Aspiring Ladue wrestlers and veterans of the sport attended an “open gym” Oct. 15 in the wrestling room to learn new skills and prepare for the upcoming season. Held Mondays at 5 p.m. and Wednesdays after school, open gyms allow prospective students to explore the sport in an informal setting. They’re also an opportunity for more experienced wrestlers to keep their skills sharp.

“Wrestling’s really a year-round sport, and the more time you have on the mat, the better you’ll be when you’re competing,” coach Jeff Fiorini said. “Open gyms will help you be a better athlete once the season begins.”

Coming back from a strong season last year, Ladue coaches are confident that hard work will pay off again.

“We’re trying to get athletes in shape so we can perform at our best,” coach Brian Thorpe said. “I’m excited to see what the results will be at the end of the season.”

Wrestling is known to be one of the most intense sports available at Ladue High School.

“My favorite thing about wrestling is just how physical it is,” Nethmi Amarakone (12) said. “When you wrestle, you’re using all the muscles in your body to do these different moves.”

Every practice begins with a short jog and dynamic warm-ups. Once everyone’s ready, the team will do a workout — usually strength training, in the weight room, or endurance exercises, like running. The most important part, however, is drilling. A deeply skill-based sport, wrestlers learn by wrestling.

“If you just work out or lift or run every once in a while, it’s not going to be enough,” Amarakone said. “You need to keep doing these moves to stay familiar with them. The reason we have these pre-season practices is so we don’t forget what we’ve learned, and to learn new things, too.”

Even so, wrestling takes more than just strength and skill.

“Wrestling will test your mettle as an individual more than any other sport,” Fiorini said. “It will really challenge you. It will push you to levels that you didn’t think you had, and you will achieve things in this sport that you’d never thought you could.” 

For Fiorini, however, these challenges are exactly what make wrestling worth pursuing.

“Life isn’t easy,” Fiorini said. “Life is tough. So when you make it through a sport like wrestling, you’ll find that other things become easier as well.”

But while wrestlers work hard, they play hard, too. Even after the practice was over, many students stayed longer to play “King of the Mat”, a low-stakes tournament where wrestlers can test new techniques and learn from their mistakes. Other wrestling games have included dodgeball, “Ankle Tag” and rope-climbing contests. Wrestlers insist that, despite its intimidating reputation, their sport is for everyone — regardless of gender or experience.

“I encourage anyone at Ladue High School to come get an idea of what [wrestling] is,” Fiorini said. “You can really get a lot from showing up and being a part of this team.”

Coach Thorpe encourages all interested students to try their hand at the open gyms, which will run until the season begins in early November.

“If you come down, we’ll have a place for you,” Thorpe said. “We’re all in the same boat.”