Telephone poles, water jugs, sandbags, oh my! This might seem like unusual sports equipment, but to the St. George’s wrestling team, it’s nothing new.

This year has seen one of the strongest wrestling teams in the history of St. George’s. They have experienced great wins against teams such as MUS, Briarcrest and Cordova, and their team has been supported by strong leadership from seniors Griffin Brown, Daniel Hutchison, Owen Miller and Drew Ruffin, who led their team into 3rd place in the state championship. The team brought home a huge win against Knoxville Webb, 68-11.

Some students who aren’t familiar with wrestling are often confused by the specifics, not able to understand the mysterious weight cutting and weight management. Weight classes are crucial when it comes to whom your opponent will be when it comes time for a match.

According to junior Jake Lindow, this is the first year that the St. George’s team is made up of boys in every weight class. In years past, there have been situations when wrestlers went to extreme lengths in order to fall into certain weight classes. These fourteen different weight classes, ranging from 106 pounds to 285 pounds, can make students shy away from the sport.

“I think people don’t come out for it because either they are afraid of it or because it’s kind of a different sport,” Head Wrestling Coach Mr. Jefferson Brant said.

Many students are curious just what the sport entails, including the work and fitness that play into the sport and how exactly one trains for wrestling.

“We do a lot of heavy weightlifting mixed in with conditioning,” Ruffin said on some of the most common wrestling workouts. “Every Thursday, called Thrasher Thursday, we would carry sandbags, telephone poles or water jugs along the beach and, in between the weightlifting, we would be running sprints for our break.”

“It requires more extreme conditioning than most sports, which is why we try to mix it up,” Coach Brant said. “We go down to the beach a lot, we do track workouts, [and] we have little games we play.”

Coach Brant pays special attention to weight management and ensures that his wrestlers maintain healthy habits. He assures that no wrestler is starving himself or restricting himself with personal diets.

“There is no more crash dieting, but there is management. Before the season, every single wrestler in the state of Tennessee has to do a hydration test, [which] works out the lowest possible weight you can go that season,” Coach Brant said. “I as a coach have to take those weights and put them into an online system that keeps track and states what your weight can be the next day and the day after day. You can only descend at a gradual weight to your lowest class.”

Wrestlers go through a number of techniques to drop into a certain weight class.

“For breakfast, I would have toast and peanut butter and that’s it, and I would skip lunch and have a light dinner,” Ruffin said. “If you’re up in the light weights, you have to take it really slow because you don’t have a lot of body fat. If you’re in the heavier weights, you can take a more extreme approach because you have a lot more body fat to get rid of.”

“As long as you’re eating normal, it’s fine,” Lindow said. “I tend to know how much I am going to lose or going to gain.”

Health is the first concern for the wrestling team.

“We have to watch the guys and make sure they don’t get too crazy with how far they descend,” Coach Brant said. “I have never made kids cut down. I have had kids decide to descend, and we watch them closely. As a coach, I have to watch and make sure kids are not doing it to an unsafe level.”

From the outside, wrestling can seem like a demanding sport, as it consists of vastly different aspects compared to sports such as football or basketball, but it can offer so much more than other sports according to the team.

“Almost everybody loses in the beginning. It’s a great sport for character development, and it makes you a confident person and a humble person,” Coach Brant said. “There are always points where you are going to have to be mentally tough and, if you don’t push yourself in practice, you’re not going to be physically and mentally capable to win matches.”

“We have a Latin motto: Everyday, every way, work hard, get better, gryphon wrestling, head and heart,” Ruffin said. “That is the most important part of wrestling: keeping a good mental state and giving it your all.”