At a school where an expectation is in place for a run into the football postseason, there’s a degree of concession expected in terms of sharing the time and talent of student-athletes.
The Greyhound wrestling program is no exception, as three key pieces from last year’s group, Jacob Skinner, David Little and Hunter Hardwick joined the team later in the season thanks to the football season extending into late November.
The plan is for all three to be fully adapted to wrestling by the new year in time for the Gauntlet in Gray in Jan. 4, one week ahead of the region duals.
“We’re getting them closer. (Last week) was the first week we had our lineup together,” Greyhounds head coach Adam Gillhouse said.
The goal after football season ends is to get wrestlers adjusted from one sport to the other.
“Conditioning is the toughest part,” Gillhouse said. “In football, the average play is four to six seconds long, and you get a 25- to 30-second break.”
Wrestling requires a whole different approach. It’s one that Gillhouse has seen first-hand. Before taking on the head-coach position with the Greyhounds, he has an offensive assistant with the football team.
“Wrestling is a sport where it’s aerobic and anaerobic,” Gillhouse said.
Even during a football season – when it’s known that the longer a season goes could mean a longer wait for a full lineup to be in place – is not a time of uneasiness. Rather, it’s the other way around on Friday nights.
“Those guys, they’re competitors and hate to lose,” the coach said. “You watch them play football and can see that they hate to lose. It’s fun to watch them play football because of knowing who they are, they approach each play like a wrestling match. They know who their guy is or who they are blocking, they view it like a wrestling match. It’s, ‘I want to beat this guy this play.”
