With the cold winter months rolling in, the wrestling mats are rolling out. The wrestling season is now underway marked by their first scrimmage against Moon, which took place on Nov. 24.
The team will be competing in 18 matches and tournaments this season. Seven of these matches are considered part of the regular season while the remaining are tournaments. These tournaments consist of multiple schools competing all day for a winner in each weight class.
The athletes will be on home mats four times this year. The regular season will stretch through to March; official home matches will be held on Dec. 11, 20, 30, and Jan. 15.
Four team members departed last year as seniors. The graduates were Boe Bonzo, Tyler Cousins, Nicholas Jackman and Kurt Kitzman. The current seniors are not concerned about these losses, though.
“I think we will have a really good season this year because we have a lot of really good freshmen coming up,” Senior Lane Ward said.
New additions to the team include: Senior Scott Jacobs, as well as Freshmen Austin Alberts, Kody Komara, Joseph Pail, Randy Simmons, Evan Sweesy, Noah Trombetto, and Dean Ward.
Starting in late October, the team began conditioning practices twice a week. Not long after the start, Dean Ward was infected with MRSA. This caused a brief hiatus in their practicing, because it could have spread to the mats, but the practices resumed at the start of November after sanitization.
“We missed a few practices but we came back and are doing good,” Dean Ward said. “Gladly, no one got it from me. I think it also helped us be aware that these kind of things happen and we need to have proper hygiene and cleansing of mats.”
After learning a lot from pre-season including each other’s names, new techniques and consequences of poor sanitation, the season is set to commence.