Blood, sweat and tears prepare for this moment. Everything they’ve trained for comes down to the first step they take on the mat. The wrestling season started on October 31 and the record so far is 1-0 for duels. The next duel is today against Blue Springs South.

Like most sports there are different styles of wrestling that have different rules and regulations.

“There is greco, freestyle and folkstyle,” freshman Kamryn Laubaugh said.

“Greco you can’t touch the legs, folkstyle is basically school appropriate stuff and freestyle is just whatever you can do. Right now the type of wrestling we do is folkstyle.”

The wrestlers train for a total of 10 hours a week, two hours after school every day. How long are the matches they train for?

“A match can last up to six minutes but if there’s over time it can last an extra two minutes,” senior Michael Combs said. “It all depends on how fast you pin or get pinned.”

The wrestlers are constantly learning new tactics that have different rankings for scores. Just like any regular competition, there are judges that watch and score the wrestlers on their skill.

“If you pin, you automatically win,” freshman Robert Hayden said. “You can get takedowns for two points. I don’t really worry too much about the scoring. I mostly focus on the wrestling.”

Though the wrestlers are the ones on the mat, the people behind the scenes deserve some credit too.

“All the coaches we have are really

focused on making us better and

improving skills that we’re lacking in,” freshman Trenton Vanarsdall said.

The wrestlers main coach this year is Dustin Brewer.

“The brand new one, Coach Brewer, I have major respect for him and all the coaches,” sophomore Payton Christensen said.

Brewer has high hopes for his team.

“I think our goal is to continue to get better every week,” wrestling coach Dustin Brewer said. “Some of my guys have individual goals so we try to beat those individual goals as well.”

Though wrestling looks surprisingly easy for the boys, it has its challenges. Some relate to the physical fitness aspect of the sport.

“Maintaining weight and getting better at the same time is a big challenge,” junior Parker Houck said.

Though keeping in shape is a big part of wrestling, another challenge can be something that’s harder to prepare for: the competitor.

“You don’t know how experienced your competitor is if you haven’t wrestled them before,” Vanarsdall said. “You don’t know their wrestling style so you don’t know if they’re aggressive or defensive. You don’t really know anything about them until you’re on the mat.”

Brewer has seen his team work hard to improve this year.

“I have absolutely seen growth in the student’s skills so far,” wrestling coach Dustin Brewer said. “We’ve gotten a lot done in just a short time of a month and some of these guys have been working through the summer too, so we’re

definitely making progress and we just want to keep rolling.”