Rocket wrestling booster:

It didn’t take long for an addition to the Cedar Grove-Belgium High School wrestling room to start working its magic.

A board with the names of the best wrestlers in the history of the program quickly caught the eyes of current Rocket mat men.

“Plenty of kids in the first week said that their names are going on the board. That’s what we hope to do,” coach Trevor Peterson said.

Among the honorees on the board are the top five in career wins, state qualifiers and their places, those with 100 or more victories and those with the most pins in a season and their careers.

“It’s pretty big,” Peterson said, referencing the Rockets’ rich wrestling history.

Some current wrestlers recognized some of the names.

“They kind of laughed to see their dads’ names up there,” Peterson said.

Peterson is not only familiar with the Rockets’ wrestling legacy; he’s part of it. Peterson took fifth in state at 145 pounds in 2000 and his name is accordingly on the board.

His father Gerry was his coach. He led the Rockets from 1982 to 2000 and ended his career with a 194-80-3 dual meet record and four Central Lakeshore Conference titles. He coached 39 state medalists, four of whom won state titles. Champions include Eric Justus, who went 33-0 at 107 pounds in 1988 and went 31-0 in 1991 at 152 pounds; Scott Watry, who went 37-0 at 160 pounds in 1991; and Kurt Mattek, who went 29-1 at 115 pounds in 1996.

Trevor served assistant coach for four years under Kent Weiler before taking over as head coach. He has coached one state champion so far. Junior Cael Erickson went 17-0 this season and won the Division 3 title at 145 pounds.

Without the Covid-19 pandemic that caused most regular season tournaments to be canceled, Erickson would be on pace to be at the top of most career categories in the Rockets’ wrestling program by the time he graduates next year.

The Booster Club paid for the board and a host of volunteers helped build it.

Gerry was inducted into the George Martin Wrestling Hall of Fame ­— Wisconsin Chapter in 2010, and he is still helping the program out today.

He is going through stacks of VHS tapes at his home and converting everything to a cloud-based system. Some tapes date back to 1977 and are in black and white, Trevor said.

The online format of the footage will be similar to YouTube.

“Parents can show their kids some of the old-school matches,” Trevor said.