The Wauwatosa West and East combined wrestling team will host their final open house meeting on Tuesday, October 31,2023 after school in the Tosa West Wrestling gym located on the second floor of Wauwatosa West High School.
The team will also host “open mat” events on Monday October 30th and Tuesday, October 31th as well as the following Monday, November 6th and Tuesday, November 7th. The official season begins November 13th, 2023.
The team wants to increase the number of students who are participating and make students aware of how the sport of wrestling works and the benefits to participating.
Coach Max Nelson believes wrestling is a sport that teaches individuals important life skills. Although students are part of the wrestling team, students compete individually.
“There isn’t really any sport that prepares you to handle things individually, like wrestling does on your own and then also participates in teammates,” he says.
Wrestling offers students the benefits of a team sport with tight bonds and relationships developing among teammates, while also offering the benefits of being independent.
“But so even though you’re on a team with everybody, we do dual meets, and it’s a big team sport, everything like that. You’re only out there by yourself in a wrestling match. No one can help you. You gotta learn how to, you know, handle yourself, get wins for your team certain ways with one another.” said Nelson.
Wrestlers may face challenges on the mat, but Nelson believes these challenges may prepare students to meet the challenges they encounter in other areas of their life.
“By yourself or with the team you may go through things that are hard or matches that are difficult. Wrestling teaches you to find ways to figure things out, or find a way around the situation.” said Nelson.
All students will have the opportunity to try wrestling during the “open mat” events held every Monday and Tuesday before the start of the season.
Open mat offers students a way to try the sport without committing to being on the team.
“We are not allowed to coach outside of the season. so we have an open mat for everyone to work out and try wrestling if they want to. And then we’ll have some of the seniors helping out and kind of coaching along and doing stuff like that as well.” said Nelson.
Senior Messiah Washington is one of three girls on the girls wrestling team which started in 2021.
While others may have different opinions about wrestling, Messiah believes it builds character and strength. She also believes it’s a great way to learn self defense.
“I like the team work about wrestling and I like how physical it is. It’s a very fun but difficult sport, [it’s] fun when you know what you’re doing.”
