Wrestlers face weighty challenges

By David Ray

Valley Voices Staff Writer

East Ridge High School's wrestling team practices in a large, dimly lit room. The sound of bodies smacking mats echoes off the stone walls. On the floor, two wrestlers are locked together as if in mortal combat. Not even an hour of practice has passed, yet sweat pours from both bodies and drips onto the mat.

Yet mat work isn't necessarily the hard part, according to high school wrestlers and trainers.

Wrestlers practice a strict diet regimen. East Ridge wrestling manager Courtney Moore described the sport's dietary habits as "starving yourself, basically."

Brock Pressley, a sophomore wrestler at Signal Mountain High School, said that his diet consists of extremely small portions or even skipping meals altogether.

Brock said that sticking to his diet is very difficult.

"One has to work harder than ever before in their life with much less carb energy," he said. "So honestly, it's as if you have hit the wall when you have just begun your exercise, making the diet tough to stick with."

Garrett Vineyard, a junior at Red Bank High School, follows a diet of protein and vegetables during the wrestling season.

"It's hard to stick with it. You can't just pig out whenever you want to; you have to have self-control, even if it means staying a little hungry."

In addition to stringent dietary practices, wrestlers have to deal with the intensity of wrestling practice.

"It is extremely fast-paced and will get to the point where you really think you have nothing left, and you're ready to say you're done, to call it a day," Brock said.

East Ridge senior Micah Kidd said wrestling takes a tough attitude.

"You gotta love the running; you gotta love to take the pain; you gotta love to push through the pain. To win that last-minute match, you gotta push; you gotta love this sport. If you don't, I advise you not to do it."

East Ridge wrestling coach Brad Jackson said safe weight-loss strategies often were overlooked when he wrestled in high school in the early '80s.

"People didn't do what was right," he said. "(Wrestlers) were told to take (diuretics) and other types of over-the-counter drugs that would cause you to lose weight. You would run and exercise with what is known as "plastics," or a rubber uniform, which would increase your sweat."

Use of pills and plastics for weight loss is now illegal under the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association.

David Ray is a student at East Ridge High School.