The DVHS wrestling season started on Nov. 5, 2024 at the DV Mat Room (G127). On Oct. 16 and 17, all freshman PE. classes attended a brief overview of wrestling, where they learned the basics of the sport and how they could join the team.
There are many different and diverse people that come to wrestle. Wrestlers feel that it’s more inclusive and they feel more welcomed and comfortable to learn the sport.
“A lot of what wrestling does is accepting different types of people,” senior Anish Neema said. “The way I wrestle is completely different from other people on the team.”
During the informational session, the wrestling team talked about their experience and how it motivated them to continue wrestling throughout high school. They showed the freshman classes a couple of moves such as “the shot” and the “double leg takedown”.
“I’ve seen it online and [it] was like, ‘[You have to] be really big, really muscular,’ but honestly now I don’t think that,” senior Shereen Mehta said. “I know how it works [now], but that was my first impression. I was more like, I could be like that, I could be big and strong.” Now, she recognizes that the goal is different.
The team is aware that wrestling looks scary. When Neema first joined the team, he was initially intimidated by the effort other members had to put in.
“They [wrestling team] were training before the big competition at the end of the season for the Northern California section and there was this guy, he was red faced, he looked very tired. It definitely scared me. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be there,” Neema said.
All of this scared Neema, but he still continued to pursue his interest in Wrestling. He conditioned all of his fear into something he could turn into motivation to push him through all the hardships.
“Last season, I ended up winning 31-9, which was a great improvement from what I previously had. I think that I didn’t have a natural talent, but I was able to work towards it,” Neema expressed.
Both Mehta and Neema explained that anyone can do wrestling no matter their skill set or body type. Wrestlers expressed that wrestling is really diverse, and there isn’t a specific body or skill requirements to join. Just come by and have the motivation to learn the sport.
“For the other sports, there’s a specific body type, or specific strengths and speed,” Mehta said. For basketball, you have to be tall, right, but wrestling we have all body types, all shapes, all figures. Anyone could wrestle.”
The wrestling team at DVHS used to have tryouts, with extremely high attendance. This forced coaches to institute cuts, since they couldn’t include everyone who was willing to join. After COVID, the numbers decreased, leading the team to establish a no-cut policy.
“We used to have over a hundred people coming for wrestling. Obviously, we can’t have that big of a team, so they used to cut it,” Mehta expressed.
According to team members, eliminating tryouts meant the pressure of being cut from the team lowered. This allowed wrestlers to perform better and encouraged more students to come and try the sport out.
“It definitely encourages people to try out a new sport. Wrestling is a type of sport that not many people have done before high school, so if there was a tryout system I think less people would want to do the sport,” Neema commented.
Wrestlers also stated that motivation is very important. They believe that there should be effort and interest shown to learn the sport.
“Many people come into wrestling thinking that it’s really hard,” Coach Afshin Mirzazdeh said. “I agree it is, but with a lot of effort and time, anyone can do it,”
According to the coach, everyone on the team had little to no experience wrestling coming in. Some weren’t sure this was their sport.
“Most of us started our freshman year, so we know how it is to not to have done this and being pushed into this sport,” Mehta said. “So we all come from almost a similar background.”
During the season, the wrestling team has a tradition where they go out for a team dinner. This usually takes place after a tournament or game. The whole team goes out to celebrate an accomplishment , such as the completion of the season.
“It’s like a tradition that every single time someone places or does good we would go and celebrate this together as a team. I’ve had the best memories at these dinners after the tournament,” Neema expressed.
Wrestlers on the team also focused on how included they felt. Besides team bonding events, such as dinners or watching movies together, they would also help each other out during training and open mat sessions.
“It feels like I’m part of a family because everyone is really nice and really sweet,” freshman Jayita Verma said. “If you can’t do something nobody would make fun of you, they would help you learn it. They feel like parents, everyone feels like family.”
