It’s year two for the Southeast Lancer wrestling program.  They’re just weeks away from Regionals in Marion, Kansas.  Place in the top four there and you move on to the State tournament in Hays.  The Regionals meet is actually scheduled for the same weekend as Senior Night for SHS basketball, so the wrestlers will be recognized for their efforts during the halftime of Tuesday’s Boys Varsity Basketball game versus Baxter Springs.

While the wrestlers acknowledge that individual performance is what determines their success, they still depend on each other.

“You can’t rely on your teammates to get you the win,” junior Triston Gardner said.  “You’ve got to put the work in and get it yourself.”

“Other than that there’s really no difference,” senior Jesse Ross added.  “On every other team you’re a family, just like we’re a family on this team.”

“In practices, if you’re not being a good practice partner you’re making your teammates worse,” senior Bailey Moore explained.

“You really feed off each other in the practice room,” said junior Tyler Kester.  “If you’ve got a group of kids looking over at some other individual that’s goofing off and slacking it just kind of turns everything down – it turns the momentum and intensity down.  You just feed off everyone’s hard work and intensity.”

“The teamwork comes in practice more then on game days, that’s for sure,” said Coach Jason Wilderman.  “The practices are not always fun, just like any other sport, like football,” Coach Wilderman said.  “Practice is where you put in the work to have the fun.  The fun comes by winning on Saturdays in competitions.  It’s a grind.  That’s the saying on our shirt and has been a saying in wrestling for a long time – ‘embrace the grind’.  Because it is a grind.  It’s a long season and it’s hard work.  You’ve got to gut it out and it’s not for everybody.”

Coach Wilderman said that a big difference between last year and this year is that the Lancer wrestlers are learning the difference between being an “actual wrestler” and being “out for wrestling”.  They have now wrestled against kids who eat, sleep and breathe wrestling.

“They have to decide if they want to be a wrestler or just be along for the ride,” Coach Wilderman said.

While Moore had some previous wrestling experience, the addition of Kester, who is undefeated in his weight class through the end of January, has provided the still relatively inexperienced Lancer wrestlers another perspective.  Kester gives them somebody, other than their coach, to show them ways to get better.

“It lets you see what the guys are like that have been doing this for a long time,” Moore said.

Last year Coach Wilderman offered to let the team wrestle only at the Junior Varsity level to get their feet wet.  But the team wanted to jump in and wrestle varsity wrestlers as well.

“We were little fish jumping into a pool with sharks,” Gardner said.  “But it gave us a better idea of what we were up against going against ten year experienced wrestlers in our first year.”

“Bailey (Moore) had a little bit of experience, but for the most part we had first year wrestlers so I’ve got a bunch of guys rolling around together that didn’t know what they were doing,” Coach Wilderman said.  They were flip-flopping, dislocating shoulders and elbows and knees because they were not rolling and reacting the way that they’re supposed to.  That makes it harder.  A lot of wrestling is acting and reacting and when they’re not familiar with it, it makes it tough.  Just starting with that year of experience made a huge difference this year.”

The wrestlers say that they now have a better idea of what they have to do in order to accomplish what they want to do – get to State.  Not only have they learned what they need to do in the weight room and on the mat, they have a better understanding of the difference between each weight class and what they should be eating.

“I didn’t watch what I ate last year,” senior Clint Center admitted.  “My mom would make my favorite food the night before – I like pizza and all of that stuff.”

This year, they are trying to stick with low fat, low carb foods.

Last year, Center was wrestling in the 120 pound weight class.  This year he’s lost some weight and is down a weight class, but gained muscle and is having more success.

“You can eat, but they’ve had to learn not to gorge themselves,” Coach Wilderman said.

“Just one extra year of kids putting in the effort has made a big difference,” Moore said.  “(At the start of this year) I think we pretty much picked up where we left off last year.”

The Lancer Youth Wrestling Club is in place to develop kids and give them experience the current SHS team did not have.  Coach Wilderman said that opportunity for young wrestlers is key to the long term success of the program.

But for now, the Southeast High School Wrestling Team has eight members and three of them will be graduating in May.  With around 15 kids wrestling in junior high, Coach Wilderman is hoping at least five of their current eighth graders continue wrestling in high school.

“We’ll whip them into shape,” Gardner smiled.

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