One sport you really can’t appreciate until you see it first hand is wrestling. As many other people, my first reaction when I heard about wrestling was: "Why would I want to see a bunch of guys grabbing each other and rolling around on a mat?" After actually going to a meet, I apologize to all wrestlers for that quick generalization.

The sport is simple on paper. You’ve got three two-minute periods to either score more points than your opponent, or go for the pin. However, aside from the nonstop technical thinking a wrestler goes through in a match, he also must be strong enough to last, and finish strong.

There are many horror stories out there about how tough of a sport wrestling is, and how wrestlers have to do endless push-ups and countless laps at their practices, but I never took them seriously. Everybody on any team works hard, has tough practices, and works hard in competition. However, wrestling is truly different. Not only are the rumors about push-ups, laps, and constant work at practices true of wrestling, but they’re also necessary. Supreme physical condition is a necessity when out on the mat against monsters from the competing school.

Every part of a match is difficult. As a wrestler, you’ve got to walk up to the mat like you’re ready to kill, so as to make sure your opponent discovers no weakness. You then have to give a strong handshake to your opponent, again to stray away from a hint of weakness. Then the match starts, and after about ten seconds you and your competitor are twisted up in an unsolvable puzzle of tangled limbs and pools of sweat, but you can’t give up; you wouldn’t want to let your team down.

At some point one wrestler gets on top of the other. It is the job of the wrestler on top to try and pin the other wrestler, while the other is desperately trying not to get flipped onto their backs. While the wrestler on top pulls and stretches the other’s body, trying to flip him, the wrestler on bottom desperately grips the flat and unforgiving wrestling mat he lies upon. The look on the face of the bottom wrestler is so serious, so focused, that even when it appears that he is looking at his team, or his coaches, he really are only looking for the one small chance he gets to escape. It is truly disheartening to see such a display.

A great amount of pressure is put on a wrestler when competing. A multitude of fans are cheering for him, his whole team sits feet away and gives instructions on how to get the advantage, and the coaches stand tall and yell at the top of their lungs, always expecting better. Imagine being all alone out there, and having nobody to help you pull off the victory. In fact, all you have is your tenacity, your will, your courage, and your strength. You must be able to rely on yourself if you want a chance at success.

While the sport is already extremely strenuous, it gets worse. If a wrestler has the guts to last through the first period, and his opponent does too, which is the scenario in most cases, he is rewarded by a whistle, a couple of seconds, then having to start all over again. That’s right, there are no breaks in wrestling, just as there’s no crying in baseball. You don’t get a quarter break, a walk back to the huddle, a rest in-between innings, nothing. It’s literally six minutes straight of the toughest work you could ever imagine, and if you want to win, those six minutes must mean more to you than your opponent.

My greatest acknowledgements to all wrestlers out there, for you are some of the toughest people I’ve never met. The sport is a strainful, painful, and vicious sport which has no easy way out unless you want shame with it. Wrestlers truly must work hard for everything they earn, and that makes it that much more exciting to watch.

Paly’s wrestling season has come to an end. CCS took place, and Paly sent seven to the meet. While many did well, only one wrestler qualified for states, Tolu Wusu; he finished third in his weight class. Wusu lost his two matches at states, but still was ranked among the top 28 wrestlers in California when it was all over.

Wrestling is much more than a bunch of guys in spandex rolling around on a mat. Wrestling is the sport for true savages, and the strong willed. It is the toughest individual sport out there, and can only be won by the mentally and physically advantaged. To all wrestlers I hope you accept this form of apology, and please don’t put me in the guillotine; it looks like it hurts.