Bear River’s wrestling team is ready to tackle their season.

With another year of wrestling beginning, both new and returning wrestling team members are preparing for the season. However, some students aren’t familiar with what this sport is like. Clayton Anderson, a senior and veteran wrestler of seven years, was able to explain.

“Practice is rough,” he said, “We go to one of the classrooms up there … wrestle for about an hour and half, hour and 40 minutes, and then you do cardio around there. It’s like a big old sauna in there. It’s not a good time, but it gets you in shape.”

Aidan Smith, another senior wrestler with two years of experience, shared more about the wrestling team’s training.

“Lots of conditioning and cardio,” he said. “We definitely do a lot of physical work too. We call it drilling, and it’s pretty much just practicing our shots over and over on the same person. It’s pretty much non-stop, so you get the good sweat going.”

Despite the intense workout session, those who are on the team still enjoy it, such as Ashlyn Canizalez, a sophomore with two years of experience and the only girl on the wrestling team as of now.

“I do enjoy the wrestling team,” she said. “There’s such a strong bond in there and you can feel the vibe in the room. It’s just a really nice time.”

Aidan Smith described what he enjoys about participating in the team.

“I actually really love being on the mat and being part of the team, because I’m able to get my aggression out and being able to control my body,” he said. “It’s all around a fun sport.”

Canizalez commented on hazards that come with participating in such a physical sport.

“I don’t think there’s any special injuries,” she said. “I mean it really gets down on our knees, but I wouldn’t say it’s more dangerous than football or anything.”

Smith had a differing view, stating that there is always a dangerous aspect to wrestling.

“There’s a lot of shoulder injuries, lots of broken fingers,” he said. “I’ve broken several of my fingers, lot of knee injuries and stuff like that. There’s always that danger of breaking something in your body, but it’s not too bad.”

There is equipment to prevent these injuries, as Anderson described.

“We use a singlet (skin tight sleeveless uniform),” he said “You’ve seen what female gymnasts wear? It’s like that, but with legs. It covers your legs to your mid-thigh, and then you wear headgear, because your ears can get hurt. If you have long hair, you can wear a little thing for your hair, but that’s pretty much it the besides wrestling shoes.”

Despite the risk and cost of being on the wrestling team, Coach Kevin Figueroa reported they were ready to take on the season with strength and vigor.

“The wrestlers are doing really well right now and we are taking on Center & Foothill High School on Wednesday, December 12th, to start the season,” he said.

With the season having just begun, Canizalez expressed her feelings about how the season will go.

“[I’m] very excited for the season,” she said, “It’s going to be very interesting, and we’re going to do very well – I can already tell.”