Out of all the after school activities Loy Norrix students can participate in, wrestling is one of the most time-and energy-consuming. After school ends, the hard work begins. The wrestlers run a couple miles every day and wrestle live for at least 30 minutes. Wrestling live is when they wrestle at match pace for a long period of time to practice skills for the meets.
“The physical demand is unlike any sport… full body exhaustion and using muscles you didn’t even know you had,” said junior Will Dominianni.
Even though practice doesn’t start until 3:30 p.m., a lot of wrestlers got to practice right after fifth period. In the time before practice, the wrestlers either relax or get ahead and work on technique with their teammates.
Practices are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 3:30 to 6:00 p.m. The wrestling meets are Wednesday and Saturday and are usually three to nine hours long. There are even extra camps over the summer that a lot of the wrestlers do to prepare for the next season.
Despite all the work, wrestlers enjoy what they do.
“I would recommend wrestling to everyone,” freshman Darik Smith said. “You just have to take the time and learn the skills.”
Wrestlers see amazing growth over the season, while building muscle, increasing mental capabilities and learning discipline.
Team members have differing opinions on how the 2024 season went. In junior Nasir Spurlock’s words, “The season was rough.”
Although the wrestlers suffered losses throughout the season, they worked to boost their strategy and strength, and improved a lot on the mat between November and February.
A large part of wrestling is weight cutting. Wrestlers move up and down weight classes to get a physical edge on their opponents. Wrestlers can lose weight at a rapid pace, sometimes losing seven pounds in a day for a weigh in, according to Dominianni.
“You definitely have to have the right mindset for cutting weight and the practices,” said sophomore wrestler Wyatt Buddemeier.
Weight cutting takes a ton of mental and physical strength.
According to the athlete nutrition website Nutrition Heartbeat, some methods of cutting weight are calorie reduction, sweat loss, carbohydrate reduction and water loading. Combining these techniques with constant training reduces body weight.
The wrestling team puts in constant work for their sport, always looking to get better and beat their opponents. The grueling work may be difficult in the moment, but for the wrestlers, every bead of sweat is worth it.
Alice Damashek • Mar 1, 2024 at 9:54 am
greattttt story