In their words, 'disheartened' student-athletes voice thoughts about being sidelined due to COVID-19
If there is one group of student-athletes who has felt left out, lost, perhaps even abandoned, in the high school sports world during the unpredictable, year-long pandemic, it is those who make or break their success on the wrestling mat.
None more than the upperclassman who love slipping into a singlet, snapping on headgear and stepping onto the mat for an often grueling, one-on-one duel of strength, stamina, technique, skill and experience.
After their season was pinned down for the count in February after weeks of uncertainty, teenage athletes echoed the same sentiment: utter disappointment.
That sense of loss was acute for the upperclassmen, especially seniors, from the five Midcoast high school programs — namely, Medomak Valley of Waldoboro, Belfast, Mount View of Thorndike, Camden Hills of Rockport and Oceanside of Rockland.
That is because those upperclassmen lost a chance to build on or end their high school careers, in the case of seniors, with an opportunity to compete for league, regional and state titles, as well as perhaps advance to the coveted New Englands.
The 2020-21 high school wrestling season never got off the ground due to safety concerns surrounding COVID-19. There was hope among those connected to the sport some semblance of a pandemic-altered season, such as was held for soccer, field hockey, football, golf and cross country in the fall and basketball, skiing, swimming and ice hockey in the winter, would materialize.
But that never happened for a variety of reasons, the most acute being wrestling, due to its inherent nature of close, sustained, person-to-person contact and perhaps with an environment more prone to transmission of the virus, was deemed "high risk."
In the end, it was deemed the pandemic safety requirements and protocols from the Maine Principals' Association and other state health agencies could not be met.
The decision to cancel the season left more than 100 area youngsters sidelined.
Additionally, the Pine Tree Wrestling League halted its season last March at the start of the pandemic and did not hold a campaign in 2021, it may be a double-whammy, as that feeder program also may affect future high school teams.
Wrestling is not the only Maine high school sport that lost its season in the past year as baseball, softball, track and field, tennis and lacrosse was not held in the spring of 2020 and indoor track never got off the ground in the winter of 2021.
Of course, that does not lessen the hurt and soul-cutting disappointment for mat athletes or coaches.
Longtime Mount View coach Hamilton Richards said the loss of his beloved sport has "been surreal." That is because he often has a small group and this year had five experienced seniors to lead the Mustangs.
And, of course, there is more that was missed.
"All of them stood a strong chance of having good seasons with solid postseason finishes," he said. "Both Emma Fonger and Zach Ward were extremely likely to set school records, or in Zach’s case, enhance some of those records. With a full season, Zach was in range of breaking brother Mark’s all-time win record as by the end of his junior year he was one match ahead of Mark at the same time in Mark’s career. The three girls also would have put us in possible contention for a girls state title (if the MPA allowed team scoring for the tournament) as they are all tough and Hailey [Wood’s] shoulder is in much better shape this year than it was last."
Richards said other seniors had shown steady improvement. "The sad part is in each case, they’ll never get that senior year back and that’s a hard pill to swallow; even knowing that steps to deal with the pandemic had to take priority. We’ll never know exactly what they could have done …"
The coach said another problem he sees from this lost year is different than other high school mat programs that have larger teams and depth to lean on.
"This non-season is going to have immediate long- and short-term consequences for us. We were already light on underclassmen — two to be exact and both were first-year wrestlers last season. With this year off, there will be significant rust and there’s also a chance they may not come back as carving out time for wrestling instead of snowmobiling, ice-fishing and the like for rural kids is a challenge. This non-season also didn’t afford us opportunities to recruit more or assimilate middle school wrestlers coming up. And we always lose a portion of them between MS and HS during normal times. On top of that, last year’s middle school season didn’t get far and then no season for them this year. And their numbers weren’t great before COVID… I fully expect both our middle school and high school programs are going to be hurting, low-number, low experience teams for a few years with this break. There are some years where we could have absorbed this much better; unfortunately this stretch isn’t one of them."
Hamilton said having coached the program, at different levels, for more than 30 years, "it was very odd not coaching this winter too." However, he said working for the National Guard full-time with all the COVID response certainly made him more exhausted than usual as he recently was working on a full year of sustained emergency operations.
"There’s no way I would have been on my 'A' game as a coach if we’d have had a normal season this year," he said. "The kids would have had to drag me out of the bleachers, prop me up in a chair and work on getting me a coffee IV at tournament. Even an abbreviated season would have been rough with everything else going on. So for me, the lack of a season was a needed breather, but it was devastating for the wrestlers and I believe it’s going to be detrimental to our program for the next few years or more.
I think we are all going to have a much deeper appreciation for 'normal' from here on out … when we finally get there, right?'
The Courier Publications/VillageSoup sports staff send out questions to wrestlers to see if any had thoughts on what has transpired. A handful responded and answered the following questions:
What are your thoughts on the cancellation of the high school wrestling season? What was the most difficult part of the season for you? The weeks and weeks of practicing with no clear answer on whether there will be a season or not? Having what you could do in practice be so limited? The final decision coming down? Break down a typical practice and the types of things you’d be able to do? Do you play a spring sport and, if so, how happy are you it appears things will be all systems go for full participation in spring sports after losing all of last year? And, what are your plans after graduation? College? Joining the work force?
The following are the thoughts — and voices — of a handful of area upperclassmen who were unable to hit the mats over the winter:.......
Nathaniel Porter, Belfast, senior
"I think wrestling was swept under the rug and forgotten about this year. Those who procrastinated about making the decision throughout the entire season are pretty lazy and pathetic individuals. The decision about wrestling should’ve been made right away like basketball. Wrestling is the most physical sport here, but it is the easiest to contact trace with it being one-on-one."
"The most difficult part was dealing with the inconsistency and laziness of the [Maine Principals' Association]. For example, basketball was able to have a mostly regular season, but wrestling was not aloud to even practice as a whole team until a decision was made. I witnessed on several occasions both varsity and junior varsity basketball practicing together in one space. Our entire wrestling team has less people than just the jayvee basketball team.
"During a typical practice we would go over the motion of things, get a team lift in on some occasions, and Friday mornings hit the pool for a workout.
"I do not play a spring sport, instead I continue training on my own. Even after having both football and wrestling taken away, I do hope the best for those who take part in spring sports. My plans for after high school are to join the Navy after an 8,000-plus-mile motorcycle tour across the country with my dad.
"I also think it’s important to note our principal and ADs support for the wrestling team. They really went above and beyond trying to make the best of things. They were able to organize skiing trips once a week this winter for anyone interested. Even paying for rentals a tickets. This was a new experience for me and it was a great one. Our coaches also never gave up on us."......
.....Alexia Hopkins, Belfast, junior
"I think that it was very disappointing for everyone, parents, coaches and students after working hard before the start of wrestling. I follow a lot of wrestling and have friends out of state who were allowed to have a somewhat normal season. After considering this and other rules, I think they could have let go on some things and allowed us to have some sort of season. I think that this was not only disappointing to seniors, but was also unfair. Although it was hard to accept that there would be no season, I am very thankful for the people in the wrestling community who didn’t give up in order to attempt at giving us a season.
"Definitely hands down the waiting and waiting for answers about whether or not we would have a season. Many athletes, including myself, put in a lot of work, our seniors and even underclassmen had loads of potential this year. I think that the unknown and our season dangling in our face was an even bigger disappointment, especially when they decided to cancel the season entirely. The day I heard that they had officially canceled the season it didn't even seem like it was real, just because I think a lot of us thought that there was still hope for us. But I think that finally hearing that there would be nothing, hit us all like a freight train for sure. I also placed fourth at the girls state meet last season and I was ready to do that again, so hearing that I wouldn’t be able to do that was a huge letdown. I think other wrestlers are also in the same boat with not being able to achieve their goals for this season as well.
"All of the drills were designed to work on the wrestler as an individual, due to the fact that we had to stay distanced and couldn’t touch one another. First we started off normal with basic agilities, which included some cardio, tumbling and stretching to warm our bodies up. Then we would move right into drilling moves on our own and practicing the motion. I think the biggest tool was something we did referred to as 'shadow wrestling,' which is when you pretend you have an opponent facing you and that you are in a match. This gives wrestlers the opportunity to practice and drill moves at match like speed, but also allows them to see what it would look like in a match. We also used a lot of med balls, weights, bands and other exercise equipment to help us this year. Even though we couldn’t touch each other at all, I think that our coaches made this just as fun and was better for beginners because they were able to focus on their technique and get a better understanding of the sport.
"I’ve played softball for six years now and I will be playing again this year. I am so happy and relieved to hear that we are a go for having a season. Last year was really hard to lose a whole season and threw a lot of things off. But I’m glad that we have seemed to get that behind us and they have figured out a way to keep us safe, but on the field at the same time. After high school I plan on attending college and to study there for at least four years."
Courier Publications' sports staff can be reached by email at sports@villagesoup.com or by phone at 594-4401.