Written by Newspaper Staff Reporter Lexie Hunter

The wrestling team at Allatoona has been working extremely hard to have a successful season. They practice every day from 3:50-6:00 PM. At practice, they start by stretching and warming up, then drills, technique, live wrestling, and conditioning. For tournaments on Saturdays: they get up early, around 6 AM, to meet at Allatoona. Then they check their weight to make sure they are on weight (there are 14 weight classes). Following that, they travel to the tournament location, weigh-in, and then recover before warming up. About 30 minutes before the tournament begins, they warm-up, which includes running, stretching, doing drills, jump rope, etc. Finally, the tournament begins, and they prepare for individual matches and go compete for medals.

Coach Norred says, “It is very physically and mentally wearing on your body and mind. I tell people that wrestling shape is different than any other athletic shape. It is a one-on-one sport and team at the same time. You want to win your individual matches for yourself and your team. You must deal with winning and losing with the right attitude and not give up on yourself. Many people cannot deal with the toughness of wrestling because they have never been forced to push through challenging situations. Wrestling teaches you to never give up and train harder than everyone. Wrestling is the oldest and one of the greatest sports in the world. The benefits of wrestling are like no other sport. Allatoona has a great tradition of wrestling, and I look forward to bringing it back to popularity in this community.”