Tomorrow is a big day for the Reaper Wrestlers. Tomorrow sets the tone for the off season for our JV kids. If we want to continue the success we had today, it is necessary to wrestle in the off season. I have nothing against participating in other sports and in fact I support it. But wrestling a on a weekend once or twice a month will not hurt anyone and will strengthen our program. I spoke to the kids about Wilmington's program today. I've spoken with their coaches and tried to pick their brains as much as I could, and the only difference I see in them is experience. Their coaching staff is good, but I don't think better than ours. They have a smaller school population and their kids don't have super powers, but what they do have is experience. I asked Coach Murphy once how many matches his guys get in the off season. His response floored me. He told me that on average EVERY guy gets about 35-40 matches in during the off season. They still play baseball and run track, and their football team is in the playoffs every year as well. If we want to get to the next level, the level where Wilimington is, we have to wrestle more matches...period.
Tomorrow is big for our varsity guys as well. Tomorrow will determine a lot of seeds for the regional tournament next week, which will have implications for sectionals and consequently the state tournament. We need to wrestle well and beat guys we haven't before and make sure we take care of the guys we already have beaten. We can't regress. Tomorrow shows who worked harder this season, us or them. I'd like to think that I have the hardest working group of kids in the conference. We'll have to see if I'm right tomorrow. Get some rest men, we go to work early in the AM.
