Wrestling at the Castle!
For the first time in its history, West Florence has a wrestling team, coached by Mr. Andy Cummings. Cummings said wrestling should be seen as an opportunity for all students to compete during the winter. Whether you're 106 pounds, 285 pounds, or anywhere in between, there is a spot for you on the wrestling team.
A great aspect of wrestling is anyone can join regardless of gender. Girls who join will have to wrestle boys in practice and in matches, but there are some girls only tournaments, as well as girls state tournaments.
Cummings said that this year the goal is for wrestlers to make progress and not worry about how many wins and losses they have because it is very difficult to win early on in a wrestling career. He would like to have at least one state qualifier and win more meets then lose them. Looking toward the future, he also said he wants West Florence to grow to be a powerhouse wrestling program with multiple state champions individually and multiple team state champions.
Cummings himself wrestled in high school and since his career on the mat ended, he always thought if his opportunity to coach wrestling ever come up, he would take it.
“Luckily the opportunity came here at West,” said Cummings.
According to Cummings, a successful wrestler's quailities are also qualitites that make one successful in life, such as being able to overcome adversity, handle losing, dealing with the frustration when you do everything right but nothing seems to go your way, as well as self reliance.
Cummings said his biggest weakness as a coach is that he wants to teach everything at once. He sometimes forgets that the students have probably never seen a wrestling match before he starts getting into more complex moves.
As for himself, Cummings said the main thing he had to do was get in shape. He knew what he was about to put his body through on the mat in order to work with the athletes. He has worked on dieting and exercising since he got the word about the wrestling team coming to West Florence High school.
Cummings said he wants students to come to the meets and cheer, stomp, chant and make it a fun event to attend, as well as an intimidating place for opponents to come into here at the Castle. So everyone, come on out Wednesday, Dec. 1 to cheer on the WF Wrestling Knights as they compete in their first match of the season.
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