(Avoca) AHSTW got a late start to the wrestling season, but are working hard to make up for lost time.
The Vikings have competed at the Riverside Tournament, Western Iowa Conference Tournament, and have three duals under their belt. Coach Evan McCarthy says they lost eight practices and three competitions. “That’s about 20% of our competition schedule. I don’t if I could really quantify how far behind we are compared to where we wanted to be. It’s certainly significant, but we just have to continue to put in a bunch of time and develop and learn over this Christmas Break and hopefully we can hit our stride in the second half of the season.”
AHSTW beat Denison-Schleswig, Red Oak, and St. Albert on December 17th in their only dual action so far this season. “It was a pretty good night of wrestling for us. I thought we really competed hard. For some of our younger guys that was the first time they’d wrestled. To go out into a dual situation and understand that if you are overmatched you still have to go out and compete and give your best six minutes even if you aren’t going to win, but score some team points by keeping a fall off the board for the other team. I thought the young guys responded pretty well. That was nice to see, we just need to be more consistent with that type of effort later on in the year.”
The season didn’t get started the way anybody had likely envisioned. The Vikings were conducting virtual practices before they were all able to get together in the wrestling room. “I had a video screen up and all the guys had to put their school issued laptops and turn their camera on to them and do a workout. I thought it was pretty good. It caused our kids to mature a little bit and have a little accountability on their own when people weren’t watching.”
Garrison Gettler is off to a particularly strong start to the season with a 3rd place finish at the Riverside Tournament. He’s 7-2 and was the Western Iowa Conference runner-up. “Garrison has done a great job in the room being a good leader. He really works hard and sets a good example for young guys to look at and look up to. I’d say he’s probably stood out the most.”
Ahead for AHSTW after the break is a busy stretch. January 5th brings a quad with Abraham Lincoln, Tri-Center, and Southwest Iowa in Sidney. They compete in a quad with Griswold, ACGC, and East Mills on Thursday and have the Rollin Dyer Tournament in Atlantic on Saturday.
