As the wrestling season comes to a close, athletes continue to train towards counties. Coaches are pushing them extra hard for them to succeed.  

     Freshman, Ian Lewis says, “the team means family to me because of how close we have gotten over the season.” Lewis mentions they spend so much time together after school, it was “easy to form quick and fun relationships.”

     Captains Austin Arist, senior, and Cruz Cespedes, junior, comment about the start of the season compared to now. “As a team our will to be the best in the county strengthens every day” says Arist. Cespedes also mentions they are “winning more, listening to the coaches, and doing their moves correctly.” 

     Specifically, Arist says “freshman Cody Deak has showed a lot of heart and has been fighting to do his best in practice. I am very proud of him for improving so much since the beginning.”  Other wrestlers commented on Deak’s growth on the team as well.  

     Cespedes mentions one thing he isn’t a fan of is the coaching style. He says it’s “not effective. There should be more technique and wrestling, rather than mainly conditioning.” Along with Cespedes, other teammates said they do a lot more conditioning than needed.   

     One of the friendships Lewis made was with another first-year student, George Feldbush. Feldbush mentions the team “works harder and wants it more” compared to other teams. Except, something they do a practice that they shouldn’t is “talking too much because it’s hard to stay focused.” 

     Senior wrestler, Luke Phillips, had some thoughts to share about the morals on the team. He says, “everyone is just so engaged and ready to wrestle, there are some areas we need work on but overall we’ve got a good group of guys.” 

     “We smell blood, we become predators, and we take down the prey” Phillips says about the team.  “We don’t want to be prey. We are strong. We are one.” Senior captain Arist adds on.

     After losing, Cespedes mentions the team does “a lot of extra conditioning and learn from our mistakes.” Taking what they did wrong and improving on those aspects will “not only help us individually but also the team” says Arist.  

     As a freshman, Lewis learned to “work harder and keep pushing to do better in the future.”  He also mentions as a team they’ve “improved on communication and teamwork” as the season moved on. Lewis also believes the “coaches always push [them] extremely hard in order to improve individual wrestlers.” 

     Unlike other teams, Arist thinks the team “conditions harder and prepares for their matches well.” He says the way they prepare for matches is by “focusing in on what [they] need to improve.”