Wrestling Preview

By: Ella Fowler, Kelsey Bruzek, Tyler Elzholz, and Jaiden Basinger

December 8, 2020

With the season right around the corner, the varsity wrestling team is ready to get on the mat and show the work that they put in this past offseason. Leading the team is head coach Ray Mass with assistant coach Mike Keough.  

Finishing last season pretty well, the expectations are high, and those involved in the program believe that this season could be a special one.

Senior Jimmy Gray believes that this team has the ability to flourish this year. 

“During practices, everybody shows up every day and does their best at every practice; they’re gonna shine on the mat pretty soon,” said Gray.

He added, “Knowing that I have the opportunity to come back off an injury last season keeps me focused to do my best and have one last year with my wrestling coach that I have had since I was five. As a leader, I’m not pushing to make everyone a state champion wrestler, but I am pushing them to become better kids and soon-to-be adults.” 

Due to covid, the wrestling team has a number of wrestlers who did not go out this year in fear of getting sick, so they only have seven wrestlers at this time, as a lot of other schools are having the same difficulty. Coach Mass is not worried about the number of wrestlers on the team because he believes that the group is skilled enough to go out there on the mat and show what Brooklyn wrestling is about.

He explained that all of the returning wrestlers are experienced and wrestled in pee wee, middle school, and high school.

Mass is also high on junior Sofia Collins: “She has been wrestling around with the boys in the wrestling room, so that will make her a lot tougher this year.”

Mass said that he is expecting many newcomers coming in with experience to win a lot of matches this year and the upcoming years. He said it also helps having Keough on the staff.

He stated, “We have a new assistant coach, Mike Keough, who was a two-time state-qualifier for Brooklyn in 2002-2003, as well as a wrestling for John Carroll for four years. That’s one improvement. We also need to improve with weight lifting on a regular basis, so we’ve been doing a lot of that this year.”

In the upcoming years, Mass will focus on trying to get more kids to come out at all levels. 

“It’s a brutal sport and is not for everybody; that’s why the numbers are low at times. It takes four-to-five years to build a program, and we are starting from scratch. We just have to get the word out.”

Coach Mass and Coach Keough are looking forward to getting the season underway. 

The Hurricane family is excited to see the team succeed and wish them the best of luck.