Last season, Troy Newhard put his name in Emmaus High School record books, becoming the first Emmaus wrestler to win back-to-back District 11 championships. This season, Newhard is gone, but the expectations remain high for a team that went 15-7 last season and has a lot of returning wrestlers on their squad.

Besides the graduation of Newhard (33-4), the only loss is Andrew Dunn (22-14), who transferred to Bethlehem Catholic. Dunn, wrestled at 170 and made it to the second round of the District 11 tournament.

With only those two holes to fill, Emmaus is seemingly in a pretty good spot coming into the 2012-13 season. Tentatively, senior Mike Montgomery is set to take over Newhard's spot at 195, but there isn't a clear choice for the 170-pound spot.

This season, seniors will dot the weight classes for Emmaus. In addition to Montgomery at 195, seniors are penciled in with Gordon Daichendt (152 pounds), Jansen Grabowski (145 pounds), Jacob Younger (132 pounds) and Chris Ramunni (119 pounds).

One of the highest hopefuls for Emmaus is at 182 pounds where sophomore Thomas Alcaro, is being counted on to build on his impressive freshman season that saw him take fourth place in the District 11 tournament.

Head coach Jeff Arbushites enters his 10th season as the Emmaus coach and thinks his team is set up for success, but he's diluting his predictions with a touch of reality.

"We're going to be a good team, but there are a lot of good teams in the LVC," said Arbushites. "What we won't be is a team that's going to just blow people away. We're going to have to fight to get our wins this season."

Last season, three teams Bethlehem Catholic (8-0), Easton (7-1) and Parkland (7-1) dominated the Lehigh Valley Conference, with Emmaus finishing at 4-4 in the league. This season, Emmaus hopes to close the gap, but the three teams above them last year figure to be almost as good as they were last season, leaving the LVC to be a tough battleground for the Hornets.

The season opens Saturday when Emmaus competes in the Saucon Valley Invitational before its jumps into LVC competition next Wednesday hosting Freedom. The Patriots were 2-6 in the LVC and 13-12 overall last season and should provide Emmaus with an early barometer of where it stands among conference competitors. The Hornets don't face Becahi this season, but they do host Easton on December 19 and make a trip to Parkland to close out the regular season on January 30.