The Wrestling Room: where blood and sweat turns into gold

When we asked around school about where the Wrestling Room is located, no one seemed to know. Many had never even heard of it.

It turned out that the room is hidden behind one of the doors in the Large Gym’s lobby. With basketball and volleyball spectators unknowingly passing by its doors, the room is easy to miss.

As we entered for a practice, we were surprised that it was far more spacious than it appeared from the outside, with thick ropes that drooped from high ceilings more than twenty feet up.

The enormous red wrestling mat is large enough to block one of the room’s side doors, and its parts are patched together with clear tape. White paint flakes off the ceiling. The corners of the mat are caked with dust, and a dark-green push broom leans against the right wall.

Above the old push broom, photos of last year’s team sit on a ledge against the wall. Keep walking right, and the photos stretch back to the 1980s. The 2009 team photo features 25 wrestlers. By 2014, that number had dwindled to 15.

“I’m not really sure why wrestling isn’t as popular as other sports,” sophomore wrestler William Sabato told us later. “I think it’s a great sport, and everyone there is fun to work with. I guess the way the sport works isn’t as enticing.”

The photos sat deceptively still as the wrestling ring exploded with activity. There were only five boys on the mat that day. According to head coach Daniel Gamez, some of the wrestlers were still busy with their fall sports and will join the team after those seasons end.

Immediately after stretching, every single member went all out, pushing themselves to the limit.

“Come on guys! You’re moving too slow! Move a little bit quicker now, let’s go!” Gamez shouted, pacing the ring.

Five pairs of feet slammed against the mat as the boys started doing laps around their room. One of them was wearing a knee brace. They then transitioned straight into conditioning, which involved bear crawls, duck walks and carrying each other across the room.

Conditioning only made up the beginning of their afternoon free mat, but already everyone was breathing hard. A short 2-minute break gave the wrestlers some time to get water before going right into the wrestling portion of practice.

Splitting into pairs, they practiced their various shots, holds and takedowns. Even though Gamez instructed them to “bring each other down softly,” that didn’t always happen. Despite being thrown down, rolled over and headlocked, the wrestlers got back up as if nothing had happened and continued.

During the middle of practice, one of the wrestlers bit his tongue hard, causing it to bleed profusely.

“You’re still alive,” Gamez said. “Get back in there.”

Brushing off the injury, the wrestler stepped quietly back into the ring.

“In a match, you have to go 100 percent at all times for six minutes straight,” Gamez said. “Then you have to be prepared to go into overtime, which is another two minutes.”

Exhausted near the end of their practice, the members participated in what they called “Iron Man”: one person takes on everyone else, one by one. No breaks. They invited us to join and for a brief 30 seconds, we practiced wrestling, already breathing hard after the short period of time.

At 6 p.m., having practiced for an hour and a half, the team filed out of the room, knowing they would be back for more conditioning the next day.

“[Wrestling] is a single-man sport. There’s no team backing you up,” Gamez said. “If you win, that's all you. These guys live for the dedication that it takes.”