River Dell wrestling is off to a great season so far. They have been doing very well, showcasing their dedication, skill, and teamwork.
There are many people from all grades contributing to the team’s success. Each team member brings unique skills and strengths that overall make the team much better. This year lots of freshmen joined the High School team.
One freshman starting on varsity is Anthony Daibes. While only being a little over a month into the season, Anthony has, at the time of this writing, won 13 out of 14 matches. Although he is only a freshman, the experience of wrestling he has grown didn’t only start this year. Anthony has been a part of the junior wrestling program since he was as young as five and was very excited to bring his skills to the high school wrestling team.
Daibes expressed that “The High School is more mature, you verse older kids, which means there is a bigger size difference then when I played in previous years.” Although he has had prior experience, he still didn’t know what to fully expect going into this season but based on his record it is going very well.
Daibes said that “It can be intimidating to go against older people but the weights being the same can make it easier.”
Although it can be hard to go against older people, the fact that you are the same weight can ease your nerves going into the match. But he also said that if an opponent is cutting weight “they can feel a lot heavier when you’re wrestling them.”
Winning matches can be very rewarding also. He said that “winning my first high school match felt great and it was good to win after practicing and preparing for so long.” All his hard work seems to have paid off since he is off to a great start and he also says, “I love the sport and I’m happy to be able to play in high school because it’s so rewarding.”
Being able to play the sport he loves and working hard to do his best to win helps him gain motivation to keep going and try his best always.
Also, the team is very supportive and his entrance into the team wasn’t scary at all. He said that “I like being on a team with older kids because they are very good mentors.” Also, he said that “Having my older brother on the team makes it a lot easier and he’s very helpful.”
Most recently Daibes finished a promising fourth in the most recent Districts tournament. The top three move onto Regionals, so Anthony’s season is over for now, but next year he’s sure to move on.
