The wrestling season started on November 13th and goes until the last week of February according to Dalton Inlow, an assistant wrestling coach here at GEHS.

“Wrestling season [started] Monday morning November 13th,” Inlow said. “We’ll start with two-a-days the first week, 6:00 a.m. and then 3:00 p.m., and then [the season] goes all the way until the last week of February.”

Inlow has coached wrestling for nine years in total.

“This will be my ninth year coaching wrestling as a whole, this is my second year in the building,” Inlow said.

After wrestling as a kid and then throughout high school, Inlow went to college, got a job, and eventually came here.

“I wrestled as a kid and then all the way through high school,” Inlow said. “And then when I went to college, Coach Cordts, who’s the head coach here, got me my first job at Basehor-Linwood High School where he was, and then I followed him here after several years.”

Inlow enjoys the wrestling environment and likes seeing how much people grow in it.

“I like seeing the growth that everybody makes, and [wrestling is] just a fun, intense, energetic environment, it’s just a fun place to be around,” Inlow said.

Inlow finds that figuring out how each student works is the most challenging aspect of wrestling, while the most rewarding is seeing them improve.

“The most challenging [aspect] is figuring out how each kid works because there’s so much individuality that works within wrestling,” Inlow said. “You have to figure out how each kid is going to respond and how to coach them the best way and kind of tailor your coaching to that kid. But the most rewarding [aspect] is just seeing kids improve. Especially kids that are pretty new. They progress fast and just seeing them from start to finish in the season is really fun.”

So far, Inlow’s favorite memory from coaching here at GEHS is the girls’ regionals last year.

“From being a wrestling coach here, my favorite memory so far has [probably] been the girls’ regionals last year,” Inlow said. “We had seven girls qualify for state. Lots of young freshmen girls that didn’t have a lot of wrestling experience won some really tough matches and got some revenge wins that put them into the state tournament, which was a lot of fun.”

A future goal Inlow has for Gardner’s wrestling program is getting into the top five spot as a wrestling team and hopefully bringing home a state team trophy.

“We’re consistently a top ten team, and so we just want to get up into that top five and hopefully bring home a state team trophy, because state medals are cool individually, but state team trophies show where you’re at as a program,” Inlow said.

Inlow believes that the most important trait a wrestler should have is physical and mental toughness.

“[Wrestlers have] to be mentally tough [and] physically tough, because it is such a long season and it’s a grinding sport,” Inlow said. “You’re going to be sore, you’re going to be injured, [and] it’s very emotional, so you have to be able to stay tough within everything.”

According to Inlow, if someone is thinking about joining the wrestling team, they should.

“Just do it. You don’t know how [wrestling is] going to be until you try it, so, I encourage anybody to try it because it’s really for anybody,” Inlow said. “Any body type, any athleticism, any previous skills. For anybody.”

Saoirse McCall, a sophomore here at GEHS, has wrestled since she was in seventh grade.

“I technically started [wrestling] in seventh grade, but I didn’t start competing up until last year,” McCall said.

McCall, who was on varsity last year and hopes to make it again this year, would like to eventually place at state and possibly be a state champion.

“I would like to place at state,” McCall said. “If possible, if I’m good enough, I would like to also be a state champion. But I’m going to have to really really work for that because that’s a [very] hard thing to get.”

McCall’s favorite part about the wrestling season is the tournaments, whenever they turn out good.

“The tournaments [are my favorite part], when they’re good,” McCall said. “I like watching my friends win, and I like winning, and you just make a lot of memories, especially over those two-day tournament trips.”

If wrestlers want to go down a weight class, they have to cut weight. To do that, wrestlers cut back on the amount of food they have been eating and eat less sugar.

“[When cutting weight] you cut back on the amount of food you’ve been eating, [you do not eat] a lot of sugar, it sucks,” McCall said. “Sometimes if you’re really close on weight, you just don’t get to eat [until] after you weigh in.”

Specifically during the first week of wrestling, wrestlers train and work extremely hard. According to McCall, that week is horrible while you are in it, but it is not the hardest that wrestlers go.

“When you’re in [the first week of wrestling], it’s horrendous and horrible, but it’s not the hardest we go,” McCall said. “If you’re not one of those people making it to state, it’s probably the hardest week you’ll have. You get here at 6:00 in the morning to 7:00. If you’re a returner you do a lot more conditioning and if you’re a newbie you do a little more technique. And then, after school at 3:20 to about 5:30, 6:00ish we have another practice.”

Even with cutting weight and the difficult first week of wrestling, the most challenging aspect of wrestling is likely the pre-match anxiety, according to McCall.

“I would like to say [the most challenging part is] cutting weight, but it’s probably the pre-match anxiety,” McCall said. “Sometimes you make the mistake of looking at the [opponent’s] record, and then [they’re] better than you, and so it kind of messes up your mindset before going into a match, and it’s just really scary.”

On the other hand, McCall believes that the most rewarding aspect of wrestling is the friends that you make from it.

“I think [the most rewarding part is] just the friends you make along the way,” McCall said. “Because yeah, you win matches, but that’s only a little bit of happiness compared to all the friends you make. Because you get really close with the girls on the team after you’ve been there for a while.”

McCall’s favorite memory from being a wrestler here at GEHS was probably watching Shelby Davis, a senior here last year, wrestle her state finals match last year.

“[My favorite memory from wrestling here is] probably watching Shelby’s state finals match,” McCall said. “The arena we were at [had] a little wall so that people [couldn’t] go on to the mat, and me and the rest of the girls who were there were all behind this wall, all basically leaning over it and watching Shelby. She was so close to not winning. She pulled it back [though]. It was really cool to watch.”

According to McCall, a wrestler has to be determined. Even if they want to, they cannot give up.

“You cannot give up,” McCall said. “You have to be determined. There will be points in a match where you are exhausted and you think [you] should just give up. But, if you keep fighting, you might actually be able to take the match back and win.”

McCall agrees that if someone is thinking about joining the wrestling team, then they should.

“[If someone is thinking about joining the wrestling team, they should] do it,” McCall said. “It takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of motivation, you kind of have to give up some other stuff for it, but if you’re determined and you really work at it you can go places with it.”

According to McCall, there are also off-season practices students can participate in throughout the year.

“If you want to get a head start on [wrestling] before you join, we do have off-season practices throughout the year,” McCall said. “We have fall ones, and then [in] spring we do the college kind of version of wrestling. And then in the summer we have camps and the summer scuffle, which you just need to talk about to Coach Cordts because he’s the head coach.”