The Brecksville wrestlers have a great end of the season coming up with state series (Sectional, District, State). The teams this season are the Suburban League Team Champions and the State Dual Regional Champions. This isn’t the first year the wrestling team has “wowed us”, according to the Brecksville Wrestling coach, Mr. Todd Haverdill. “The Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School wrestling team has been in the National Rankings (top 50 teams in the United States) every year since 2012.” It is no secret that success takes a great deal of hard work.
Christian Perez, a freshman and currently in his second year of wrestling says, “During practice, we focus a lot on drilling, which involves practicing various techniques we’ve learned or are learning that day. We typically cover 3-5 different techniques per practice session.”
Trevor Sponseller, a junior who has been wrestling for 8 years also says, “Some things wrestlers do during practice are drill attacks, stimulate those attacks in a live go, wrestle live.” This helps wrestlers to be prepared during matches and have a variety of techniques they can use easily. Anything can happen when on the mat, being prepared is a must.
Perez explains, “The most challenging aspect of wrestling is the peculiar feeling before a match, which tends to make me wrestle stiffly. To overcome this, I remind myself to enjoy the moment, though it usually takes some time into the match to fully relax.” Many people overlook the mental aspect of wrestling, which is more demanding than the physical aspect.
Harrison Haffner, junior, who has been wrestling for 13 years, explains “The hardest part of wrestling I think is cutting weight. I overcame cutting weight by distracting myself with fun things.” Wrestlers cut weight so they can get into as low of a weight class as possible, and then they gain the weight back before the actual match, which gives them an advantage.
Eating can be very difficult and hard on the wrestlers both mentally and physically. Anna Madi, a sophmore and third year wrestler explains, “[It is] easier if you do it gradually versus doing it all in like 2 days.” The wrestlers work hard to improve on their skills while also incorporating fun, like dodgeball games as a warmup during practice to celebrate a wrestler’s birthday.
Julio Molina, senior, has been wrestling for four years gives the advice. “[Do}not give up when you are in a bad situation or losing by a lot. Work hard and give it all you got because one simple move can change the result of a match.” Wrestling involves so much technical skills and is much harder than it looks.
Many of the wrestlers ultimate goal is to be a state champion. With the season wrapping up, wrestlers are putting all they got to end with a bang.
After the season is over, the team will transition into freestyle wrestling (Olympic style) until August, but they hope to have a while to go before they end.
