Junior Kadin Trahan performing a “Fireman” on senior Sefton Strickland. Photo courtesy of reporter Kevin Rodriguez.
San Luis Obispo High School has a wrestling team that goes unnoticed and underappreciatedfrom peers most of the year. Expressions interviewed wrestling coach Brandon Drucker, junior wrestler Chance Evans, and senior Abigail Russell about their thoughts on wrestling and why it deserves more attention.Expressions: Why did you choose to do wrestling?Wrestling Coach Brandon Drucker: Why I chose to wrestle in the first place is kind of silly.I had no idea what the sport was, I just thought I wanted to do a sport every trimester when Iwas signing up for high school. I was going to run cross country, wrestle, then play tennis.During the summer I realized I hated running, wasn’t nearly good enough at tennis, and fit rightin at wrestling where I beat the other little guys for the 103 lb varsity spot as a freshman. I had achip on my shoulder, and I became hooked on the thrill of a battle between me and whoeverstepped to the other line.
Junior wrestler Chance Evans: I think it builds a lot of personalities. And it says goodoverall for your work ethic. Also your physical health and mental health. I think it’s a goodrelease. And it’s just, it’s fun. It’s a very good environment.Senior wrestler Abigail Russell: It’s a very fun sport. The team is like a family and there’shonestly no other sport that works just as hard as wrestling does. I mean, football sure they workhard, but I’d say wrestling still works harder and it’s just a really fun sport overall.Expressions: What does wrestling look like?Drucker: Wrestling is a one-on-one battle of your will vs theirs. Sometimes it’s lopsided andsomeone is handed a beating in seconds, sometimes it’s 12-15 minutes of brutal back and forthsettled by a single escape in triple overtime.Evans: Just a lot. a lot of effort. A lot of just like, your mentality. You’re just you’re both puttingyour best foot forward, going at it as hard as you can. And, you know, the guy who prepares thebest and tries the hardest and has the best mentality wins.Russell: When I’m on the mat? Honestly, I kind of zone everything out, and all I see is myopponent in front of me and I hear my coaches sometimes I But most time I hear my coach istelling me what I need to do if I need to grab a leg circle behind and it’s very just, everything’s onthe mat like nothing else matters. Nothing else exists.Expressions: What is the hardest part about wrestling?Drucker: It demands more than most others and if you’re just doing the bare minimum,success will elude you. There isn’t a team of people out there to rely on to pick up the slack orcover you when you get in a tough spot. You have to take that beating and it’s very personal.Being able to pick yourself up and wrestle the next match in 45 min at a big tournament is ahard skill to master. And that’s after you’ve at least gotten yourself to the point where you get upearly before school and learn how to work your ass off until you wanna vomit on the regular.Evans: I think the hardest part is probably practice and preparing, just knowing the physicaleffort you’re going to have to go through and just the whole aspect mentally, it’s tiring,physically, it’s tiring. Just awesome.Russell: The effort like on a level of one to 1010 being the hardest, I’d say is a good at least aneight and it’s honestly on the individual because it’s you against yourself. You have to put in thework your coach tells you to do things but it’s up to you to deal with your max effort.Expressions: Why is the sport slowly losing popularity?Drucker: I don’t know that the sport is losing popularity overall, I think it just depends whereyou look. Up until COVID tournaments and especially girls wrestling were getting bigger thanever. We had more girls coming out for the middle school program than guys. I saw acontraction of the sport when I was in HS with colleges closing programs all over. Still, the sportseems to be doing better now, even after a couple of awkward years. SLO HS is a small schooland our squad tends to fluctuate. I had teams of barely 15 kids ten-ish years ago when I firststarted, and we have consistently had 20-30 in the last few years. I don’t make cuts duringtryout week, most that can’t handle it cut. Those who stay will be champions. We had CIFchamps and placers last year and we’ll have more this year with likely 2-3 more state qualifiers.Evans: I guess losing popularity because, one a lot of people associate it with like, wearing aleotard. Like a singlet and being shirtless and sweaty, and touching other guys, but I just think Ithink you kinda kind of have to ignore that part of it.
Russell: I think it’s gained some popularity in some areas, but I’m going to be straight-uphonest when I ever talk to some people about it. They say Oh, wrestling is gay and wrestling isboring. Or I saw them like, do cardio and they’re like, oh, I don’t want to have to run. I don’tthink people know what goes on in wrestling and how much work is put into it and how muchfun it really can be so I think women’s wrestling is especially trying to grow because there arevery few people that do it.Expressions: What are the benefits of wrestling?Drucker: Not everyone is cut out for it, but I believe everyone should wrestle. Everyone shouldfind their physical limits and know that just because there’s a small unhappy voice in your head,you can push through a lot more than you think. You have to hit that physical breaking pointwhere you’re in tears and have to keep going. The mental toughness developed in those trialsputs you immediately ahead of your peers who have never done so. The benefits aren’t relegatedto the glory of a CIF ring and knowing you’re the baddest on a high school campus. When youstart getting to the upper levels, you learn how vital diet and consistency in what you do are. It’sobvious nowadays that some food isn’t food, and we have to learn to navigate those waters.Evans: It teaches you discipline. It is your higher pain tolerance and it just helps you pushthrough things. And it’s great for your physical and mental health. Physically you’re in great shape, your cardio, and vascular endurance is just through the roof, and mentally, it gives you a place to like, putanything you have in your life, or anything gives you a release and all dopamine when you’rewrestling, you know, you’re putting in that hard work when you get off the mat. You’re sweaty,you know you’ve done something. You don’t feel that lazy. It’s just getting your mind in the rightplace.Russell: benefits are learning how to eat healthily, and working a lot. It teaches you good timemanagement. Just good behavior like our coach once said I don’t remember the exact wording, just like ‘I don’t teach you in here so you can be the bully, I teach you so you can stand up to thebully,’ just like to help us it’s almost like it’s self-defense.
Wrestling has tons of benefits and a great community that is being overlooked. From biasedinformation that is misunderstood people should try out for wrestling or come see the gamesand support them.