This last Saturday, November 30th, was a very exciting day for the West High School Wrestling team. It was the Novice Tournament for incoming freshmen and sophomores so they could get a taste of what high school wrestling is about. Many other high schools participated, including South, Torrance, North, Mira Costa, Palisades, and Beverly Hills.

  Dhafir Williams (12) stated, “The matches were randomized so some schools even went against each other. There were no winners, the tournament was simply to give them [the] experience.” The freshmen are lucky to have this opportunity to practice wrestling against other teams. It is a great way for them to practice without pressuring the freshmen into winning every game. The point was to learn and have fun.

  When asked how the West High Wrestling team did, James Oh (11) replied, “I think we did better than most schools. A lot of us were able to get the moves that we have been practicing. The freshmen have been practicing very hard and it showed at the tournament.” However, this is not the first year West has participated in this tournament. Vignesh Krishna (12) disagreed with Oh when he stated, “This year our school did not do too badly, but last year we definitely did way better because our freshmen last year were really good. I thought North did the best. They killed it out there.” Differing opinions are perfectly normal in any sort of competition, even when the tournament was simply for practice.

   Overall, the West High Wrestling team had fun and learned from their first-hand experience of fighting against other high school wrestling teams. Hopefully, they will have just as great of an outcome next year. Go Warriors!