“The lowlights for me were the days when we would learn new moves because we have to repeat that same move over and over again,” freshman Parker Dimond said, “I thought that was boring and repetitive.”
Young standouts such as freshman Carter McCallister proved the practices were effective. McCallister is the only freshman on varsity and has had an outstanding season.
“[He] is a freshman, and he hasn’t lost a single match yet. Last weekend he had a fever and an infection, and he still took first in Thrasher, one of the hardest tournaments—if not the hardest tournament — of the year,” junior Garret Roach said, “There are a lot of JV freshmen I can tell will be pretty good.”
As the season comes to an end, junior Kenneth Seoul reflected on the Battle for the Belt, where RBHS, Hickman and Battle came together to find out who the best team in Columbia is. Rival Hickman won the tournament, and Seoul said the tournament was such a heartbreaking loss because of the amount of effort the team put in.
“We’ve had our share of highs and lows,” Seoul said. “The Battle for the Belt was definitely both our highs and lows because everyone worked so hard and wrestled to their best only to lose in such a close fashion.”
Though the season is over for the JV team, post-season is just beginning for Varsity. Since the coaches hope to send five players to State, the pressure is on for the team to perform.
“Our team goal for this season was to work hard and never give up,” Seoul said, “Our coaches successfully pushed us to our best and I am grateful for that.”[/penci_text_block]
In wrestling, when the match is stopped (whether it be because of an out-of-bounds, stalemate, penalty or injury) one wrestler will assume a defensive starting position. This means they will be on hands and knees at the center of the mat, giving them a clear disadvantage over their opponent, who will be in the offensive starting position. The wrestler in the offensive starting position has the opportunity to pin their opponent almost immediately in this circumstance. But they can also allow their opponent to resume to their neutral position, where both wrestlers are equals, and neither has an edge. The player in the offensive position can signal this to the referee by making a triangle hand signal.
