The focus of a wrestling match is rightly on the two young men squaring off in the ring. At the same time, however, the other wrestlers are on the sidelines, cheering on their teammates and carefully watching their techniques.

“I think he’s decimating,” Max Parisi said of Michael Gomez’s match at last week’s dual with Huntley.

“He’ll pull through,” Justin Dombrowski chimed in.

Parisi was already predicting a state bid for Gomez, citing his “natural born” talent and saying “he’s fast for his size.”

Whether Gomez lives up to those expectations remains to be seen, but the support he’s receiving from his teammates will surely help him along his way, just as his teammates benefit from watching his approach. Even for an athlete fresh off of a state competition, the support helps.

“The hardest thing I’ve ever gone through, six minutes of wrestling room,” Gomez said of the exhausting and challenging competition.

Towards the end of the varsity matches, Juan Lagunes was watching Mike Cullen defeat his opponent.

“He already knew he’d win, and he’s dominating the other wrestler,” Lagunes said. “He’s going for points.”

“[Cullen] will use whatever he can to win and overcome the opponent,” Zach Armijo said.

Ryan Magel’s match was also unique too. I asked Nico Mcclure what thought while Magel’s match was underway. “I have confidence that he’ll win. He’s using good technique.” Nico said. Nick Du Lock said, “He’s gonna win.” After Magel pinned the Huntley player. I asked him what he thought about his match. “Good.” he said as he sat down to watch the next match.

Nico Mcclure’s match was in Hayden Hill’s opinion, “Close match until the last period.” Adrian Ortes chimed in and said it was,“tense.” Micah Henning when asked while the match was going on said, “Takes a while but he has it.” Both players were tired from Cary Grove and Huntley. Nico said, “He could have done better.” However all the wrestlers had outstanding matches.

Now for the season, when I asked how they wanted to turn out this year. Andrew Villarreal said, “We’ll turn out great, we have new coach, new ideas, new players and the rest of our coaches.” New people and events can also spark a change to do even better for the team. Jeremy Sharp added, “Players improved since last year.” as well as “Lots of challenges.” For wrestling they have good goals. Then I asked Kevin Hendriksen and Jack Hansen how far they thought varsity would get. “Lot of good wrestlers as well as diversity.” Immediately following, “We’ve got our family back.” said Jack. That quote shows how woven the wrestling team is with support for their teammates. All their practices are to go for even better year. They also aspire to become greater wrestlers. Furthermore, like Jack said, they have their team and are also ready for Fox Valley conference.