The Varsity boys wrestling team dominated their matches at the Manhattan Invitational on Saturday with only a handful of losses for the team. 

The Varsity team managed to only lose four matches on the mat through the day. 

“I used to have a really bad problem of not being aggressive on the mat and Coach [Shawn] Bammes really worked with me and he got it clicked,” senior  Clayton Frehn said. 

The team used to have trouble with old mistakes they had in last year’s season, but now they’re fixing them. 

“I didn’t have a good job with the handfights and I got beat up, but now I’m keeping up with them,” senior Jameal Agnew said.

Their recent success solely from the improvement from last year is only getting better. The one who is pushing the wrestlers to their limit is Coach Bammes, who is supporting them through his teachings and experience. 

“What’s the most important thing about high school wrestling, especially with our program is that we teach a lot more life lessons and hard work and responsibility, which are all parts of the sport that these kids learn through being part of it, being part of the family as a team,” Bammes said. “Hard work works, put the work in and you’ll see the benefits from it.”

The team has a really good coach, who really seems to connect wrestling with life and hard work. And yes, our team really is learning from that. 

“The goal every year is to win it, win State,” Bammes said. “We don’t always reach that goal but it’s always the goal, you know if you don’t set it high you are not putting that work in for it.” 

Their next competition is a two-day Grand-Island invitational on Friday.