Eastern North Carolina is a region that takes great pride in its high school athletics. Baseball, basketball and football are known to draw dozens, hundreds and maybe, in some cases, even thousands of fans on any given day.

The popularity of certain nonrevenue sports varies greatly from region to region. Here, it’s softball. In the Northwest, it’s soccer. In the Northeast, it’s wrestling and lacrosse, two sports that have yet to really catch on in this state.

Out of the three public high schools in Beaufort County, only one houses a wrestling program — Washington, which has actually pieced together a relatively successful history on the mats. Russ Chesson was a three-time state champion from 1995-’97, while Larry Harris won state titles in 1987 and 1988. More recently, Justin Moore joined Chesson and Harris in 2010 by winning the 3-A state championship at 171 pounds. And in the ‘80s, conference championships were hardly foreign to the program. But after the 1986 season, Washington continued to pump out state qualifying wrestlers, but continuously fell short of a conference championship. That is, until this season.

Last weekend at the Eastern Plains Conference Duals, Washington posted a 4-0 record, improving their overall record to 27-1, and locking up the team’s first conference championship in 29 years.

What makes the feat even more notable is the demographic of players who make up the team. There are no stars or standout state champion wrestlers. The Pam Pack consists of mostly freshmen and sophomores with just a few upperclassmen sprinkled in. In a sport where size and experience go hand-in-hand, the success of such a young roster is almost unheard of.

Washington is also succeeding without last season’s top two senior wrestlers, Thomas Remick and Devon Van Cura, who made it to the 2-A state championship in the 126-pound weight class his senior year.

Wrestling isn’t a sport that traditionally draws large fan bases, but the dual meets in Washington have had noteworthy turnouts. Let’s give the Pam Pack wrestling team and head coach Chris Penhollow a round of applause for not only succeeding in the regular season, but also rekindling the on-the-mat reputation of one of Washington’s most historic nonrevenue sports.