On November 11, 2024, Wheeler had its first wrestling match; it was the start of the wrestling season across the county. What makes wrestling a risky and interesting sport at Wheeler? What can be the outcome of the sport? What inspired our Wildcats to join the wrestling team? What makes this particular sport unique from the other sports at Wheeler?
Michael Charlton, wrestling coach, described his motivation for coaching wrestling: “Originally, I never wanted to do wrestling. I got into helping out when I was working at a residential high school, and so I was helping out and rolling out and keeping in shape. Mid-way through to the season, another coach told me ‘Hey coach well congratulations you are the new head coach’ because he was leaving, and so I continue doing it. This would be my 18th year coaching wrestling.”
He also expresses his goals for the season: changing the Culture and the environment: “One of my goals for this season is to change the culture, change the environment that is here for the program, and one of the things that we want to do is create a family.”
“We teach the students hard and relate the lessons to life, and how you can use them to overcome things.”
Wheeler scores 3 and 5, Coach describes the wins and losses that Wheeler wrestlers faced: “Right now we are 3 and 5 as a dual team, and the last two losses we had were simply because we had to forfeit some weight classes. But in terms of actual wrestling, we won both of those, and I’m excited about it, and what we are doing so we and 5 as a dual team. At the girls’ sides, Liz Johnson won the 144-pound tournament this past weekend, so we are doing very well. We had our 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th finisher tournament for the girl’s sides this past weekend, so we have been doing an excellent job with our program for far.”
The coach explained why people should join wrestling thus, he said, “I think it’s one of those sports that you look at the outside, it sucks because of all of the running and work but when you get in, it becomes fun and cool to do and I encourage people if you are looking for a challenge and looking for a way to push yourself and it’s a good opportunity.”
Wheeler Wrestler, Anthony Robinson (11), expressed gratitude and love for the sport, he explained the reason why he joined: “I saw all of my friends wrestling so I decided to join as well.” He describes the hardest part of being a wrestler stating “I think the hardest part is the amount of effort you make and how much you have to put in, like going to your matches and going practice, and just trying your best at everything for the tournament.”
“The biggest challenge is probably recovering.” He also describes his favorite part of being a wrestler stating “Being able to constantly see myself and getting better, and win more matches, the better I get, just be better every time.” Anthony was discussing that people can join but only if they have discipline. “I would recommend joining but only if they have discipline and if they’re willing to work hard.”
Matthew González (10th) A Wheeler Wrestler discussed his motivation to join the Wheeler wrestling team stating “When I was in Freshmen, at the time the varsity captain Matt Riddle which he was a senior, and I was interested in doing sports, and he invited me to practice one day, and ever since I got very into it, and I say my motivation is getting better and seeing a progress in something I enjoy.”
“In my opinion, the hardest part of wrestling is mentality, wrestling is mental, when you are at the mat, no matter how much effort and how much time do you put into it if you don’t have the mentality that you want to keep going and you’re going to win, then all of that really don’t matter then.”
“The people, my teammates and, friends, we call each other family because like everyone there is there for each other, it’s more like a family than teammates, we talk to each other about whatever. That’s the community we have.” Matthew faced multiple challenges and described the biggest challenges he faces are injuries: “I remember my freshmen year last year, it was my first time wrestling, and so like when you do moves for the first time, you will have to be used to it, and I remember getting hurt and injured, and my shoulder hurt for a month.” He also recommends people joining the wildcats wrestling team “If you like your kick a lot and running a lot, join but once you get the hang of it, it would be fun.”
