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The Floyd County High School wrestling team sprawled out on nine practice circles in the school's cafeteria.

Head coach Justin Burcham surveyed the 11 wrestlers, making sure everyone understood the motto this week: Learn the basics.

"Did you smash his head?" he asked Max Lander, a junior on the team.

Lander pulled down Tyler Beckner to the mat instead of snapping him to the floor.

"It was a basic mistake," Lander said. "A beginner's mistake."

Lander knew this. But it's still early in the season. That's when basics are mastered and remembered. "Even some of the more advanced make those mistakes," he said.

Lander is one of the top wrestlers on the team, finishing second in the district and region meet last season in the 140-pound weight class. He took sixth at state. His goals this year are simple. "First district, first region, first state," he said.

So far, Lander's record is 8-0 this season, winning five of those matches Saturday at the Knights of the Roundtable Tournament at Cave Spring High School.

It's a great personal showing. But Burcham, who is in his first year as head coach, wants to take Lander's wins and count them alongside the rest of the team. The Buffaloes were 0-5 as a team at the Cave Spring tournament.

"It's not really been done before but we're working on pushing the team as well as having individual performances," Burcham said about the Buffaloes. "We want at least six to go to state. We feel if we reach that goal the team goal will fall into place."

Five wrestlers advanced to the state meet last season, including Lorenzo Rios, the Group A state champion at 119 pounds, who graduated last June. The team is in a "transitional period," Burcham said, after the former head coach, Danny Thomas, took a job as assistant coach of wrestling at Staunton River High School.

"We have different terminology," Burcham said about the wrestlers and the coaches. "We're figuring out each other. We may say one thing and someone else may have heard a different thing."

Ten of the wrestlers are new to the team. Burcham's goals this year are to teach the basics, recruit heavily in the lighter weight categories and win as a team.

One of the Buffaloes' problems this season is recruiting wrestlers in the 119 and lower weight categories. It's usually a ninth- and 10th-grade position, before wrestlers grow and compete in higher weight categories.

"We have 10 new wrestlers and none are in that weight range," Burcham said. He's hoping one of the girls, sophomore Kaylynn Brennan, could move into the 119 weight category. She's been competing at 125 this year.

Burcham's hoping Brennan will follow in the footsteps of teammate Shannon McDonald.

Near the end of a recent practice, Burcham and assistant coach Mike Murphy gathered the wrestlers into a circle to talk about last week's meet at Cave Spring.

He talked about their performances and asked them to put their hearts into the matches, always staying focused and only thinking about the wrestler in front of them.

Then, he took a knee and talked about McDonald.

"She was 0-4 going into the last match of the day," Burcham said. "And she looked like she hadn't lost a match.

"It's tough for a guy to be pinned by a girl, but she didn't see it like that."

He wanted the team to understand. To focus. To win. As a team.

It's Burcham's motto this season.