The second semester of school is going to start soon and you know what that means, winter sports are starting up again. Wrestling is one of the winter sports that are starting up again. Wrestling is a close contact sport that is centered around pinning your opponent and getting points.

Andrew Martinez, a freshman at South who joined wrestling, voiced his thoughts on wrestling. When asked why he joined he said, “I chose to join wrestling so I can improve my football skills and my stamina.” Athletes can certainly use wrestling as a training for other skills like football or for other contact sports like MMA. Andrew also stated if he is hopeful for this year of wrestling. “I am very hopeful this year for wrestling because I am starting to enjoy the sport for what it is.” Along with this being asked what he can do to improve at wrestling he responded with, “What I can do to become better is to train hard and to try with 100%.” Andrew had also stated who inspired him to join wrestling, “Someone who inspired me to join wrestling was the wrestling coach himself, Coach Manny.”

Vincent Garcia, another freshman at South, joined wrestling as well and joined because, “Some of the reasons I joined wrestling was to be in better shape and to learn to fight on the ground.” He was also asked his opinion about this years wrestling season, “I am very hopeful for this year because my teammates seem to be very promising and show a lot of skill.” How are you going to improve this year, was also asked, to which he said, “What I can do is repeat everything I learned until it becomes second nature to me.” Everybody needs someone to inspire you to work hard and for Vincent that would be his uncle who was a wrestler, who according to Vincent went to wrestle for the state competitively.  

Donny Gomez, a freshman at South who is starting varsity wrestling for his weight class was questioned who inspired him to join wrestling, “I chose to join wrestling because I wanted to learn more fighting styles.” He already does boxing so this adds to more fighting styles he can use if he does other sports. “Train everyday and show dedication,” were his words on how others and himself can get better at wrestling and other sports. Wrestling is a very difficult sport to be good at and to train for, that is why Donny states, “I motivated myself because I needed to help my health.” Health is a way to get motivated into any sport and that is a very strong motivation to better yourself.