Harwood wrestlers stay in shape with an all-training season

March 20, 2021 | By Ben White

Harwood Union wrestler Ben White, left, cheers on a teammate at a pre-pandemic 2020 match alongside former HU wrestlers Calvin Morton, middle, and Sergej Beric, right. File photo by Gordon Miller.

Among the many casualties of the pandemic has been the high school sport of wrestling this school year. 

Wrestling competitions for the winter sports season were quickly dismissed, but the thought of months of inactivity didn’t bode well for the usually active Harwood Union High School wrestlers. 

With the dawn of the year 2021, Coach Casey Moulton sent out recruitment emails to previous wrestlers to let them know that the season was on, just not in the traditional sense. Although contact was prohibited, the ensuing practices were equally rigorous. Workouts and circuits constructed by Coach Moulton, former HU wrestler Sully O’Hara, as well as the rest of the team provided a difficult – yet socially distant – practice that kept the team in shape and maintained their athletic edge. 

“I'm very grateful that we were allowed to meet as a team even though this season was very different,” said Coach Moulton. I believe being able to meet was important for the future of this team as well as for individuals physically and mentally.” 

Usually a small team, the veterans were tight-knit and were flexible enough to adapt to the structural change in a short time. “It's nice to stay in contact with the team, although I’ve missed not being able to compete,” said junior Cam Merchant, who had been wrestling for five years and was ready for another season. 

Alex Lord, who went undefeated throughout his middle school career, felt similarly: “I love the exercise and being able to prepare for next season. I’m a freshman and it’s kinda a bummer that I wasn’t able to wrestle,” he said. 

For some, wrestling was a part of their usual school life, seeing as how it would normally take up three to four months of each school year. “I wasn’t expecting to be able to do anything this winter, but I'm glad we were given the opportunity to stay in shape and keep wrestling a part of my life,” said Grant McCracken, a third-year wrestler. 

There were those whose first experience with the sport was this altered season, which exceeded expectations like those of junior Jason Russell. “I’ve never wrestled before and so I didn’t really have anything to go off of,” he said. “I was expecting hard practices, and that’s just what I got.” 

Once every week, highly respected and former HU coach Brian Wagner led the team in the deep snow for a 4-5 mile run, keeping the team’s cardio in check – even once bringing to light a “Rocky-esque” training workout that involved sprinting through the snow while carrying logs over their shoulders.

“It was fun to be able to get the wrestlers back, and try something different this year, given the situation,” Wagner said. 

The Harwood wrestling team has shown incredible resilience and was forced to undergo tremendous adaptations in order to continue training together in this new world of masks and social distancing. But as Olympic gold medalist Dan Gable once said, “Once you’ve wrestled, everything else in life is easy.”

Harwood junior Ben White is captain of the wrestling team. He sums up winter 2021 this way:  “Overall, despite the bizarre season, it’s truly fantastic to see the wrestling team come together and bring a gung-ho attitude to each challenge and practice. I look forward to what kind of trouble we’ll bring next season.”