With the upcoming winter sports season, wrestling has made the most of the practices to create a capable team for the  2020-2021 season. Last season, the wrestling team ended with a spectacular season with four wrestlers advancing to IHSAA state. As the team graduated seniors, coaches have learned to adapt to a new team with new talent this upcoming season. 

     “As we’ve been going to off-season tournaments to just find good people to wrestle and get the experience it becomes clear that we just seem to have more mat time and opportunities to grow as wrestlers,” senior Zac Dray said. 

     The wrestlers have experienced little to no challenges and have been taking advantage of every opportunity they can get. The official schedule is undetermined besides having regular morning and afternoon practices daily. The wrestling team is prepared to give their all in-state and maintain their top ten wrestlers including the top two wrestlers in the state this season. 

     “With the temperature checks before and after practices, we realize how serious this all is and how much we want a season; after all, we don’t want to take a step back and realize that we don’t have a lot of time until state,” senior Marquarias Wilburn said. 

      The wrestling team has followed district mandate by temperature checks and every day they maintain themselves to the highest standards with keeping each other safe. The wrestling team cleans the room every day after practices, sanitizes, and has coaches wear face masks when on the mat. 

     “The pandemic has changed our current situation and we have had to structure and categorize our wrestlers. Aside from this, at the end of the day, great teams take advantage of anything and we can control the things we can control to end the day with outstanding results. We expect nothing less than state-champion effort during practices,” coach Matthew Krulik said.

     The team has shown nothing but great promise and development as seniors graduated and as freshmen entered and the pandemic hasn’t slowed them down. As the season is starting to manifest itself, the wrestling team continues to strive for greatness every single day at practice. The wrestling team is still accepting new female and male wrestlers as long as they email Krulik at mkrulik@warren.k12.in.us.