Sports
Wrestlers endure challenges
kelly reierson photo
The training for wrestling isn’t easier than other sports. With rules to learn and weight goals to meet, some find themselves hitting the gym more often.
Senior Michael Cooper said that wrestling presents him with a lot of challenges.
“It can be hard at times. I just concentrate on my diet and exercise a lot. Sometimes I just want to eat everything though, but with wrestling I can’t,” Cooper said
Wrestlers have proven that hard work is definitely the key to success. The team has won over 20 dual meets, two tournaments and are now nine to one.
Meeting weight goals is one of the most important parts of wrestling because if players don’t meet their certain weight they can’t compete.
Coach Jason Lampe said that weight restrictions for wrestling are strict.
“Even if you’re one-tenth of a pound over you don’t get to wrestle,” Lampe said.
Players cannot go below seven percent body fat, as set by the state. The state has put a lot of restrictions on wrestling due to some extreme measures wrestlers were taking to make their goal, including not eating for three to four days before the meet and even purging right before the weigh-ins. The state has set the standard that players are only suppose to lose two and a half pounds a week.
“By having set weight goals it teaches kids responsibility that they can use in later life,” Lampe said.
The most extreme thing junior Andrew Lamb has done before his meet was running stairs for an hour and then doing an intense workout. He has never been disqualified from a meet.
The team also pushes themselves off the mat. With grades affecting whether or not students get to wrestle, classes are taken seriously. Lampe does a daily check of students’ grades to make sure his wrestlers are keeping up on their schoolwork. In the Des Moines Public Schools, if a player isn’t passing classes they have to sit out for 30 days.
“(Lampe tells us) it’s a student athlete for a reason, the student comes first,” Lamb said.
Cooper said his teachers and wrestling friends are like his brother; players said they push him to do his best at everything.
Although having practice every day takes up homework time, the block schedule makes it easier to juggle wrestling and schoolwork. Lamb said that he likes to keep wrestling and school separate because it makes it easier to stay on top of things.
Even though the team has improved they’re still lacking fan support. Ever since the program combined into the North/Hoover team, the fans in the stands have diminished, leaving only a small group of kids.
“With only one home meet left we would love to get a huge Hoover crowd,” Lampe said.