After a successful 2024 season, the wrestling team were district runner-ups last year in 2023. The Wrestling team was 3rd place in the region and 12th place in the state tournament, with two individual state champions and  8th athletes that qualified for the state tournament. Varsity Coach Gregory Flournoy commented, saying last year, players Caden Smith and Tristan Corbin were state champions, Flournoy said. This year he said that they are having five returning players to state qualifiers. Flournoy has high hopes for his team this year and is excited to start the season. His athletes have been practicing, and spent a lot of time in the off-season getting better.

Coach Flournoy made some major changes over the off-season, focusing  mostly on strength training. This year, he plans to spend more time in the weight room and mostly focus on being more physical and in shape than the competition that we face, with athletes currently practicing multiple times a day throughout the week to ensure that they are ready to go. 

 Coach Flournoy predicted that the hardest teams to beat this year will be West Springfield, last year’s district champions, and Fairfax High School. With matches to win and frequent practices to prepare for these tough opponents, Sophomore Jackson Simons thinks that being on the wrestling team is very difficult. “People give you crap about being a wrestler, but the overall experience as a wrestler is fun,” said Simons. Last year he said that the team started off a little bit shaky  in the beginning, but they worked hard and developed their team by the end of the season.

Simmons continued, saying “I have been wrestling for about fifteen years and it’s one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, especially my freshman year during the team, being able to be a starter last year as a Freshman.” Echoing the words of his coach, Simmons thinks the hardest team to beat is  West Springfield after a tough loss to them last year. 

When asked about the team, Junior Lincoln Novy said that “Being on the wrestling team is like a ginormous brotherhood, like a huge family. We are all on a group chat and we are always hanging out with each other.”