By Kennedy Werner

“ARE YOU READY FOR SOME WRESTLING?” reads the headline on Walled Lake Central’s varsity wrestling homepage. With a new season in store, Coach Al Freeman and team are excited and ready to set goals and conquer.

With personal training and an altogether team effort, the men have all agreed they are shooting for all-state titles. Although they lost a few crucial seniors from the 2013 class, the Vikings are still prepared to dominate.

“Losing Mitch Craig, our all-state 160 pounder is a big loss,” said returning junior Prince Owenu, “But we’re still solid.”

The team is looking forward to building on its current strengths and new additions.

“The thing I’m looking forward to the most this season is how much our team has improved from last year,” said sophomore varsity player Kaleb Marion, “We gained freshman Ben Freeman, who is nationally ranked, and junior transfer from Lakeland, Dominic Peterra.”

Official practices are scheduled to begin November 18 in the wrestling room from 4:00 to 8:00PM.  Practice consists of drills and live wrestling; extensive hours are put in for grand results.

As the team practices significantly, they agree on one thing, looking forward to game day.

“Game day is the time when we’re just excited to wrestle,” said Owenu, “I just go out to win.”

Marion added, “I used to get nervous before matches but after 8 years, I don’t get nervous anymore. But I still get butterflies before every match.”

Back in October, the team worked with new athletic trainer, Rachael German, to be examined in a skin fold test. That is, see their weights for their weight class goals through body fats.

“It was like a sign the season is almost here,” said Onwenu.

Coach A. Freeman is proud to return for another season, being a two-time NCAA Division I All-American athlete. Along with many other accomplishments, the coaching staff of the team is ready to use their talents and abilities to help the team grow and achieve their all-state goals.

“[We] promote athletic excellence, good sportsmanship, and character building relationships among athletes, coaches and parents,” said Coach Freeman in a press release.