Pin it to win it: Varsity team wrestles its way to 1-1-2 record
January 31, 2018
Devastated by a loss at his first wrestling match, sophomore Joey Katz resolved to beat his George- town Day School opponent in a rematch. He trained for extra hours, clocking in sweat-drenched sessions on weekends.
At the Nov. 29, 2017 meet at GDS, Katz approached the mat and looked nervously at the wrestler who had taken him down earlier that month, beating Katz by just one point. The referee grunted, “Go!” It took three punishing, 2-minute rounds for Katz to find satisfaction, pinning his opponent and winning the match.
“I redeemed myself because I worked hard,” Katz said.
For the CESJDS wrestling team, wrestling is not just a means of exercise; it is a way to learn valuable life lessons. The team, a group of 10 boys, practices from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, at the Lower School. During their training sessions, team members do conditioning exercises and refine wrestling techniques.
The wrestling team is not limited to high schoolers. Middle school students are also eligible, as long as they are committed to the sport. The combination of middle and high school students creates opportunities for collaboration and competition throughout the Upper School.
Eighth-grader Jason Vinokur originally joined the wrestling team to build strength and “get jacked.” He ended up gaining more than just muscle mass.
“I have made new friends on the team,” Vinokur said. “I get to meet high schoolers who I wouldn’t have met.”
Vinokur added that when a teammate sat on his shoulders for three sets of 25 squats, it cemented a life-long friendship.
Sophomore Adam Gaskill, a five-year veteran of the team, appreciates the dynamic between high school and middle school wrestlers, and said he discovered another valuable life lesson: what goes around, comes around.
“I have the opportunity to try to be a mentor and teach middle schoolers,” he said.
Before matches, Gaskill often approaches middle schoolers and offer them insider tricks about how to calm nerves and act decisively and quickly. Gaskill remembers what it felt like to be a young middle schooler on the team; his stomach filled with butterflies. He tells middle-schoolers to breathe, visualize their success and go in with a plan of their first three moves. He likes advising them the way older students advised him.
High school students like Gaskill are motivated to help middle school wrestlers because in the “intense” sport of wrestling, the competition exists on two levels, according to Director of Athletics Mike Riley.
“It’s an individual sport that keeps a team record, and then, at the same time, individuals are out there wrestling on their own,” Riley said.
Sophomore Adiv Liebstein added that each wrestler has to be well-rounded, unlike many other sports. Players cannot have weaknesses because teammates are not on the mats to compensate, he said.
“No one can bring you down, but no one can bring you up,” Liebstein said. “You have to prove you can do it on your own.”
For Liebestein, every meet is a learning experience. The best lessons, he said, come from a lost match. “The most important thing from a loss is to learn what you did wrong, so you don’t do it again,” Liebstein said.
He said this is a lesson that will help him not only in wrestling but also outside of the sport in his everyday life.
Time management is another skill Gaskill has honed from wrestling. Due to the time commitment, Gaskill has learned to get his work done at school and work efficiently at home.
At the end of the day, varsity wrestling coach Chuck Woolery said that wrestling is a metaphor for all of our struggles in life.
“We wrestle with what we want our life to be about,” Woolery said. “We wrestle with who we want to date. We wrestle with what job we want. We are always wrestling with ideas. To me, it’s about fundamental principles, about what it takes to come up on top to try to dominate your challenge.”
