On January 24, the DHS varsity and JV wrestling teams won the CSL North Conference championship. While this accomplishment would be impressive no matter what, it is even more noteworthy because this is their seventh consecutive time winning this conference. They then went on to win the cross-over between the top teams in the north and south divisions of our conference and finished their regular season 26-4. This year the DHS wrestling team named seven conference champions including Juniors Nick Kupets, Sage Heller, Andrew Mehrholz, Seniors Brady Glantz and Christopher Moran, Sophomores Kyle Clough and Dylan Utterback.

The team credits their success to the efforts of their coaches.
“I feel like the coaches are really what’s different. We have better coaches than most schools. They really connect with the kids, they try to form a personal relationship and really push us forward,” said Kupets.

The coaches feel the success is due to the wrestlers working to meet high expectations. Deerfield wrestlers are expected to work hard and put a lot of time into improving their wrestling skills.

“[The success was achieved] by changing the climate and the expectations. Now it’s an expectation of working hard and doing what you need to do to win, but winning fairly and doing the right thing, never with cheating. It’s just about out-working your opponent and also really practicing smart. Not just working hard but working smart by doing the right things,” Coach Marc Pechter said.

The team also credits the work the coaches have done at the middle schools. By starting earlier and having more communication between the middle schools and DHS, wrestlers have a better idea of what will be expected of them as DHS wrestlers. Additionally, it gives them more time to develop and refine their wrestling skill-set.

“I think [the success] is partially due to our middle school programs. They help get the kids ready for high school. Caruso Middle School actually won the state championship last year,” Glantz said.
Junior Nick Kupets experienced the benefits of the communication between the middle schools and DHS firsthand.

“I got into it in seventh grade. [Caruso wrestling coach] Aaron Cohen came to one of my classes and convinced me to try out wrestling and I liked it, so I just continued with that,” Kupets said.

All of these factors have allowed the DHS wrestling team to gain some impressive accomplishments in recent years. There are seven DHS wrestlers, including Kupets and Glantz, who placed and qualified for the state tournament at the Barrington Individual Sectional. This was the most wrestlers of any team at the Sectional and the most in school history.

“Our success was pretty expected. The team won this conference last year and for the six years before that we won the tournament. This year, we had seven individual champions out of fourteen weight classes, which was pretty expected since we’ve been dominating conferences for seven years now,” Glantz said.

Those who aren’t involved with wrestling often have an inaccurate or exaggerated idea of what it actually entails. Wrestling is often portrayed in pop culture as being overly violent, when in reality, a successful wrestler has to possess a lot of skills beyond just brute force.

“I think that people think that wrestling is a violent sport when it’s really not, there’s really a lot of technique involved, a lot of grace involved and you really have to drill your technique. A lot of times, pure force in itself is not enough to win a match, strength helps, flexibility helps … somebody who practices a lot and practices smart and has good coaching will do better than somebody who doesn’t practice,” Pechter said

While wrestling is not as violent as some people may think, wrestlers are still aware that their sport of choice can come with certain risks. While observing safety rules and having referees present can greatly reduce the risk of injury during practices and matches, there are still other aspects of the sport that wrestlers have to watch out for. The practice of dropping pounds to get into a certain weight class can be seriously detrimental to one’s health when overdone, or done too quickly.

“[Losing weight] can be dangerous depending on how you do it, but if you do it safely and eat really healthy and take a lot of time to do it, instead of doing it in a couple days, because that’s when it can become dangerous,” Kupets said.

According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association, “A preponderance of evidence finds that consistent weight cycling over the course of a season results in diminished strength and endurance, increases in body fat levels, and suboptimal hydration status; all of which contribute to poor performance.” To combat these negative results, DHS wrestlers have to observe certain protocols in regard to dropping weight.

“It’s not even the coach or the wrestler who decides what weight they can go, it’s the state of Illinois that decides that, and that’s based on hydration testing and a body fat test that our trainers do. And they put it into a formula, send it to the state, and then the state sends it back to me and says that this wrestler can go this weight at this time.” Pechter said.

The importance of safe wrestling practices has been emphasized by the coaching staff and is an important part of the team’s success. When combined with hard work and regular practice, the team has found that they can achieve their personal wrestling goals and contribute to the team’s overall success.

“It’s my senior year so I guess my goal is to win state and help the whole team get down to state as well,” Glantz said

The hard work that the wrestlers put in at practice doesn’t only pay off in the form of awards. Skills that one learns from wrestling can be applied everywhere and can lead to improvement in many different aspects of one’s life.

“They say once you’ve wrestled everything else is easy. I think wrestling is very tough physically and mentally, but if you can make it through it, I think you’re better off for it. I think there’s a lot of life lessons that you learn from wrestling because it’s so difficult. You really have to be disciplined and obviously if you’re disciplined it’s going to help you in other areas of your life,” Pechter said.