Wrestler of the Week: Jeremy Amons Kilted Klassic

Alex Sadowski 170lb Champion

Austin Peak 182 lb Champion

Freshman Alex Sadowski and Senior Austin Peak both earned Wrestler of the Week honors for their performances at the Jeremy Amons Kilted Klassic held at Sparta Highland High School.   Alex was crowned champion at the 170 pound weight class where he earned 3 pins and a 5-1 decision.  Austin stood on top of the 182 pound class earning 3 pins, 1 tech fall, and 1 decision.

Wrestler of the week: Beachwood

Michael Urban- 195

Michael Urban 195 Runner-Up

Michael went 3-1 this weekend with 3 pins, earning him a second place finish at the Beachwood Kick-off classic. 

Gilmore's Take: Beachwood Kick-Off Classic

We kicked off the 2013-2014 season off this past Saturday at Beachwood High School.  With only bringing 9 wrestlers we knew we were not going for any team title, but we were going for individual accomplishments.  I was not really worried about how many people we placed.  Of course I would have liked to have everyone bring home hardware, but I was more worried about seeing our guys wrestle with our style against all opponents.  Every wrestler showed glimpse of our new philosophy, but as the competition became greater our confidence in our abilities became less and we reverted back to old habits.  We have to get to a point where we wrestle every opponent the same way.  It doesn't matter if you are better than your opponent or if they are better than you.  We need to have the same approach for every match we wrestle.  I have seen a lot of progress since the 1st day of season, but old habits are hard to break.  We need to get to the point where we are so confident in what we do in the practice room that their is no room for doubt.  We doubt our selves in the big matches, and those are the ones that we need the most confidence.  We can't let situations determine how we are going to wrestle.  We need to live in the moment, and only worry about what we can control.   We can control our focus and our attitude toward the match.  If we are focused on how tough our opponent is then we our not focused on what we can do, we our focused on what he can do. To be successful we need to have an offensive mindset not a defense and protect mindset.  

2013-2014 Wrestling Calendar

Season Starts Nov. 8th

2013-2014 spirit wear

Gilmore's Take: Disney Duals

Now that we have been back for a couple days, and I have had some time to reflect on our Disney trip I can not describe how proud I am of these guys. This group was made up of 4 middle schoolers, 8 freshman, 1 sophomore and 3 juniors. This group of guys have worked out since March with a goal of competing at this national tournament. In our preparation for the duals we lifted 4 days a week and wrestled twice a week. We also competed in 3 different dual meet tournaments and attended a couple camps. By the time we loaded the bus we were physically prepared to Wrestle. The only question was how mentally ready they were for a national tournament. After our 1st day of competition it was clear that most of our guys were a little over whelmed, we just were not competing like we are capable of. After a very persuasive speech from all the coaches and a very fun night at Old Town the guys started to relax. From that point on we started wrestling better, and as the days grew so did our intensity. By the end of the tournament we were beating teams that would have best us earlier in the tournament.   

   On the last day of the tournament we were all beat up and tired, and our last team forfeited to us. We had the opportunity to walk away and leave on an easy finish. We didn't travel almost 900 miles to get a free ride, so I found us an extra match. This in my opinion was the most important match of the tournament. This match would truly test our mental toughness. The big question was could we mentally compete against a very tough team after we were already told we were done and after being sore from 4 days of competition. To my surprise we stepped up to the challenge and wrestled our best match of the year. That one match summed up everything we have be teaching these guys all season. We learned how to fight when we were beat up. We learned to fight when we were tired. We learned to fight when things weren't going our way. And we learned that we can break our opponents when we have the will to fight and they don't. We became a better team right there and then.  Champions do what they don't want to do when they don't want to do it. On that day we became champions. I am very proud of everyone. We left Disney a better team than we entered.