2024_1204_1713

The coach discusses the composition of the wrestling team, highlighting the experience of most members. He explains the weight classes and the need for wrestlers to compete for a spot. He also talks about the challenges of balancing academics with training and emphasizes the importance of hard work. The coach expresses excitement for the upcoming season and expects the team to compete for a league title and perform well in tournaments. He mentions the benefits of having more girls on the team and encourages anyone interested in wrestling to give it a try. Okay. After some technical difficulties, would you please continue with what you're saying? So like I was saying, we're two or three deep, and it's hard to say we're newcomers because everybody that's going to be on Varsity is basically returning, except for maybe Paul because there's nobody else down there, and Om Patel, probably the only ones that are going to be on a Varsity lineup that are new or freshmen. Everybody else we have has had experience, even our sophomores got a lot of experience last year, and so every one of our sophomores, like I wouldn't have any problem with putting in the Varsity lineup, and we only have two juniors. So yeah, I think as far as newcomers, I don't think we really have anyone that's going to come out and shock the world or anything, but that's just because our program is so deep. Can you like really quickly explain the weight classes for us, because a lot of people don't understand how that stuff works. Okay. So there's 14 weight classes, boys and girls, and you're only really ... Well, when you get to regionals, you're only allowed one person per weight class. So if you have two or three guys in your school that are really good, but they're the same weight, you have to wrestle off for that spot. And so not everybody gets to be on Varsity, even if they're really good wrestlers. So it's just part of the sport, I guess. I went through it when I was at a big school, and it's really awesome that we have a program that's got enough kids to where we can do that here. How do you help the wrestlers balance their academics with their training and meets and all that? Because wrestling's not like a sport you can just show up at practice and go for two hours and then have a game on a Friday night or something. Wrestling takes a lot of your time because it's your diet, if you have to do running in the morning to maintain your weight. Our practices are hard, and I don't know that it's really easy for our guys to get done with practice and then go home and think, man, I've got to get my studies done. But that's what makes it so tough, and it's so rewarding in the end, because you're pushing yourself to a point where you don't have to be good at it all. You have to get your academics done, you've got to get your physical stuff done, your lifting and your strength, and then you have to get through a practice. And it's not like you're just running around or something. You're getting beat up on at practice. Your teammates want to beat you physically, and so it's not easy, and you've just got to stay well-balanced in your life, and you can't go too far one way or get too down on yourself to where that affects other parts of your life, because wrestling's tough and it'll get you down, and if you let that get in your head, then it's going to affect everything in your life. Matt, I probably don't do a very good job of explaining that to the guys, but most of them get it, and I'm really proud of this group. They pretty much show up every day and work hard, and so I think they get it, and it's tough, but I think they get it. What are some important values you hope to instill in your athletes both on and off the life of the mat? I think just working hard. I think just doing what you have to do, and that's life. You've got to get up that day, and you have a certain amount of things you need to get done, and you just have to work until you get them done, and that's what we do in practice. We have a set routine in practice, and we'll stay there as long as the practice needs to go to get those things done on the sheet, and so it's just getting work done, and then if you just do that, the rest of life is going to take care of itself. What are you most excited about this season, and what can fans expect to see from the team? I'm excited just to see them go. I'm just ready to get the season started, and just to see our boys and girls team go out and compete, because we're going to turn some heads, and maybe we don't have four state champs or something like that on our lineup, but every kid we have is going to wrestle you tough, and you're going to know when you wrestle a Republic County wrestler, because whether it's our first string or fourth string kid, we're going to go out and give effort. I'm excited to have Colby or Tyrese or maybe one of the other guys that are second or third string beat a varsity kid, and have the other coach and the other team like, that's not even a first string kid, and you hear those things as a coach as they walk off, and that's what I'm excited for, and on our girls side, I'm excited for them to get out of their comfort zone, our new girls, and then seeing our returners come back and be one more year into their career. What are some expectations you have for the team this year? Like I said, I want to compete for a league title. We want to do that every year. Well, league title, and when we go to the tournament, I want to expect to bring home some hardware. Duel wise, we're going to be better off than last year, because last year we just had so many open weights. We're a little bit better off, but we're still going to be open in three or four weight classes, and that's really going to hurt our chances in our duel tournaments. In the individual tournaments, I think we have a shot to do pretty good, and so I want to bring home some hardware from tournaments, and when we get to regionals, depending on the regionals, if we go out west, we probably aren't, we don't have enough weight classes if we go out west to compete for a regionals team trophy, but anywhere else, if we go to any other regional, I think we should be right there for top two or three. And back to the girls' wrestling, do you think it helps to have more of them? Oh yeah, I mean, yeah, just having different partners and having different attacks on you during practice will benefit you in meets, and just having more of that team aspect. Wrestling's a lot individual, but it takes a good wrestling partner to make that individual really good. It takes a team to make the individual good, and then it kind of just cycles on itself. If you have good individuals, and you have good individual wrestling partners, then you're going to have a good team, and if you have a good team, you're going to have good wrestling partners, so it all just kind of works together. All right, now, do you have any words of advice for anybody out there thinking about joining wrestling? Yeah, give it a try, just go out and try it, is the only thing I've got to say, and a lot of people just, they look at wrestling and they don't even want to do it because it's just wrestling. And I would just tell kids, if you're not doing anything in the winter, just come out and try it. Girls and boys, and if you don't like it after a couple of weeks, fine, but most of the kids we have that try it in junior high end up staying with us, so it's hard, but it's also fun. And so, that's what I have to, I mean, if you're out walking the hall, and you've thought about doing wrestling, it's not too late, you can still come out, so. All right, is there a certain deadline for when people are able to go out for wrestling, or? Oh, not really, I mean, I would, Emma started last year, right after Christmas, her first time, and she's going to do all right, so it's not too late, we'll take you in, we'll take anybody, and, you know, if it gets to be January 15th, then that's probably going to be too late, but if you want to still come out, even right after Christmas, we can make it work, so, see. All righty, anything else you want to say? No, just thanks for the interview, and I think this is a cool program, so. All righty, thank you. All right, thank you.