The boys wrestling team will begin practices for its 2019-2020 season on Nov. 11, 2019. The team hopes to continue the momentum of last year’s team, despite losing many members to graduation.

Head wrestling coach Sean Lovelace noted how the loss of seniors may affect the team’s performance and dynamic. 

“Last season we had a big group of seniors who had been in the lineup for a few years, so I thought it was going to be really hard to replace some of those individuals, but a lot of the guys have already stepped up,” Lovelace said.

Junior Joe Davison has been wrestling for all three years of his high school career. He commented on the team’s success last season. 

“We did pretty good last year, we won a couple tournaments. We had a couple kids go down to sectionals. We had a pretty good season overall,” Davison said. 

Although the season is only about to start, many members noticed the change during the preseason due to graduating members. Senior Nick Callaghan has been a member of the team for all four years of high school and understands the need for seniors to take action.

“I think it’s going to be a lot on the current seniors that are coming in; we have a lot of freshmen and sophomores that are going to take [the team] up. I think what’s been happening is that we’ve all been working as hard as we can,” Callaghan said. 

This year’s season is about to begin, and the team connections are already as strong as a result of pre-season activities. Senior Cole Gantner has been a member of the team since his freshman year.  

“We’re just kind of like a family. We’re really close to each other,” Gantner said.

Before the season begins, returning members are participating in pre-season workouts, and/or wrestled with a club outside of school hours. 

“I’ve been doing pre-season wrestling both in school and out of school at a club. I’ve also been doing weight lifting, as well as going to tournaments in Iowa, Michigan and Indiana just to get prepared,” Callaghan said.

Preparing in the off-season is seen as crucial for a successful season by many members of the team, as well as Lovelace. He noticed the hard work members of the team put in during the wrestling off-season.

“This group, they did a lot. They worked really hard in the off-season. They were very active in their off-season wrestling. They’ve done all kinds of conditioning, [and] a lot of these guys have gone out and wrestled with other clubs, and done outside strength and conditioning,” Lovelace said. 

The team hopes to have a positive season this year, with a focus on practicing and putting in the effort to achieve their goals.

“Overall, it is just putting [in] everything you have, and you’ll get out everything you put in,” Callaghan said.