The Mount Rainier Rams rang in the league season like a team about to do big things again in the Seamount wrestling ranks, going for a fourth in a row dual meet league championship -- starting off it's season with a pointedly easy victory, pinning Tyee to the canvas, again, and again, and again, for a 72-5 home win Thursday.

"This was our first league meet," said Rams head coach Frank Brandt.

Pins were the main point of conversation in this one, besides the overall score. It was close to a skunk, but here is why it was not.

The Totems had one good highlight, and, trailing 72-0, after the first 13 matches means that the Totems, finally, had success in the last match of the night, with Ben Molina getting a 15-0 technical fall decision for five ending points for the Totems.

Other than that, this night of grappling on the mat was all Rams -- seven pins, not to mention, six forfeit wins for the blue and white.

Pins came from the Rams 152 sophomore Shawn McGlynn, 160 sophomore Josh Fleming, 171 senior Corey Muma, 189 senior Jesse Bame, 119 Spencer Truong, 130 senior Travis Guisasola and 135 junior Justin Bishop. The quickest pin was Fleming's, 26 seconds, and the longest was Guisasola's, taking until 1:50 of the first round. In other words, the pins came quickly.

But will this team glom onto victory like last year's that sent a half dozen to state last year?

"Hopefully," said Frank Brandt, going into his seventh successful season as head coach of the Rams. "By the end of the year, we should be good."

Speaking of a form of that 'hope' word, the Rams program looked hopeless when Brandt came to it back in 1999-2000. That year the Rams were floundering, finishing 2-5 in the Seamount. But like any business that on average takes three years before it sees black in the bank account, Brandt was fast at work to slowly turn things around. His second season he managed a 3-4 team. And then the next year, 2002-2003, Brandt got the team in the money, record-wise, as the Rams finished 5-2 in the Seamount.

And the last two years?

"7-0 the last two years," said Brandt.

So that's a whole lot of good from Brandt for the Rams in the wrestling program.

One of those pinners mentioned above is Rams captain Muma. A bright young man, he is in the Running Start program, which pits him against college freshman and sophomores in advanced classes while he still attends high school. Muma is also a wrestler that went along the path of improvement like his coach, Brandt.

"I was 7-14 (wins and losses) my freshman year, 9-18 my sophomore year, 29-12 my junior year," said Muma.

He also took third at the regional tournament before going on to state, since top four from regionals make it to state. He did not do great there but he got there and since he was a junior he has this year to do better.

"My goal is to be top six," said Muma.

Muma was not looking tops at all in his match against his Totems foe, falling behind 2-0 and then 4-3 before getting a takedown couple points and reversing the tables on his foe completely with a pin at the 1:08 mark. Muma had a good reason for not taking charge in this one sooner.

"I know I wasn't mentally ready for the match," said Muma. "Just tired from school. I was up late."

Muma is up late, up early, up all the time, doing things all the time. For himself to succeed. But remember the others, too.

"I tutor kids in college, from pre-algebra to calculus," said Muma, when probed.

But turning back the page to his improvement, what happened that he went from a huge loss to win ratio his sophomore season to a big winning percentage his junior year, kicked off with going to places he only dreamed of going his frosh and soph seasons.

"My freshman and sophomore year I wasn't sure if I liked it," said Muma. "Then my off-season, during football, I really hit the weights."

And you became a lean, mean, fighting machine?

His mom and dad were around, too, helping out with some of the information divulged above, a rather proud mom and dad it is noted.

"Actually, I was kind of chubby," said Muma. "I was kind of chubby my sophomore year. So I lost the fat and gained muscle."

And it's helped him change things around, but not by himself.

"Coach Walker helped me out a lot. He is not the coach this year. We had a personal connection," said Muma.

And Brandt?

"He has really good organization and is good at technique," said Muma.

There are plenty that could be good at technique as the season goes along. Brandt mentioned above that the season should be good by the end of the year. That means that things are not so good right now, not saying bad, but with time still before the real goodness comes out of these guys.

"The kids are getting experience," said Brandt.

He expects several to make it to state besides Muma, including Fleming, Matt Zimmerman, who won his heavyweight match by forfeit, along with Scott MIller, who won his the same way, also a senior. Rhemond Slish, a junior, is in that state mix of conversation as is Guisasola, who Brandt said should benefit from people in his weight class leaving that weight or graduating last year. So that's nutshell prognosication there and Brandt mentioned others that could get in there too. But this team is just having fun under Muma's leadership and other seniors. And though there were a lot of wrestlers, good state qualifying wrestlers, that graduated, this team seems to be doing what happens to good programs. They start off with a bang again, or, in other words, reload.

The season has been testing so far. They lost a run and gun shootout,46-32, to Auburn-Mountainview in non-league action and beat Sumner, 42-40. In the loss, Brandt mentioned that three or four regulars did not wrestle and he was also tinkering around with wrestlers not wrestling at regular weights that they will wrestle at this season. But the Rams have won the league tourney the last four years and when that time comes around eveyone all over will be hearing from the Rams it sounds like.