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Senior Andrew Steedman (right) is one of nine returning starters for UA, which opened by finishing third at its home Lee Spitzer Golden Bear Invitational on Dec. 3. Buy This Photo

Matt Stout had plenty of success while competing for the Upper Arlington High School wrestling team, as he qualified for the Division I state tournament four consecutive seasons from 1987 through 1990, and placed as high as second at state at 103 pounds in 1989.

After becoming a three-year starter and team captain for the University of Michigan wrestling team, Stout returned to Columbus in 1995 to pursue a career as a lawyer.

He began his coaching career as an assistant at Columbus Academy in the 1995-96 season and was an assistant at Dublin Coffman from 1996-99 before restarting and serving as director of the Upper Arlington Mat Cubs Youth Wrestling Program from 1999 through 2011.

When Grant McCormick stepped down after five seasons as UA coach to spend more time with his family, Stout agreed to take over the program with one long-term goal in mind.

The Stout coaching era began Dec. 3 when UA played host to the Lee Spitzer Golden Bear Invitational. The Bears scored 176.5 points to place third in the eight-team tournament behind Olentangy Orange (250) and Worthington Kilbourne (215) and ahead of Westerville South (117), Brookhaven (82.5), New Albany (58), Columbus East (26) and Columbus South (16).

“The only reason I’m doing this is I want to see the kids win,” Stout said. “I was a part of the last really good Upper Arlington team in 1987 that won OCC, district and regional and sent five wrestlers to state. I was also a senior captain for the last Upper Arlington team that won OCC in 1990. I don’t know if we can get back to that level again, but we’re going to try.”

In an effort to strengthen the program, Stout has donated his salary to help pay for a larger staff of assistant coaches, which includes Kevin Drake, Steve Luke and James Yonushonis.

Luke was a three-time Big Ten Conference champion and All-American at Michigan who went undefeated and won the Division I NCAA title at 174 pounds in 2009.

Yonushonis was an All-American at Penn State in 2006, and Drake is UA’s leader in career victories who placed fourth at state in 2009 at 145.

“We’ve got a terrific coaching staff,” Stout said. “Steve Luke is probably the only Division I NCAA champion on a high school staff in the state of Ohio. Most Division I champs from Ohio in the last 15 years are coaching at the college level or still competing.”

Nine starters have returned in seniors James Lowrey (182 or 195), Skyler Sowry (182) and Andrew Steedman (126), juniors Kenji Gerhardt (106), Peter DeVillebichot (132), Vito DiBenedetto (145) and Dan Watson (152) and sophomores Taylor Neely (138 or 145) and Blake Reid (160).

Lowrey and DiBenedetto were the Bears’ only district qualifiers last season. Lowrey finished 22-16 and went 4-2 at district at 189 and placed fifth, and DiBenedetto finished 28-14 and went 0-2 at district at 130.

Gerhardt went 25-6 at 103 but couldn’t compete in the postseason tournaments because of a thumb injury. Sowry went 12-3 at 171 before his season came to a premature end because of a knee injury.

Freshmen Thomas Cooper (113) and Nick Pavoni (170) are first-year starters.

Junior Cameron Gardner was supposed to start at 220 but may be lost for the season because of an injury. Freshman Cole Veri will start at 195 while Lowrey recovers from an abdominal injury.

Rounding out the roster are senior Andrew Hennessey (138), sophomores Jared Drake (195), Nikhil Makhija (126), Paul Verdier (120) and Matt Young (132) and freshmen Sam Beam (145), Matthew Blossom (106), Collin Burt (106), Coleson Carmel (152), Luke Fetch (106), Stuart Gieser (120), Keith Neely (138) and Mark Turkelson (152).

The National Federation of State High School Associations approved guideline changes to weight classes last April, creating 10 new weight classes.

The lowest weight class, 103, was increased to 106. The other weight classes are 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 145, 152, 160, 170, 182, 195, 220 and heavyweight (285). Only four weight classes — 145, 152, 160 and heavyweight — remain unchanged.

“We’re in desperate need of big guys because we don’t have anyone over 200 pounds who is able to wrestle right now,” Stout said.

Last season, the Bears finished fifth in the OCC-Central Division at 3-4, behind Hilliard Davidson (7-0), Hilliard Darby (6-1), Dublin Coffman (5-2) and Kilbourne (4-3) and ahead of Central Crossing (2-5), Westland (1-6) and Thomas Worthington (0-7).

UA scored 48.5 points to finish sixth in the 13-team Division I sectional tournament at Marysville behind champion Marysville (105.5).

DiBenedetto went 3-1 and placed third at 130 and Lowrey went 2-2 and placed fourth at 189.

UA scored 10 points to finish 39th of the 44 teams that scored at the district tournament at Darby, behind champion Olentangy Liberty (128.5), as neither DiBenedetto nor Lowrey placed in the top four to qualify for state.

“Our goal is to win our first OCC title in 22 years, but that will be difficult if we have to forfeit the upper weight classes,” Stout said. “Another goal is to send three to five guys to state, and that will be obtainable if everything falls into place.”