Resurrected after a five year hiatus, the WSHS wrestling team returns to the mat to start a fresh year of competition with a new group of players. Now coached by former college athlete Andrew Roberts, the team hopes to improve the popularity of wrestling while winning some matches along the way.
The last White Station has seen of a wrestling team was back in 2011 when the team disappeared for an unknown reason. There was talk in the past couple of years about starting the team back up, but nobody was sure who would be able to coach. The team was revived in 2016 by Roberts, who was looking for a way to coach wrestling as a side to his job as a history teacher at White Station Middle School.
Roberts started wrestling in 5th grade and was a three-time state qualifier in high school, winning second in state his senior year. He then got a scholarship to play in college, totalling 12 years of wrestling throughout his career. After a while, the urge to wrestle arose within him again. He wanted to find a way to continue teaching as well as have the ability to coach, spreading his passion to younger generations.
“I always loved the individuality of wrestling,” Roberts said. “It is a team sport, but wrestling is the one sport where it doesn’t matter what your name is. It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter where you’re from.”
Because the team was gone for five years, almost all of the players for this current year are completely new to wrestling. They have no prior experience and are learning the rules fresh from Roberts. Most students simply wanted to join the team because it seemed like fun and they were interested in trying something they had never done before.
“I was interested because I hadn’t gotten into sports for a while, and I thought it would be a cool thing to get into and useful if i needed it,” Aaron Lawson (12) said.
Eliseo Cristobal (9) started wrestling this year and is excited to be able to play all four years of high school. Other than rough playing with his brothers and friends, he had no prior knowledge of wrestling beforehand. Cristobal is prepared to learn and work this year.
“Experience on one-on-one situations. Hopefully do good in the sport.” Cristobal said regarding what he hopes to achieve this season.
The team looks forward to start competing at the end of November with their first match Nov. 21 at Bartlett and Kingsbury. They are also going to be playing schools, private and public, like Christian Brothers and Arlington. Although there may be some doubts about the success of the team for the first year, they look ahead with hope to learn and grow as a team and spread the interest of wrestling around White Station.
To find out information about upcoming matches, visit www.whitestationwrestling.com