The wrestling team has faced challenges over the past few years, but Coach Myron Fletcher is committed to strengthening the team in the coming years.

“We started our first little league program this year, [and] that [will] be our recruit[meant],” Fletcher said.

Fletcher created the Little League program to prepare athletes for the mental and physical demands of the sport.

“Trying to keep our team encouraged is the biggest hurdle I’ve been facing this year,” Fletcher said. “Losing isn’t fun. I want everyone to know [that] we just [have] to weather this storm right now, it’ll pass. Suffering don’t last always. So this will pass, and we will see the sunshine again,” Fletcher said.

This shared commitment to overcoming challenges is evident throughout the team, from veteran leaders to freshmen like Sam Gruber.

“A lot of laps around the school, commons, up and down bleachers. Anything like that is commonplace in wrestling,” Gruber said.

The kind of exercises Sam is talking about vary between practices, but often times they include running laps around the commons or running up and down the newly installed upper bleachers just outside the wrestling room in order to help the wrestlers physical endurance so that on the mat they do not gas out too quickly.

Senior wrestler Brayden Krisch has observed that the team’s small size has fostered a close-knit environment. Despite challenges with conditioning, Krisch and his teammates have worked to overcome these obstacles over the past four years.

“You have a deeper connection [than] with a football team because there’s so many people, you’re not going to know everybody while on a wrestling team, you know everybody you know, their weight classes, like how they act, who they are, and you have a deeper connection,” Krisch said.

The coach has observed significant mental resilience among the wrestlers this year, noting their ability to stay focused and united despite the challenges they face.

“We’re young, but there are a lot of athletes on the team who can make up for youthful mistakes. I think the practices are as intense as they’ve been in the past. I believe that this group is hungry to learn. I think that no one likes losing. So I think that is taken to heart, and the idea of getting better every practice is becoming more and more vital to each wrestler individually. So this group is a good group, and we are getting better every day,” Fletcher said.

Fletcher is confident in the future of the wrestling program.

 “In two or three years, we[‘re] coming for everybody,” Fletcher said.