By Michael Letendre
After the scholastic wrestling season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic this past winter, Bristol Eastern high school wrestling coach Bryant Lishness made the toughest decision he could make.
And after 200-plus wins, three Class L championships and numerous individual and team awards, Lishness decided to hang up the clipboard.
With his son Mason attending Castleton University in Vermont in the fall, stepping down made sense and the Bristol Eastern wrestling program – for the first time since 2006-07 – will have a new coach at the helm.
“I want to have a chance to be a fan a little bit and watch [Mason] and head up to Castleton and watch the matches,” said Lishness. “I’ll do stuff with the club at some level. I’ll help out down at the Boys and Girls Club. I’ll help at down at Ascension [Wrestling Academy]. I’ll still be around the sport but as far as the commitment to be there all the time, it was just the right time [to step down].”
Lishness was a Judicial Employee for the State of Connecticut and retired from that the position last year which will clear him to travel to Vermont to see Mason compete whenever he hits the mats.
The longtime coach was disappointed there was not a season last year as Lishness saw a very special team forming at Eastern.
He knew that his 2020-21 squad could possibly win another Class L championship with a dozen or so seniors looking to win it all one more time.
He wanted his crew to go to the top of the mountain once more but in the end, with COVID cancelling the season, it was time to move on.
“I thought this might have been my last year, but I really wasn’t certain,” said Lishness. “But with COVID and retiring [from the state], I started to do some other things career wise with some friends. It’s the right time to transition.”
Eastern won three state titles from 2017-2019 and Lishness had a hand in the squad’s first title run in 1995-96 as a volunteer coach.
Lishness himself was a standout grappler for the Lancers’ program in the late 1980s and came back to coach – starting in 2006.
He had to replace one heck of a coach in the form of Jason Krueger who started at BEHS in 2000 and between all his stops, picked up 205 victories.
But Lishness didn’t miss a beat and the numbers he put up in terms of wins and losses at Bristol Eastern rivals some of the best efforts from the Nutmeg State.
Overall, in his 13 years as head coach of the Eastern program, Lishness went 216-42 (83.7 winning percentage) which does not include all the weekend tournaments the Lancers traveled to – winning several of those bouts along the way.
His near 84 winning percentage is the 13th best mark in state history.
In CCC South meets, the Lancers loss just five of those challenges under his watch.
Since 2010, Eastern was the CCC South Champions in all but 2015-16 when the Lancers were the runner-up of the league as Middletown snuck out the championship.
If you really put his record to the test, starting in 2009-10, Eastern has gone 183-25 overall and 64-2 in CCC South entanglements.
Over the last four years of competition, Eastern has lost just two regular season meets and was perfect in CCC South competition.
Again, when you’ve won 216 of 258 meets, what more can you ask for?
We’ll have part two of our conversation with Lishness in next Sunday’s edition.
