Showing improvement in their most recent tournament, the wrestling team returns to face Wakeland Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Wakeland High School. 

“We’re preparing to compete tomorrow the same way we prepare every week. Just concentrating on the basic fundamentals and conditioning,” co-head coach Justin Koons said. “Wakeland is going to be a tough team to beat and it could come down to numbers. We have a handful of athletes out due to unforeseen circumstances but every team is in the same boat. 

Koons believes these matches are not about wins, but about getting practice on the mat.

“I’ve challenged the team to earn their mat time and I believe they’ve done just that,” Koons said. “Every match is an opportunity to gain practice time against an opponent and the more mat time the more practice. It’s not about wins and loses right now, no one wins district, region, or state right now. We’ll concentrate on that at the end of January and in February.”

For freshman Dani Banks, continuing to persevere will be key in the matches.

“We are working harder,” Banks said. “We have one of our old retired coaches back with us and we are doing a lot of standups to prepare.”