Coach Michael Brown is gearing up his wrestling team for a winning season. He has been a wrestling coach for the past 24 years, 19 of which have been spent leading the Cougars at Cherry Hill East. This season, he hopes to have the team exceed the school record of 17 wins.

This year, the team is predominantly made up of juniors. He described how the junior class has many strong wrestlers. Coach Brown identified Eastern High School, Cherry Hill West, and Camden Catholic High School as the greatest challenges for the upcoming season. Brown also described how his team practices.

“My wrestlers practice mainly on their feet because that’s where 90 percent of wrestling takes place,” he said.

During practice, East wrestlers learn new moves and train for their upcoming matches. As Coach Brown awaits the season, he trains his wrestlers to develop and improve both mental and physical toughness.

“Wrestling is a highly competitive sport,” Brown said.

His wrestlers undergo various diets and training mechanisms, as they work to improve their physique and mental stamina. Unlike many other sports, wrestlers have to watch both their food intake as well as their weight. This is due to the fact that wrestlers compete in specified weight classes. Wrestlers are required to build up endurance in addition to flexibility in order to succeed in their matches.

East wrestler, Aidan Weingrad (‘21) explained the intensity of preparing for the wrestling season.

“During the season we do a lot of conditioning and running, and wrestling serves as its own conditioning… [you realize] how strict the program is on wrestlers,” he said.  

Weingrad hopes to improve on his very successful freshman year in which last year he had 16 wins and was Second Team All Conference. 

Although the sport is played on the mat, wrestlers need to acquire several mental aspects off of the mat as well. Without such dedication and commitment, wrestlers would not be able to pick up and use the several moves they are taught in practice in a match.

During a match, wrestlers can lose points due to illegal holds or fouls. But, they are able to gain points for executing moves such as pins, takedowns and escapes.

In recent years, East has lacked attendance at wrestling matches. Coach Brown would like to see more students coming out to support the East wrestling team. He believes that having school support will improve the team’s ability to compete.  

“In the past few years we haven’t had tons of attendance but we’re hoping to change that,” Brown said.

With dedication from East Cougar’s wrestling team, Coach Brown’s guidance and an increase of student attendance at matches, the East boys wrestling team will no doubt have a successful season. Good luck to all of the wrestlers during the 2018-2019 season.