This year our school’s Wrestling team, coached by Health teacher Mr. Gentzyel, had a very particular season. Our boys started the season almost perfectly with continues wins in almost every weight classes. However, towards the end it seemed to have gone down hill. The team as a unit seemed to be passing by however individuals seemed to be losing pace.
The team suffered too many losses do to injuries which later took it’s toll. Coach Gentzyel recaps the season saying, “ We started the season 5-1. We then hit a difficult stretch of the schedule. During that stretch we had many injuries; 2 broken hands, a torn meniscus, foot injury, a skin condition, and your typical knee and back problems. If we were healthy during the entire season, like last year, we would only have about 5-6 loses and would have had a chance at making districts.”
Though this seemingly down fall we did see some of our wrestlers rise to the occasion. These outstanding wrestlers due to their success even have a chance in district, Coach Gentzyel said, “ I have seen a lot of improvement this year among many wrestlers. Colin Shelton, Austin McMillan, Dustin Knaub, Will Peters, and Chaim Smith will finish the season with over 20 wins. We have a few others that will come close. I believe we have a shot to take 5 wrestlers to districts. To make districts they are going to have to beat at least one good wrestler. All 5 have the ability to do that. It may all come down to seeding.”
Coach Gentzyel also sees a bright future in our wrestling program, with new Wrestlers this year such as freshman Jadon Haynes and foreign exchange student Valentine Oettinger. Coach Gentzyel said, “ I believe that we are headed in the right direction. Our youth program is successful and our numbers are increasing. We are graduating a handful of seniors, but we have the guys to fill in at those spots. Currently, we only have a handful of wrestlers that wrestled before 9th grade. Even though we have 6 seniors leaving we are relatively an experienced team when it comes to mat time. YAIAA wrestling is changing to 3 divisions next year. We will be grouped with the smaller AAA teams in the county. I believe that we can be competitive in division 2.”
Although the season was bumpy the team still finished 5-3 for the second straight season which to all is not too bad. But we should keep an eye on our wrestling team for many more victories to come.