As the season comes to an end, the challenges the girl’s wrestling team faces when preparing for state can negatively affect both physical and mental health.
Trinity Myers ‘25 has been wrestling for two years and shares her experiences with mental and physical challenges throughout the seasons.
“I would say it’s a lot more mental [than] physical. You know, everyone’s in shape by the time regionals roll around,” Myers said. “It’s not about how strong you are, or technique honestly, it just comes down to how you think about yourself.”
Myers isn’t the only one on the team who has faced harsh mental challenges that occur prior to state. Peyten Van Dyke ’27 explains the pressure of meeting physical ideals and certain standards when it comes to making weight.
“The second time someone didn’t make weight, we had two times the amount of punishments and sprints,” Van Dyke said. “This just keeps us all honest about our weight and requires us to help out our other teammates in need.”
During the wrestling season, the team had to endure severe physical challenges and punishments that made the team as a unit very strong even more so mentally rather than physically.
Many girls on the team talk about how much wrestling impacted them mentally and how they overcame some of the more difficult aspects when it comes to wrestling.
“The mental stress of wrestling is unlike any other due to various aspects making weight being the most apparent, but there are several factors that influence it like being completely alone during your match or the competitiveness between teammates and fighting for spots,” Vandyke ’27 explains
The majority of wrestlers quit or drop out within the first month due to these challenges. The wrestlers who persevere, improve their mental toughness as each wrestler searches for a way to push through.
“I’m not afraid to wrestle anyone that I’m standing in front of, but I put my faith in God and I know that all things will go as planned,” Myers said.
Wrestling looks like an individual sport but Senior Helen Orsuzula talks about the team aspect and her putting forth the effort to be stronger as a team.
“I felt like I was letting my team down in [a] way and because I was never the girl who didn’t make weight and I was ashamed.” Helen Orszula ‘24.
Pushing yourself can be important in any type of sport but because of how challenging wrestling is physically and mentally, it is one of the most challenging aspects of the sport.
“Whenever you hit the wall, and then you go beyond it you push the wall back for the next time,” Helen Orszula ’24.
