Wrestling for me has been a three year adventure. A lot of people say that things can change who they are or even change their entire lives. I honestly think that this great sport, hard but great, has done that for me. I think everyday what if I would have started sooner?

 I wish I would have gone out freshman year, or earlier. I know that it would have made me that much better. I remember freshman year, I kept telling myself to go out thinking that I would coast on by and how easy it would be. I thought I would be the best. I was totally wrong, and I was scared of commitment. So I didn’t try it. I didn’t even go to a single practice. Sophomore year came around and football season had started. Making varsity was killer but standing on the sidelines every game was not a real “Friday Night Lights” experience.

 I loved being part of a team but I wanted to do more for it. Then the season of winter sports came around and I was so close to not going out for wrestling, but my uncle sort of made me, as did the coach. I remember the smell of the wrestling room the first day I walked in, it’s a smell you can never really let go of and a smell you’ll always recognize. The first day we had a morning run and our coach Ike really liked making us run. He got some sick pleasure out of it, but honestly I think every coach in the world does. I’ll admit id even like making adolescent men run tell they puke. I would like to really emphasize the puke part, because there was a lot of puking that first morning. An overall summary of those two weeks was horrible.

Our first match came and I had to wrestle JV for this one. I didn’t mind though. It was my first match ever and I remember feeling exhausted. I was dead after the first period, but I kept going. I finally fought out to the third period and ended up pinning him with about thirty seconds left. I think what really drove me to win that match was the fact there was a girl I had a crush on who had came to watch and come on, how could I let her down by losing. Jv was over and it was varsities turn. The opposing team had made am actual banner saying “crush Pec!” or “Destroy Pec!” something like that, and had ran through it.   The opposing team had ran around the mat several times and piled all together in the middle. “Classic.”

 They had beaten us but some walked away with their heads up. About a week had passed and I got bumped up to the big leagues, to varsity. Now this of course was not because I had gone through drastic improvement stage, there was simply no one else to fill the spot. We had a fairly small tem, we were able to fill the varsity spots and have two or three jv spots. So I was bumped up to the spot.

My first and mostly all my matches ended with a loss. I may have been a JV champ, but I was not cut out for varsity at all. Kids would twist me and turn me every time. I had gone 3-9 my sophomore year and two of those wins weren’t even real wins. In Wisconsin the official rules were, “If you win a match after a bi the bi that was previous to the win will also count as a win.” So I had had to bi’s in a row and had won my first varsity match all season. It was to another first timer wrestler from a town as small as ours. No one had really recognized my victory but I was happy either way. I had lost every varsity tournament that year and every varsity match besides one.

So summer came and I traveled to Minnesota where I didn’t do a single “wrestling” activity all summer.    But junior year had finally come around and after cross country I was in full gear for wrestling. This year I had to really earn my spot on varsity, and of course I didn’t. I was the JV star again though. So every dual meet I’d go out and throw kids around on JV and then watch the varsity team do their work out there. We had a great team that year. Nine of our varsity starters were seniors and they were well prepared. I couldn’t wait tell next year to wrestle under the light.   

My season had ended with a heartbreaking three losses on JV. But I won all my other ones. I worked hard as soon as the season was over, but now that I look back I didn’t work hard enough. The thing about me was I never tried hard enough, I really feel like I could have pushed myself a lot harder. So I hit the weights everyday and went to as many off season practices as I could. At the end of my junior year my coach had came up to me and gave me a slip of paper. The paper was a free trip to a wrestling camp at Augsburg College. So two days after school had ended I was on my way to Augsburg and how not fun it was. The camp was five days long and ended on my birthday. The day after the camp ended I had left for the wrestling team’s annual team camp trip to Missouri. That was about six days long and very hot. That had finally ended and the summer practices had begun.

Senior year season was here! I couldn’t have been more excited. Even for the first morning run. The season started out very slow of course, but two weeks and fifteen pounds later we had our first event. The Lighting Duals! It was time for my first varsity match of the year; I wrestled a guy from South Minneapolis. I was so tired but I knew I couldn’t lose. Having the pressure of being captain really means I had to win. I battled out and won by decision. The first part of my season went like that. I’d win some and lose most. I remember right after Christmas break I was about 10-10 or so and something changed. I had to make myself win. I pushed through the rest of the season only losing four more matches and winning twenty seven. I never went to state but I know I would have placed. I know that. My final match of my career was almost a loss, but in the last ten seconds I stood up, and I won it. I clapped so hard and the sweat was pouring out of my body. I still miss it, the matches, the team, and the fun parts. It changed a lot of my personality, in a better way that is. I’d say that walking in that room over two years ago and saying “Yeah I’ll give it a shot.” Was the best decision of my life thus far.

Lead

Music is a changing.

The music of yesterday drastically shapes the music of today, and tomorrow. Former bands like Led Zeppelin and The Beatles inspire many of today. Many different genres spiral out of the nineties including Electronica, Soft Rock, Alternative, Punk, a more vibrant rap, and more.

This of course has created hundreds of artist with new ones coming up every day. Early groups like Daft Punk all the way up to Kid Cudi. The music of the past has really formed young artist like these today.   

Hard news interviews

Tony Metz and Ben Schmitz

Hard new topic

The artist of yesterday and today.