With roughly one month left before the WIAA regional tournament, the Shawano Community High School wrestling team is doing all it can to prepare for the difficult competition that awaits.
Starting on Saturday with a 32-team, double-elimination tournament at Sheboygan North, Shawano Community High School wrestling head coach Michael Homan is getting his young team in the end-of-season mindset.
“You lose twice, and you’re out. We kind of call that our regional warmup,” Homan said. “If you don’t come there to wrestle, you’re going sit down and be done for the day. And that can be a very humbling experience.
“You’re not necessarily going to get five matches. You might not be wrestling all day. You might be sitting in the stands while your teammates all wrestle.”
Shawano will compete in the WIAA Division 2 Regional in Seymour on Feb. 13 against some of the strongest competition it has seen all year, including former Bay Conference perennial contender Oconto Falls. The survivors will see strong programs such as Wittenberg-Birnamwood and Luxemburg-Casco, among others, in the Omro Sectional.
Outside of seniors Wyatt Welch and Damon Braatz, who both advanced to sectionals a season ago, the Hawks do not have wrestlers with valuable postseason experience.
Homan wants the Sheboygan tournament and two home dual meets (West De Pere and Kewaunee) to teach the youngsters about “having some urgency there, knowing these tournaments have the possibility of being your last. It’s a win-or-go-home mentality. Knowing that we have to be wrestling at our best at this time.
“We’re not necessarily sure how to prepare what it takes to be successful at the varsity level and what it takes to be in that upper tier of wrestlers we want to be at.”
The Hawks have been working hard at building endurance over the course of the season, but at this point, it’s the situational wrestling and small tweaks to technique that can push the wrestlers over the top.
“If we keep working hard at the moves that we’ve been working on in practice, I think we just keep working on it, throughout those matches, we will get better and prepare us for regionals,” Welch said.
Come Saturday, in Sheboygan, the Hawks will get a glimpse of what it takes to be successful, and the lessons are only going to help them when it really matters.
“They take that experience of wrestling tough matches after tough matches, and hopefully we put that all together, and that will prepare us for what our regional is going to be like,” Homan said.
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