Get ready Warriors for this year’s 2021 Wrestling season! With team leaders Austin Elger and Dylan Cleveland. Coaches for this year’s season consist of Mr.Fortmann and Ms.Rouse. Going further into this year’s season Mr.Fortmann was asked who are some of the returning players, he told us, “We have eleven returning starters who wrestled at the regional tournament for us and scored points for us. We almost returned our whole team. Eleven out of fourteen. So we are really excited to have those members return and play for our team. It is a new year, new skills, everyone is older and wiser.” The team does not do captains but instead do senior leaders and as said before Austin Elger was chosen for that role. Mr.Fortmann explained, “Austin will be one of the senior leaders because he has been with us the longest. He has been with us through youth. He has been on varsity for a while, he also is a state qualifier. He is the guy that does everything you need your players to do. He has earned this opportunity and we are really excited for him to lead the team this year.” When moving forward in the conversation with Mr.Fortmann he excitedly said how he thinks this year’s season will go, “The big thing for us is focusing on room for improvements so when we need them we are ready. Another factor is to stay healthy. Wrestling is such a physical sport that we need to make sure the guys are taking care of their bodies and resting. Resting is very important. Eating the right foods especially. If we can accomplish that then I am really excited to see what these guys can do as a team.” Furthermore, a team does not function without a coach so we took the time to ask Mr.Fortmann what he as a coach is going to do differently compared to last year, “This year is a completely different year compared to last year due to the covid restrictions. We are going to do a lot of things differently. We did not get to participate in any tournaments until we got to the WIA Series. I think one of the things I learned last year since we had such a young team is that I need to make sure the players know everything they are getting into. Having an itinerary for everything we are going to do. Talk to the players about how the setup for tournaments is going to be because talking about it I believe will sort of erasing that anxiety and nerves of not knowing what these new situations are going to be, especially for our freshman and sophomores because they did not get to wrestle in any tournaments. I mean being able to control the things we can control and giving them a heads up on how things are going to run will definitely help. Something we are really focusing on this year that is different is trying to get the mental edge. Wrestling is a team yet individual sport. I think the players put a lot of pressure on themselves when they are out there. Wrestling is different 

from football or baseball where they have other players out there, wrestling is just you. I as the coach want to make sure my players are in the right mental state for wrestling this year.” Coming to the end we wish the Warrior’s good luck. For more information on the boy’s wrestling team contact one of the four-team managers. Sophie McNally, Alivia Mendez, Grace Terlion, and Mia McCarroll. Don’t forget to follow the wrestling team’s very own Instagram page @muskegowrestling.