The intoxicating smell of sweat mixed with deodorant reaches out and smacks you right in the face when you walk into the gym. You can see bodies move across the big mat, while hearing the parents cheer for their kids. The audience can feel the teammates’ and coaches’ nervousness of wanting to win.

Kimmons boys who wrestle for Northside High School face many challenges.

“My biggest challenge is building my stamina because it can be the longest minutes of your life,” Eli Bolton, 9th, said.

Every wrestler has his own little way of preparing for a match.

“I first listen to some music and then I do my warm-ups so I can be loose and relaxed before my match,” Alex Nguyen, 9th, said.

Joining the wrestling team takes motivation and a lot of dedication.

“What motivated me to join the Northside wrestling team is that it gets you tougher mentally and physically,” Dejay Patthong, 9th, said. “One thing that keeps me motivated throughout the season is that quitting is a sign of failure.”

Not only do the wrestlers have to have motivation and dedication, the coach does too.

“The reason I coach wrestling is to help grow leaders in our community,” Coach Shaffer said. “Being able to be a positive influence on the future gives me motivation to continue in this sport. Wrestling has been called the Marine Corp of high school sports and requires complete dedication to compete at such a high level. Wrestling teaches the young athletes to not give up on themselves. Wrestling is a staple in life – not just a sport, but a way of looking at everything in a different way, a push through each drop of sweat, every black eye, any puddle of blood and all the hard breathing at the end of practice, all effectively bandaged by the hand-raise at the end of the match.”