Emotion runs through the gym as the clock ticks, everyday practicing on the mat until 6pm was for this moment. The ref slaps the mat counting down from three. With the room filled with anticipation the ref calls pin… the bleachers rumble like an earthquake and the air splashes from the cheering! In wrestling everything is personal.

That’s what wrestling is, every match booming with deafening sounds of support and love from family, teammates, and friends alike, and In wrestling it’s needed: to quote from many, “wrestling is the hardest sport out there.” with athletes showing up to practice 6 days of every week training until they are on the verge of throwing up.

Daniel Lopez (JV1 wrestler) agrees, he says – “it’s good for the wrestlers to know that there are people supporting them and that they actually find interest in the sport that way.” Wrestlers everyday leave practice physically and mentally exhausted, so it’s no duh that most years more than half the people that sign up end up dropping the sport entirely by the end of the season.

“it means a lot for the wrestlers to have someone in the stands watching them”-says Samuel Mena (JV2 wrestler) Unfortunately enough as it is to say Leydens wrestling statistics have been so insignificant that there are almost no online records/statistics.

Wrestling is one of the oldest yet one of the more niche sports with it being rated 20th on top rated sports. “I know I’m biased as a wrestler, but I think wrestling is one of the most underrated sporting events. I think it’s so action packed, just like every other sport”- says Dominic Guinear (Varsity wrestler) Undeniably Leyden has a below average JV with most matches ending either in immediate defeat or hard fought loss.  But where JV lacks in skill Varsity makes up for it. Leyden has 2 state champion wrestlers as of now with them being Erick Worwa and Zoey Dodgers

Emotion runs through the veins of every believer in the bleachers, chairs but most importantly the mat. Etched into the roots of your biology-wrestling is a sport that can relate to everyone, No matter who you are. So tune in to some wrestling either online or in person; and enjoy some of the most brutal, beautiful, jaw dropping events you might ever see.

-inside the wrestling room before a match*