By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

AURORA, Ore.–  The Green Monster that is the North Marion Wrestling Team find themselves just a week away from the start of the season as they hit the mats one last time before Thanksgiving.

Fortunately, or unfortunately if you don’t enjoy it in general, it was the first day of conditioning for the Huskies as they worked a combination of working out and sprints in with live drilling as they prepare for another run at a District Title this year.

“First conditioning, man it was a tough one,” Levi Wing describes on the first conditioning day with a chuckle.  “The first two weeks of the season, we’re not in shape yet so it was a rough go, but it’s a goal to set so we going to get better.”

Coming off a fifth place finish last year in the 4A OSAA State Tournament and winning districts to boot, the expectations are even higher this year.

On the wall of the locker room, is a bright yellow sheet with four goals on it as a friendly reminder for the team of what is expected of them in 2016/2017.

The goals:

Top four at State.  Regional Champs.  Top three at Classics and take more than 10 to State this year.

Seems a lot, but Head Coach Jared Wilson is confident of it happening with how his team has progressed through the time he has been there.

“Well, if your not going forward your going backwards right?  You always try to get better and push to be better at every, single year,” started Wilson.  “And we’re pretty lucky to some elite wrestlers on our team that are setting good examples for our kids and we got a lot of good, tough minded, physical kids that if they keep working hard, we’ll have a very, very successful year.”

To have that successful year that they all want, they’ll rely on a very, very talented senior class that features Wing and recently Missouri-commit Lane Stigall to set the pace for not the team, but to lead the way for the underclassmen.

“Trying to leave an impression is huge,” said Wing.  “We have a lot of up-and-coming juniors and sophomores and freshman, a lot of people.  I mean, this is our family, so we’re trying to leave a better impression so they see how it’s suppose to be done when we’re gone.”

Wilson knows that what Wing and company are doing will set them apart, there work ethic, their leadership, etc, but the underclassmen are already to  help contribute to the goals that they have set for this year as they are kind of already taking what the senior class this year, and prior senior classes to heart as they take a mini-Thanksgiving break.

“There’s a lot of other kids, Levi and Lane and most of those kids who get headlines and deservedly so because they’re tough,” started Wilson.  “But we got kids like Derek Estrada, Roy Ramirez, Brian Gibson and Cristian Ramirez and the list goes on that are really tough.  Quality wrestlers and expecting them to do well.”

As they leave the compound and into the cold weather outdoors for the Thanksgiving Holiday, the Huskies will enjoy this mini-break before a optional workout Sunday and back to it Monday as they prepare for what is to be expected as another successful season.

And you can feel that the excitement is slowly building with every passing day.

“I’m excited,” said Wilson.“I’m excited about competition.  I think every coach is, we all want to compete.  But I’m a little bit nervous about being as prepared as we need to be..But I’m pretty confident at were we’re at.  I’m pretty confident with the group of kids that we have and I’m excited to go out there and see them wrestle.”

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