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WORLAND - Another week up and another set of tough duals for the Worland Warrior wrestling team.
The No. 3-ranked Warriors, according to wyowrestling, are in Cheyenne this week and face nothing but 4A teams this weekend. They will dual against No. 4 Cheyenne East, Cheyenne Central, Cheyenne South and Laramie.
"We've got another big weekend against another handful of 4A schools," said WHS wrestling coach Josh Garcia. "We're headed in the right direction at the right time in the season. We're like David, and no one expects a lot from one of the smaller 3A schools in the state, and we're competing with some of the biggest schools in the state. It's also a big confidence booster for them to see that they can hang with these other big schools."
Shying away from a challenge is not the MO for the Warrior wrestling room. Garcia wants his team to wrestle the best and be pushed by the best. If they lose duals or matches, as long as his team and wrestlers learn from it, that's the endgame.
"Every team has a different philosophy, and I think it's important to stick by; from wrestling to the classroom to life, there are challenges. It's OK to fail, and some coaches only want to teach by winning and winning. I think it's important that when you're challenged, you might fail, but what are you going to learn from that and get better," said Garcia. "We've had an awesome practice to start the week, and the kids came in ready to work."
Embodying the Warrior wrestling mindset, were this weeks' wrestlers of the week were 113-pound Kobe Swain and 195-pound Lane McBee.
"Kobe lost against Thunder Basin but had some key wins against Gillette and Star Valley. And Lane had nothing but pins on the weekend," said Garcia.
Last week the Warriors hosted duals against No. 1 Star Valley, No. 2 4A Thunder Basin and Campbell County on Jan. 29. Worland beat Campbell County 63-18 but lost to Star Valley 43-36 and Thunder Basin, 48-30.
The dual vs. Star Valley was the third time that the Warriors and Braves dueled this season, each time Worland crept closer and closer to beating the four-time defending state champs.
"We knew we had our hands full, but we still had that mindset of not backing down. Star Valley, especially, I think a lot of times teams can be intimidated facing that high caliber of a team. We want our guys focusing on the little things that will make them better.
Against Star Valley, Garcia adjusted his lineup, bumping 160 two-time state champion Luke Goncalves up to 170 to face Harrison Hoopes. Goncalves lost the match, his first in over a year, by a 13-10 decision.
In the long run, Garcia believes this will make Goncalves better, and it also showed how important a team-first mindset is. Because when the team's best wrestler is willing to do what's the best for the team, everyone else is willing to do the same.
"We bumped up Luke Goncalves to 170 to wrestle one of their tougher kids at 170. When we do things like that, folks have a tendency not to see what we're doing, but that's not our mentality. We want to improve, and we want the good matches. Going into that - my hat's off to Luke, he didn't win the match, but it made him better in the end.
"It's one of those learning opportunities for us and the program. We're not going to back down from competition, and I appreciated that Luke has that type of attitude. When you have a two-time state champion like Luke willing to bump around, that gets the other guys to buy into what we're doing," said Garcia.