As winter approaches, fall sports came to a close and the winter sports have begun. The Freedom Area High School wrestling team has began their pre-season preparations, as of the first week in November. These preparations include running, learning new wrestling moves and practicing by wrestling one another.

After losing four seniors to graduation, the remaining upperclassmen had to step up and become the leaders before they even had their season opener. This year, Junior Levi Bonzo and Sophomore Dean Ward were chosen as the team captains.

“We’re only missing two weight classes, so we should be able to beat teams we weren’t able to last year and win a couple play off matches,” Ward said.

Wrestling is both an individual, as well as a team sport. Wrestlers are alone on the mats and are held more accountable for the team’s win or loss than in many other sports. At the end of the match, either the wrestler’s hand is raised in victory, ensuring points for the entire team, or not, resulting in points for the other team.

With 14 weight classes, there are 14 opportunities for different members of the FHS wrestling team to succeed during a wrestling match.

If a team doesn’t have members to fill certain weight classes, they’ll be forced to forfeit for that particular weight class. Since FHS is smaller than many of the other local schools with wrestling teams, the wrestling team is at a slight disadvantage when it comes filling the spots in all the weight classes. In order to keep a weight class, wrestlers have to maintain their weight all season long, this is to ensure the the team has members eligible to wrestle.

Despite the loss of several key seniors, many new underclassmen have joined the team this season. The team has no seniors this year, and only 3 juniors leaving many underclassmen with the opportunity to fill the shoes of past wrestlers. Freshman Hailee Uhazy currently wrestles for the junior high team and is the only FHS female to be apart of the wrestling program.

With the added members this year, the FHS wrestling team is the biggest it’s ever been in recent years. Sophomores Dean Ward, Kody Komara and Freshman Chase Komara all placed at the Char-Houston tournament on Dec. 6.

“Coach has high expectations for all of us, so I just try and work my hardest,” Komara said.

Even though the team only has two home matches this season that have already taken place, the boys still need the support from the school, as well as the community. With multiple tournaments scheduled to take place this season, there are many opportunities to attend these events and support the FHS wrestling team.