. It occurred before the individual postseason even began.
Cardinal Mooney had its inaugural home meet Jan. 15 against Sarasota Military Academy, and as a team, earned a 39-16 victory. Without Blake Roulund, it might have never materialized.
He pushed hard for wrestling to become a varsity sport at the school. In the years leading up to Schenerlein’s founding of the program, Roulund approached him frequently, asking about what it would take to put together the first team in school history.
The senior now carries a 23-1 record in the 215-pound weight class, has the fewest losses of any Cougar and per Osuna-Cotto, is poised to qualify for states. Considering the sport’s individual nature, he sees an opportunity for newcomers to embrace the grind.
“I wouldn’t say there’s pride in being a new program,” Roulund said. “I would see there’s a pride in being a new wrestler and having to outwork everyone.”
In a few weeks’ time, the season will be over. Wrestlers might practice or compete during the offseason, but they won’t don their red, black and gold singlets when doing so.
Cardinal Mooney will shift the focus to year three, building on what it’s already established.
“This is a whole endeavor of discipline,” Osuna-Cotto said. “These kids are embracing it.”
