Wrestling challenges its competitors both mentally and physically. It’s one of the toughest sports to partake in, requiring a combination of physical endurance and technical skill. Wrestling is ranked the fifth most difficult sport in the world, placing just behind hockey. Head coach of Palmer’s wrestling team, Coach Rick Seymour claims that he loves the sport and given its difficulty he still encourages all types of students to get involved. He has a huge passion for the sport and especially loves coaching the kids at Palmer; he wants to inspire the next generation of students at Palmer by urging them tokeep playing in college and possibly to even make it to the Olympics. Not only is wrestling hard to play but it is even harder to coach. What is hard about coaching the sport? “Dedicating the right amount of time the kids need to get better, and if there is a lack of commitment among the players it’s hard to have a solid team.” He encourages the idea of spectators and students who are fans of the sport to show up to more of the matches. He plans to bring more popularity to this by hosting a final D11 tournament at the end of the season, in which he will award the winners a golden belt, instead of the usual medal. To get a perspective from one of the players, we asked the coaches who they think stands out to them as a player that we should interview. They suggested we ask Arvell. He is currently doing both basketball and wrestling as his winter sports. Arvell is not only is a good athlete, but he is also an exceptional student. He is involved in the school program AVID, and knows how to balance his homework with his sports. He does this by putting everything that is due in class, in his calendar, so when he goes home, he knows what’s due and when they are due; he “stays organized.” Getting on to wrestling, “As the captain of the wrestling team,” he says, “it’s important to encourage my teammates to do the best they can.” But the reason he likes wrestling so much is because “if you lose, it’s all on you,” meaning that because wrestling is an individual sport, the pressure is remarkably high. He likes it because of that. A memorable event in his wrestling career was when, in his freshman year, it was the state tournament. It was the very last match. He tried hard to win but he ended up losing by one point. This has really affected how he sees himself today, and it pushes him to go to the gym, and practice more than he ever has.