School personnel decided to transfer the wrestling room to the field house this season.Those involved in the decision were: Athletic Director Gary McChalicher, Buildings and Ground Director Brian McCleary, Principle Heather Venne, and wrestling coach James Waltimyer.

McChalicher said the reason why the wrestling room was changed was because “We’ve been looking for a way to expand our weight training facilities.”

There are several benefits to the new location of the wrestling room. The field house where the wrestling room is located has heat, water, bathrooms, two locker rooms.

“I like the new wrestling room. I like that we can have a space to ourselves and not be bothered/bother others,” said senior Tanner Hawkins.

While there are certainly benefits to the new practice room, there are also downfalls. For example, if there is an injury during practice, the trainer would most likely be in the high school building, and it would take more time to get to the injured player than if they were still practicing in the high school.

That being said, there is also the issue of space. Senior Camden Baker said, “In my opinion the wrestling room is too small and there isn’t built-in padding on the wall, so they [ the wall mats] constantly fall.”

In fact, upon measurement, the old wrestling room was approximately 1,430 square feet, and the new wrestling room is approximately 1,008 square feet. Wrestlers are noticing this difference.

“It feels like the wrestling team got the short end of the stick. That is mainly because of the fact that it seems the school is prioritizing weightlifting over our successful wrestling program. My personal opinion on the room is that it was a good idea at first, but when you get the amount of guys that we have in there, it gets crowded and that could potentially be very dangerous,” junior Jacob Rose said.

Other wrestlers have noticed this environment.

Senior Michaelangelo Raras said, “Already one of our wrestlers has a concussion from knocking his head against someone else’s. All last year we didn’t have that problem, because we had the space. Currently, we can only fit two parts of the mat; we can’t get the whole thing to roll out because the room is small.”

Along with the issue of space, numerous people have said that the room is incredibly warm.

Senior Justin “Cameron” Miller said “It’s hot from the heater,” but he likes the new wrestling room better than the other one.  

It should be noted, upon conferring with other wrestlers, it is traditional to have a warm wrestling room for a variety of reasons: keeping the muscles relaxed and weight management are two of them.

While some of the wrestlers don’t like the new wrestling room because of the issue of space, but the move is not without its  benefits.

“The new wrestling room is a work in progress, but once we get the new mats that are cut to the exact size of the room it will be a nice room. The new room is slightly smaller in width compared to the old room, but it is nice to be away from all the distractions at the high school. Also with it being our own area we have the benefit of not having to drag all of the Crossfit equipment out of the room at the beginning of practice and back in at the end,” said Waltermyer.

Since the wrestling room is now located in the field house, the extended weight room is having a positive effect on the gym classes.

Freshman Alyssa Cooper said, “It does benefit me because for our workouts during sports performance there is more space and more equipment for us to use.”