Club Wrestling Team Working Hard to Prepare for Upcoming Season
Issue date: 9/10/08 Section: Sports
The team has excruciating practices that push them to get better each and every day. The mats are cleaned by Team Manager Lauren Haynie to ensure a disease-free practice. The team runs for 10 minutes to get warmed up before they stretch, followed by a fifteen minute conditioning period. A drilling period is next for about 30 minutes, trailed by another 15-minute conditioning workout.
"Then we go into 'live' wrestling, which is when we pair up with a person from around the same weight and essentially go all-out and wrestle as we would our opponent," said Vergara. After "live" wrestling, there is a third conditioning session comprised of calisthenics, push-ups, sit-ups, sprints, high-knees and mountain climbers. "We strive to push ourselves to the absolute point of physical exhaustion," said Vergara.
Perhaps the team's motivation is from an incident that occurred last year. The team qualified five wrestlers for the National Collegiate Wrestling Association national tournament, but they couldn't go because of finance issues. Each club team is given $5,000 per year for expenses such as transportation, lodging and equipment. The national tournament was in March, but the team had used all of its money four months prior. Longwood told the qualifiers if they wanted to attend that they would have to pay everything with their own money and the SGA might reimburse them.
"It was the worst news we could have heard. We are all college guys [who] can't work that much because of our sport and school, so that was pretty much out of the question. We have fundraisers set up with Kings Dominion this year that will raise our club $9,000 or more so that the same incident won't occur," said Vergara.
To help the organization, Matt McGregor, director of campus recreation, is the team's adviser, helping with the program's logistics. Also, Marty Gibson, a Longwood staff member, helps coach the team. Gibson was here when the team was a Division II sport. "He comes to as many practices as he can and gives us moral support. He's kind of our mentor and helps us on and off the mat," Vergara said of Gibson.
"Then we go into 'live' wrestling, which is when we pair up with a person from around the same weight and essentially go all-out and wrestle as we would our opponent," said Vergara. After "live" wrestling, there is a third conditioning session comprised of calisthenics, push-ups, sit-ups, sprints, high-knees and mountain climbers. "We strive to push ourselves to the absolute point of physical exhaustion," said Vergara.
Perhaps the team's motivation is from an incident that occurred last year. The team qualified five wrestlers for the National Collegiate Wrestling Association national tournament, but they couldn't go because of finance issues. Each club team is given $5,000 per year for expenses such as transportation, lodging and equipment. The national tournament was in March, but the team had used all of its money four months prior. Longwood told the qualifiers if they wanted to attend that they would have to pay everything with their own money and the SGA might reimburse them.
"It was the worst news we could have heard. We are all college guys [who] can't work that much because of our sport and school, so that was pretty much out of the question. We have fundraisers set up with Kings Dominion this year that will raise our club $9,000 or more so that the same incident won't occur," said Vergara.
To help the organization, Matt McGregor, director of campus recreation, is the team's adviser, helping with the program's logistics. Also, Marty Gibson, a Longwood staff member, helps coach the team. Gibson was here when the team was a Division II sport. "He comes to as many practices as he can and gives us moral support. He's kind of our mentor and helps us on and off the mat," Vergara said of Gibson.
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