GOSHEN — Wrestling at Goshen High School is set to observe its golden anniversary when the 2012-13 season dawns.

Hard to believe, but it will be the 50th season for a Redskin sport which made its debut during the 1963-64 school year.

The late Joe Springer, also football coach at the time, was the first Redskin wrestling coach and Norm Shires was his assistant.

The first Goshen wrestling team made its debut with a 36-16 victory over Concord and finished the season with a 3-2-1 record.

Jim Johnson had a 7-0 record for the Redskins in that inaugural campaign on the mat and Jim LeCount was 6-0.

Jim Dye, Jim Dunn, Phil Blosser, Terry McAdam and Paul Erst were among others with winning records.

Home wrestling meets that first year were held in the swimming pool observation room, which is now a weight-training facility on the upper deck of the gymnasium.

Bob Hepler, late Goshen attorney and Big 10 football official (he was umpire for the infamous 1966 Notre Dame and Michigan State 10-10 tie), was referee for some of those early contests.

Springer coached Redskin wrestling four seasons, John Hemphill one and Bill Doba three.

John Dechant took over the program in 1971 and would post more than 200 victories in a 20-year career.

Mark Fioritto was head coach two years and Jim Pickard became head coach in 1993. Still coaching today, Pickard has now piled up more than 300 career victories.

Dechant is already a member of the Elkhart County Sports Hall of Fame and, certainly, Pickard deserves that honor some day.

Keith Simons became Goshen’s first sectional wrestling champion in 1965 while among other standouts in the late 1960s were Floyd Trosper, Bill Schroeder, Randy J. Miller, Rick Comstock, Jon Blosser, Doug Lung and Danny Cox.

Dale Hershberger was a sectional champion in 1970 and finished his career with a 54-7 record.

Robin Hanson became the Redskins’ first regional champion in 1972 while Tom Ernsberger, George Pestow, Rick Holderread and Mike Miller were individual sectional winners in 1974 when Goshen landed its first team title.

Pestow was third in the state at 138 pounds in 1976 with Mike Bryant and Dave Edlund also capturing semistate championships.

Bryant became a three-time state finalist in 1976, placing third at 112 pounds. He finished the season with a 22-1 record and his career at 70-16.

Edlund, a senior in 1978, became the only Goshen wrestler to win a state championship. He defeated Chris Mahlan of Bellmont, 12-4, in the 185-pound finale after losing twice to Mahlan earlier in the season. Edlund was 30-2 that winter and 78-17 in his Redskin career.

The 1979-80 Goshen team finished the regular season undefeated with Tim Gardner notching 22 wins and regional champion Dave Chupp 20.

Heavyweight Brian Hershberger was fourth in the 1994 state finals; Andrew Yoder fourth in the state at 140 pounds in 1998; Gerardo Quiroz second in the state at 103 pounds in 2000; and 2004 graduate Joe Piwoszkin was a three-time state finalist, placing third at 215 pounds as a senior and posting a 138-17 career record.

Among other Redskins placing at the state finals were Jim Bechler, Jim Hoke, Shannon Hunter, Miguel Navarro and Ben Schrock.

Andrew Yoder was 156-36 for the Redskins to set a GHS career record for wins and so are his 98 pins.

Tom Skinner had 46 wins in the 2002-03 season and also set a program record with 208 takedowns. Piwoszkin had 37 pins in 2003-04 and the fastest pin ever by a Redskin was seven seconds by Roy Shively in 1984.

Redskin wrestling has produced five Northern Lakes and 11 sectional championships. The most team wins in a season was 22 in 1998-99.

Current GHS seniors Austin Maynard, Ryan Ntende and Brandon Daniels are headed to a semistate Saturday in Fort Wayne, trying to add more laurels to what has been one of the school’s more successful programs.