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The Livingston Academy Wrestling Team will start the season by breaking in its brand new wrestling room.
In years past, the program would have to share spaces with the other athletic programs and the team would spend upwards of 30 minutes unrolling and rolling the mats. Junior wrestler Landon Shaw said having a designated space for the team will be a huge asset this season.
“It’s going to be big for the new kids, going to have to get them in there and let them learn,” Shaw said. “But, it’s going to be a lot different for us older kids. You’re going to have to like slow down. It’s good for us to be in there to relearn stuff and get it down.”
Junior wrestler Kaden Weitzel said a benefit to having a wrestling room is the ability to crank up the heat and get a good sweat on. The football standout just wrapped up on the gridiron last Friday and said he is good to go for the start of wrestling.
“I’m pretty good physically, I’ve healed up,” Weitzel said. “I’ve been eating really good, so I’ll be 165lbs. So, I bumped up one weight class and I’d say that’s mostly muscle I’ve gained from Coach Looper.”
Both Shaw and Weitzel agreed that their bodies are bigger, stronger and healthier due to the work in the weight room with coach Chase Looper.
Shaw will also be moving up a weight class and will wrestle at 175lbs this year. He said his confidence in his new weight class comes from a summer of training and competing.
“This off season, I went to a couple of tournaments,” Shaw said. “I went to a big tournament in Virginia and that really helped. I got my butt whooped a couple of times.”
But Shaw said those losses made him a better wrestler and sharpened his mentality. The Wildcat Wrestling season starts December 5th at Livingston Academy when Greenback and Polk County visit.
