“The coaches work with me everyday, either instructing me with a certain move or wrestling me in live matches to give me better conditioning,” Cael Knox, fr., said.

Knox is in his first year as a wrestler at Kennedy and he will be wrestling at 182 pounds for Varsity.

Knox and his teammates take on Prairie High School and Dubuque Hempstead at Prairie, beginning at 5:30 p.m. this Thursday, Dec. 14.

“I feel very at home even though this is only my first year,” Knox said. “In the wrestling room everyone treats each other with respect and people are there for me if I need specific help with a move.”

Every day the varsity wrestlers have a two-hour practice after school where they help to push each other to get better.

“Every practice I just remind myself of my goals and how I want to test myself against the best of this sport and see how I stack up,” Knox said.

The team has a wide variety of returning and new varsity wrestlers this year already having chemistry at practice. The wrestlers have a pin chain that they wear at tournaments when they get a pin against their opponent.

“It’s really motivates us to get pins because you feel really cool being able to wear it after a win,” Cade Parker so., said. “When it comes down to it we all have the same goal, get to The Well.”

Wells Fargo Arena (The Well) is where the state wrestling tournament is held each year in Des Moines.

Parker is wrestling at 195 pounds this year and it will be his second year as a varsity wrestler at Kennedy.

“I’m looking forward to going to tournaments with the guys this year,” Parker said. “Everyone is connecting on a whole new level this year and getting along really well.”

For information about the team’s upcoming meets, check out the Kennedy Activities wrestling calendar.