There seems to be a wrestling buzz this year. While most people are paying attention to football right now and the upcoming homecoming dance, wrestlers are hard at work preparing themselves for the upcoming season. Many wrestlers that aren’t in a fall sport are taking part in the preseason training regimen.

This regimen consists of alternating days of weightlifting and open mat wrestling.

Head varsity coach Mr. Fumagalli has many goals for the upcoming season.

“I want to have a team gpa of 3.0.“

He elaborated by explaining how “it is significant that the word ‘student’ precedes ‘athlete’ in the term student-athlete. Our wrestlers are students first.”

He went on to say that “being a student-athlete means balancing both [school and academics]. That requires them to manage their time, take care of their bodies (proper nutrition & sleep), and maximize their effort in all facets of life.”

He acknowledges that it won’t be easy, but speaking from personal experience, he explained that “it can be done.”

He also added that, “I also want to win conference and regionals. I want to win every overtime match and every sudden victory period, and I want to blow out the teams we should blow out.”

These teams include Fenton, Proviso East, and Rolling Meadows, among others in the conference.

While Coach Fumagalli would like to dominant this year as a team, he’d like the wrestlers to dominant as individuals as well.

He stressed the importance of preseason in helping the wrestlers prepare physically.

“Preseasons puts you in better shape. The thing about wrestling is you can only get into wrestling shape by wrestling because being in shape and being in wrestling shape are two different things.”

He also acknowledged the fact that there is a mental aspect that goes along with preseason as well.

“I think there is a confidence level for the kids competing knowing they trained all fall. Really most of our guys have been wrestling since summer, [so] there’s a confidence in knowing you’ve trained harder and longer than everyone else.”

Varsity captain Todd Cruz and varsity starter Dante Fries agree that it’s going to be an intense season.

“We might not have the best wrestlers skill wise this year, but we are trained to work harder than anyone and that’s going to be our key to success this year,” Cruz said.

Fries added that the increase in hard work will make a huge difference.

“Preseason gets my conditioning ready, and brings back that wrestling feeling.”

The effects of this preseason will be seen during the National Michigan tournament that 8 of the team’s varsity starters are competing in on Oct 13.

The first meet of the regular season is November 20th at home against Rolling Meadows.