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| Jeffrey Peña '04 pins his opponent to win the class A Championship. |
Wrestling. Is it the ultimate individual sport, the fundamental conflict, the only one-on-one contact sport? Or is it a team sport, built on shared goals, commitment to one another and cooperative hard work? There is strong evidence to suggest that the answer is “yes” to both questions. “You’re all alone out there. It’s up to you,” says one member of this year’s Andover coed varsity team. “Some people think wrestling is an individual sport, but it doesn’t work like that,” adds another. “You need the support of your teammates and they need yours.”
What brings kids to wrestling? “I wish I knew,” says assistant coach Mark Efinger ’74. It is a sport that can take over your life, both energize and drain you, put a lot of strain and pain on your body and test how much you are willing to endure to reach your goals and be successful.
The majority of team members have not wrestled before coming to PA. As many as 20 kids per year will come and check out wrestling to see if it is a sport they want to pursue, but only a handful will stay. Those are the ones who, according to Efinger, “find there is something about it that appeals to their personal sense of challenge.” Head Coach Rich Gorham ’86 was team captain his senior year at Andover and returned as an assistant coach in 1993 before taking over the reins of the program in 1997. Gorham has seen many kids come through the door. A few have wrestled before; some are coming from sports where they were too small, slow or unskilled; some have no winter sport and are looking for something to try; many rightly see wrestling as a sport they can start in high school with no experience. An upper in this year’s starting lineup relates, “I played basketball in seventh grade; it was a disaster. So I tried wrestling and found that I picked it up pretty quickly. In wrestling I was not ‘behind’ all the kids who had played, for instance, soccer since they were very young.” Some are quick to quit wrestling because it’s hard—much more intense and demanding than they imagined. Gorham finds that, among those who stay, the common denominator is “they really love it … few are indifferent.” It is without a doubt an intense, whole-body experience, but also, Gorham is quick to add, “It’s natural. All little kids want to wrestle.”
One of the most appealing things about the sport is that a wrestler does not have to be exceptionally tall or strong or swift, as is the case in some sports. There is a place for every size kid, there is no particular set of physical attributes required, and it is not necessarily the most gifted athlete who succeeds. Indeed, Coach Gorham says, “Whatever attributes you have, you can use to your advantage. You just have to be willing to work.” One ninth-grader, who is not yet 100 pounds, was encouraged to come out for the team by his house counselor, Coach Efinger. “It was really tough and not a lot of fun at first,” observes the young grappler, echoing the sentiments of a senior who is now a big contributor to the team but was in exactly the same position three years earlier. “But I felt a sense of satisfaction that I was doing it,” continues the ninth-grader.
“I stuck with it, began to like it even more, and now I really feel good about myself.”
“I’m in the best condition of my life,” says another ninth-grader who is one of two girls on the squad. Others speak of the intensity being beyond what they expected, of the team support and working together, of the sense of accomplishment just getting through the workouts physically while also learning as much as they do, and of the desire to challenge themselves to improve their execution and reaction as well as their fitness. Unlike participants in some other sports, the top wrestlers are almost invariably the hardest workers. They drill and drill, often relying on their bigger, stronger teammates to spar with them and force them to execute their moves flawlessly. The best even research their opponents’ moves.
Gorham says he is not a “complicated-moves” coach but rather believes in keeping things basic. The PA team emphasizes shooting takedowns, and on the mat they stress the cross-face and cradle techniques. The coach feels these techniques work for a lot of kids and that he and Efinger are able to teach them well. This year’s team, led by co-captains Leon Fay ’04 and Jeffrey Peña ’04, has had an excellent season with a 12-6 record in dual meets, including an upset win over top-ranked Loomis Chaffee and a third-place finish in the Class A League Tournament. Ten Andover wrestlers placed among the top six in their weight classes in this championship competition, led by Peña, who dominated the 130-pound bracket en route to an individual title. Kassie Archambault ’06 made league history by becoming the first female competitor to earn a place finish, as she finished second at 103 pounds. Mark Shvartsman ’05, Dan Hackney ’05 and Gabe Worgaftik ’06 each placed third. Overall, this team, which both coaches characterize as a close group filled with really nice kids, has exceeded expectations by working hard, improving and supporting each other very well.
Wrestlers surely need the desire to win, but even more important, says Gorham, is “the desire to feel like you deserve to win.”
“Only those who work hard excel,” reiterates co-captain Fay, “but like anything else in life, it is immensely satisfying when you achieve your goal.” The coach points with considerable pride to the fact that both he and Efinger wrestled at PA for Coach Nick Kip ’60, who in turn wrestled for his predecessor, Coach Dick Lux. Though Gorham speaks very modestly of a “mediocre career,” Kip recalls that when Gorham was an upper a teammate dubbed him “King of Hearts” for the leadership, spirit and courage he displayed. It is not surprising that the current Andover wrestling program reflects those same qualities and places such a high value on teamwork in an individual sport. And it is not surprising to hear a four-year senior say, “I am passionate and committed to wrestling, and I like being with people who share that commitment. It makes me want to work harder to help my teammates. I hope I am as good an influence on some of the younger guys as others were for me.”
Andy Cline is Andover’s sports information director. |
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