Hitting the Mat: Wrestling Grapples with New Season and New Goals

By: Kelsey Kiely and Hayley Porkonowski, Staff Writers

Foran wrestlers are excited for a new and Covid-19 free season. Last year, athletes on the team weren’t allowed to be at every match. This did not give athletes the opportunity to be as prepared as they were in seasons past.

    Mr. David Esposito, wrestling head coach is getting a head start on the season, by requesting athletes who don’t participate in fall sports to attend pre-season conditioning. During conditioning, wrestlers run a mile, participate in a series of workouts, and run up and down the bleachers with another athlete on their back multiple times.

    Pre-season conditioning helps train wrestlers prepare for the actual season. Wrestlers need to be physically strong, but also mentally. Junior Captain Mason Hallstrom states, “You can be all strength and technique, but if you don’t have the mentality to push through when it’s a close match or getting whooped, you can’t win any matches.”

    Hallstrom has been a wrestler for seven years and still believes wrestlers have to continue with an aggressive and positive attitude throughout the entire season. Senior Captain Craig Mager adds that showing up each day is one of the toughest tasks a wrestler has to do during the season.

    Mager states that some of the challenges are “Getting through a hard practice or stepping on the wrestling mat, like it’s just you being the center of attention.”

    This lets wrestlers know they have to put in a significant amount of work to ensure the team is comfortable getting ready for meets.

    Both Coach Esposito and the team are hoping to have a good season, with returning wrestlers trying to get new records, and the team as a whole to improve.

    Mager is hoping for the team to get the class M championship, for himself to win the class M championship in his weight class, and to make states. Hallstrom is looking forward to seeing his off season training show for the actual season, and wanting a state title.

    Mager and Hallstrom enjoy wrestling at Foran since the team brings them good memories with the camaraderie that goes throughout the seasons, as well as playing games.

    Coach Esposito has coached this team for many years after wrestling at Foran himself. He says, “I think it’s a great sport for young men and young women to not only learn the sport but also learn the values that make you good at that sport which are dedication, hard work, perseverance, you know responding to failure.”

    Coach Esposito and the three captains are ready to start the season the Monday after Thanksgiving.