For onlookers, wrestling looks like a couple guys in singlets trying to pin each other through sweat drenched contact and awkward positions.
Fans may not realize the sacrifices wrestlers make preparing for the season. These athletes also must pass a hydration test before the season.
Hydration tests ensure wrestlers are not dropping weight in unhealthy amounts and help encourage overall fitness.
A wrestling match involves bare strength and mentality for most. Wrestlers aim for points and technique, not goal boxes or baskets.
"I think it’s kind of the ultimate challenge of your physical and mental strength," coach Jude Wilson said. "The more you individualize the sport, the more it becomes personal. You deal with so much more adversity, like the issue with defeats and victories."
This team not only returns with a group of seniors who have wrestled varsity since freshman year, but it brings returning athletes with considerable depth and prospective freshmen.
"We got a few state qualifiers back. We got a couple freshmen that ought to break the varsity lineup, and some pretty good JV kids," Wilson said. "It will be interesting to see how (the freshmen) move into the high school level."
The wrestlers placed 20th of 32 teams at state in Hutchinson last season.
"I got the biggest group of seniors (this season)," Wilson said. "Also, this is the most committed group of seniors."
Although Wilson did not organize any practices before the first week of winter sports practices, many wrestlers competed in off-season sports such as football and soccer, which helps with conditioning. Some wrestled last spring and into the summer.
Senior Nathan Murphy said that he looks forward to the individual challenge that come with wrestling.
"(I look forward to) pushing myself to the limit," Murphy said.
Seniors have a lot of experience together. The guys have wrestled for about six to ten years individually. They want to place three or four players at state this year.
"Seniors in the past kind of came from different groups and just wrestled," Murphy said. "We get along. We’re friends on and off the mat."
Murphy felt the team did well last season and started to wrestle better towards the end of the season.
Tough competition this season includes league rivals Valley Center and Ark City.
"As a team, I think Emporia and Lansing are tough," junior Seth Klein said. "I’m thinking outside the box here because they aren’t in our league."
The intensity of wrestling workouts would probably shock people, Murphy says. Most people assume wrestling is painful, but Klein admits it is not as "hurtful" as people think.
"I look forward to the learning experience," Klein said. "I was disappointed personally and as a team (last season). None of us rose to our potentials at state."
Klein hopes for the team to be undefeated in the league and believes the team needs to work on supporting each other. Wilson and Murphy want to see the team improve on last season and place in the top 10 at state.
"We’ve got some kids capable of doing it," Wilson said. "There are a lot of individuals who put pressure on themselves."