Maybe we’re born this way. Maybe one has to be a little crazy to love this sport. It destroys your body. Takes up your whole year only for a few short moments on some thin mat. Is it worth it? Hell yes.

 Those few minutes mean the world to us. Till you walk off or are carried off, those mats are always worth their few minutes. If you lose or if you win, if your routine falls apart or hits perfectly those mats are worth it.

 THAT’S why you give everything while competing that’s why you smile big even in pain because those few minutes are your few minutes and some day you’ll give your last few minutes on those mats and realize that those moments meant the most to you. So make it worth it.

 Make it worth it for the crowd, for the judges, the girls wearing their cheer uniforms, for the teams wishing they could be in your position. Compete for those people, but mostly compete for you. Show yourself you can do it.

 You can compete through pain and when you’re old and looking back you’ll realize those mats made you the person you are.

With sixth seniors, two Juniors, three sophomores and three freshmen varsity wrestlers faced the most difficult time of the season with conference already passed with only one wrestler placed at third.

With districts not going as planned with only three placers:

Matt foley placed fourth

Josh Rattray placed fourth

Shadrach Zarwie placed fourth

Damonte Clark placing first

As time passed preparing the only state qualifier Damonte Clark for his rocky journey ahead.

“When I walked in to Wells Fargo the bright lights were over my head and my heart started to race, all that was going through my mind is this is MY time. I need to do whatever it takes to show Geno the hard work is finally paying off.”

Damonte Clark is a junior at Hoover High S

chool, wrestled at 170 and later move down to 160 for districts. He wrestled his last two matches on the first day of state and was beat out of the tournament without placing. “Never give up, even though your losing you have to give your all. Prove you want to be here. The outcome my never be exactly what you want it to be but it could always be worse.” Damonte Clark.