WRESTLING is a very entertain- ing sport at Granger High School. Wrestling brings people together by building strong relationships and improving physical health. Wrestling, like many other sports, offers an unlimited list of benefits such as confidence, character, and self-esteem. This sport takes a lot of courage to do. Many wrestlers give everything they have to build the strength and endurance needed to compete.

Wrestling changes a person’s perspective on living by making them feel empowered. Participating in a sport and having a positive experience can have a huge impact on an athlete’s social development. Sports take up a lot of time and energy, which motivates students to work hard to enjoy practice and competition. “Wrestling is a great way to teach someone life aspects like how to deal with failure and loss,” Carlos Ruiz (11) said.

Wrestling teaches athletes to improve no matter what the result of each matchup is. Failure is out one another, they wouldn’t a difficult thing to deal with and some people can’t even take it. “It’s tough, and it gets really hard at times, but it makes you a better person and teaches life lessons,” Ruiz said. Many of these athletes use wrestling to cope with their real-life situations at home and that can be a good escape.

Females are strong wrestling athletes at Granger. Bailey Hall (11) went to tryouts for wrestling but was uncertain about it. “It wasn’t as hard as I thought, but it was a lot. We had to like roll around and do flips which was intensifying,” Hall said. Of course, females have different obstacles to face in sports, but as they do it, they will build up more confidence and strength.

Wrestling teaches the value of dependability. People want to be reliable and trustworthy in com- petitions, which is important as students grow up and prepare to go to work or college. In sports, the team players depend on each other to achieve goals. With be able to improve or grow. A group’s strength is dependent on every single player’s cooperation.

People join sports to gain more confidence, and some may do it to prove people who have doubted them wrong. “I used to be really small, and I got picked on when I was little, so I needed something to stand up for myself,” Brady Benson (11) said. People can make you feel unworthy some- times, but sports can be an incredible way to make a person’s life better as they get older.

Memories and words that in- spire a teammate to victory are extraordinary. Wrestlers meet new people and create friend- ships that are inseparable. “We’re more than a team, we’re family,’’ Benson said. Wrestling can help someone connect with themselves as well as others. Granger’s wrestling team values and teaches much more than just trying to win. To many athletes on the team, wrestling is much more than that.