Katie Lotier, Morgan Schroeder and Brooke Walsh
Staff Writers
Right now, New Hope’s wrestling team is preparing for regionals with hard work and commitment. Wrestling is a physical competition, between two different competitors. Besides basketball and winter track, the other winter sport choice is wrestling. The NHS wrestling team this year consists of new freshman faces who are strong and determined boys. The team has both the quality of amazing players and the quantity. The boys do insane conditioning at each practice to get bigger and tougher for their next match. For conditioning they run, do pull ups, push ups, sit ups and then they wrestle. It is a very dangerous sport. Injury rates are higher in matches than at practices for both college and high school wrestling. The most frequent highschool injuries are shoulder strains/sprains (8.5%), ankle strains/sprains (7.6%), knee strains/sprains (7.0%), neck strains/sprains (5.4%) and concussions (5.4%).
This season so far, a player has already exempt from playing because of a wrestling injury. During a match, Derek Smith had a hard contact hit with the mat resulting with two broken wrists. Before Derek Smith got injured, he said in an interview that he is most looking forward to regionals. He says the fastest that he’s pinned somebody is 1:37. The most challenging thing about wrestling is said to be conditioning, so it’s obvious that they take it seriously and prepare before the matches. For example, “It's about quality not quantity”, said Nick Fest, freshman wrestler. When asked about his relationships with his teammates, he said that they were very, very close. Not only do the players feel passionately about the sport, but they have formed close bonds and have become good friends. The team recently won at their last tournament, showing that their hard work has paid off. Last night, on February 3rd, New Hope had a big win with a score of 52-12 against Church Farm. They played as a team, always rooting there other teammates on while there on the mat.
