Tift County Wrestling brings prominent Lowndes/Tift wrestling alumni back home to coach South Ga All-Star camp

Domonic DiTomasso (Lowndes alumnus), Quen Campbell and Quay Goldsborough (Tift Alumni) coach Tift wrestling camp.

TIFTON, GA- Last week, CBS 44 stopped in “T-Town” for the second day of Tift County Wrestling’s 2023 South Ga All-Star wrestling camp.

“We want South Georgia wrestling to explode,” said varsity Assistant Coach, Billy King. “So, we open our camps up to everybody. We started off with beginners’ fundamentals camp. They just work on take down shots, different types of finishers, you know, it’s a different variety of things they work on.

Day one (Thursday, June 8) was the beginner’s camp. Day two and three were for more advanced wrestlers.

This year, the program brought back three prominent 229 wrestling alumni and current collegiate wrestlers as camp coaches.

Tift wrestling alumni Quentrevion “Quen” Campbell (Chadron State College; 2023 DII All-American, National Champion runner-up, 2016 GHSA 6A State runner-up), Quay Goldsborough (Life University, R-Fr) and Lowndes Wrestling alumnus, Dominic “Dom” DiTomasso (University of Tennessee at Chatanooga R-Fr; 2020 GHSA 7A State runner-up, 2021 GHSA 7A State 3rd place).

“It’s cool to be back here helping out the community and giving back, hoping to have some of these kids doing what I’m doing in a couple of years,” said DiTomasso.

The current redshirt freshman for UT-Chatanooga specialized in “free style” wrestling on day 3 of camp. However, he says the biggest lesson he wants to teach campers is actually, less physical.

“Just discipline and staying in the sport no matter how hard it gets. The technique comes, you’re going to learn that, but one of the things you can’t teach is heart and just trying to implement that in the kids is what is going to get them to the next level.”

King says Tift Wrestling plans to bring back locally based, 229 raised talents as coaches or mentors for all future camps and learning events.

“It is so important for kids to learn from local talent and athletes that were once in their shoes because it gives them something to relate and look-up to. The kids will learn from some of South Georgia’s best. The reason why these guys are in college is because they’re finishers, they’ve made it, and that’s what it takes to win. Finishing shots, being aggressive, being tough on top and willing to fight to get off bottom and these guys not only bring those techniques, but they bring that mindset, and that’s what we are shooting for,” King explained.

DiTomasso wrestled for 6 years before signing with UTC in November of 2021. DiTomasso ultimately chose UT-Chattanooga over other Division I offers from Davidson, Kent State, Rutgers and other programs in Georgia.

During his high school career at Lowndes, he placed 2nd at the 7A GHSA folkstyle state championship as a sophomore and 3rd as a junior. Unfortunately, did not compete in the state meet his senior year due to injury.

However, in USA wrestling, DiTomasso was a multiple time Greco 4x State placer and 2x GA Greco State Champ his junior and senior year (prior to injury). He was also a multiple time USA wrestling GA freestyle state placer all four years of high school.

As for his collegiate journey, he just wrapped up season number one as a redshirt freshman for the Mockingbird’s.

“I’m hoping this next season I get to see some more starting time and get to make a name for myself. It’s still technically my first year since I redshirted last year, so I’m hoping to make some good things happen,” DiTomasso explained.

Campers also had the chance to learn from two Tift County Wrestling alumni Quen Campbell and Quay Goldsborough.

Goldsborough wrestled for the Blue Devil varsity team throughout high school and signed with Life University in 2021 where he redshirted his freshman year.

Since graduated from Tift, Quen Campbell has made a name for himself in Division II wrestling. As a Blue Devil, her placed 2nd at 132 pounds in 2016. Initially, Campbell signed with Brewton-Parker, where he made All-American at the 2017 NAIA tournament.

At North Iowa Area Community College, Campbell was All-America honorable mention in the 2022 NJCCA national championship, placing 5th. He is now at Chadron State College in Chadron, Nebraska where he had an incredible season this past year.

Campbell finished his first year in an Eagle uniform with “perhaps the best season in CSC Wrestling History without winning a national championship,” according to their Head Coach, Brett Hunter.

This season he was national runner-up with a 20-2 record, entering the Division II National Wrestling Tournament as the No. 1 seed. The two losses in his record were in the national championship and against D1 opponents. Campbell was the first number one ranked wrestler at the NCAA Tournament in CSC history, Super Region Champion and All-RMAC First Team.

Campbell recorded 40 takedowns, 20 escapes and 15 near falls and also had four reversals while winning two of his matches by pin and major decision and one by tech fall.

King says it was important for them to ask Campbell if he would return to his roots due to his phenomenal track record, but also to show young wrestlers it is possible to have a successful wrestling career as a 229 product, where wrestling is often overlooked.

“Quen is homegrown and a lot of these kids have known him for years. For him to be a number one ranked wrestler and national champion finalist, that’s big for Tift County and these boys because when he is off, he does come around and help out these young men a lot. It’s big for South Georgia wrestling. I mean we have a lot of big wrestling going to big colleges and these young kids need to see that. They need to see it is possible to reach their goals and achieve their wrestling dreams in South Georgia even though the sport doesn’t receive as much recognition or attention as other prominent sports,” said King.

You can keep up with all-things Tift County Wrestling by following their Facebook page.