With the Maryland Scholastic Association having been discontinued after last year's final league wrestling tournament, the city's public and private schools have formed separate wrestling conferences, and two divisions within those leagues.
Among the public schools, Mervo, Southwestern, Carver, Northern, Lake Clifton, Northwestern and Patterson will crown a Division I champion, while Dunbar, City, Poly, Forest Park, Walbrook, Douglass and Edmondson will yield a Division II winner.
Most of the teams will compete in the Westside Tournament on Jan. 14, won by host Mervo last year, and the City-Wide Tournament on Feb. 10-11, won by Poly.
The private schools, now in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association, have been broken down into two six-team divisions.
In Division A are Mount St. Joseph, Boys' Latin, St. Paul's, John Carroll, Calvert Hall and Spalding. In Division B are McDonogh, Gilman, Loyola, St. Mary's, Curley and Friends.
The MIAA teams will wrestle their five division opponents during the first part of the season and three cross-division matches during the last part of the year,resulting in an eight-match league schedule.
However, in the crossover matches, only the top six MSA tournament finishers will face each other, with the six teams finishing lowest last year meeting in the others.
For example, Mount St. Joseph, Boys' Latin and St. Paul's of Division A will wrestle against McDonogh, Gilman and Loyola of Division B. Of the remaining six teams, John Carroll, Calvert Hall and Spalding of the A will meet St. Mary's, Curley and Friends in cross-division matches.
The teams with the best records in each division will wrestle for the overall dual-meet title unless they have met in dual competition. If a previous match has occurred, its result will be used to determine the league champ, erasing the necessity for a season-ending clash.
But any way you cut it, Mount St. Joseph appears to still be the king.
The Gaels return seven solid performers, including All-Metro Wrestler of the Year and National Prep champ Danny DeVivo (160-171), All-Metro MSA titlist David Inkman (140) and MSA heavyweight champ Kenny Hunter.
Hunter, coming off an All-Metro football season in which he led the Gaels to the league title, hopes to improve on last year's National Prep runner-up finish. Inkman was fourth at the National Preps and also hopes to do better.
"Our biggest concern is trying to improve on some of our places in some of the national tournaments we're in," said Mount St. Joseph coach Paul Triplett.
The Gaels, winners of the season-opening Maryland Invitational at Curley for the third straight season, continue their year with this weekend's Annapolis Tournament.
There are also tournaments at California University (Pa.) on Dec. 29-30, the Delaware Mid-Atlantic (Jan. 7), Virginia Duals (Jan. 14) and the Independent Schools' state tournament (Feb. 4-5).
Baltimore City's public schools have never had a state wrestling champion.
But playing safety last Saturday, Bruce Pendles completed a five-interception season to help a 12-0 Dunbar squad become Baltimore City's first state football titlist.
And as a 130-pounder this winter, he is thought to have the best chance among several wrestlers at becoming the city's first state champ on the mat. A senior, Pendles was 28-2 last year with 16 pins and a technical fall.
He was fourth in the states as a sophomore and came within one point of winning it all last season, dropping a 7-6 decision to Northeast's two-time 1A-2A state champ, Marty Kusick, at 112.
Pendles is a two-time city champion who won the Outstanding Wrestler award last year in taking his second MSA crown.
Pendles' teammate, Hermondez Thompson (140), is perhaps the next best bet, having gone 26-3 last year as a city champ, MSA runner-up, regional champ and state runner-up.
Perhaps the city's No. 3 wrestler is Lake Clifton's Lloyd Cox (145-152), who had 23 victories en route to being city runner-up and a regional champ and placing fourth in the 3A-4A state meet.
Yet there are still other city wrestlers with a good chance at bringing home state honors.
Carver's defending city champ, Rob Horton (160), a senior, was a regional runner-up last year. Poly senior Tony Bridges (103-112) was a city champ two years ago before attaining city runner-up status last year and taking third in his region. Bridges' teammate, All-Metro football player Darnell Dezurn (171-189), was third in both the city and region.