Colonia High School’s Varsity Wrestling team started with a great season as they showed improvement from the previous season. All of the team bonds and hard work are starting to pay off!
The Best Match
So far, there have been so many victories to highlight in the 2024-2025 season for the White Division team. However, the best victory out of all 10 wins was the match against South Brunswick. Colonia won a good 65-5 against them.
Colonia’s Varsity Wrestler, Joshua Parks, states that the main reason for winning that match was due to the team’s “large stamina reserves”. He continues, “Everyone that WON their match simply pushed the pace and took advantage of the fact that we work a lot harder than almost every team in NJ forcing us to have a gas tank that can go the extra mile when need be”. The match was practically “light work” for them but they still made sure to put on a show. Playing an easy team never stops them from still wrestling hard.
The Most Impactful Match
Even though there are always easy matches, there are always hard ones. Colonia went against Woodbridge. Not only was Woodbridge their hardest match, it was their most important. Unfortunately, they lost 39-28, but it still had a big impact on the team.
Since Woodbridge is Colonia’s rival, the match was already tense. It was tense WEEKS before the match. The match started kind of iffy, with a 6-0 lead for Woodbridge. It was the first match of Colonias season where the team started with fewer points than the opposing team.
For the rest of the match, the momentum picked up but Colonia was still down. They stayed down almost the entire match, only coming close to passing Woodbridge once or twice. Colonia was only one pin away from winning the match but still sadly lost. Losing to rivals was never the plan but Colonia knows to always keep their head up.
So, due to that loss, many improvements were made. People who lost their own match came back and got their win after a rematch. Overall, after that match, Colonia’s wrestling team learned how to stay calm while being under pressure. Everyone improved in physical and internal ways.
Practicing
To get ready for match days like those they have practice right after school. These practices are run by coaches Anthony Messner and Michael Messner. If the Colonia High School’s Varsity Wrestling team has a match scheduled with a team that hits a specific move during matches, Colonia makes sure to work on the defensive countermeasures for it. This helps them make sure to be ready in case an opponent goes in to make that specific move. Coach Dan Grasso oversees the practices and adds in tips for the players.
So, practices mostly consist of getting the wrestlers’ heads in the right place and conditioning. The players need to make sure that they are the right weight to be able to wrestle. If not, they cannot wrestle at all. This makes practices shorter but puts in a good sweat for everyone. At the very end of practice, the coaches and wrestlers go over what is needed.
Simple Words of Motivation
Along with the wrestlers always showing their all, they do it with a few words of motivation. It’s normal for players to feel their doubts before matches. To have those thoughts go away, the coaches make sure to throw in some words. Assistant Coach Anthony Messner tells the team, “You don’t know how good you are unless you go out there and chase the best”.
This was said to pump the team up. Messner did not want the team to go out into their matches scared or worried. All he wanted was for the team to tackle the challenge in front of them head-on so they could prove why they were the best at their weight. After the words of motivation, the players brought everything they learned to the mat and did their best.
This amazing team will do whatever it takes to finish off the season well. But so far, their hard work and dedication have been put in. Good luck to the Colonia High School’s Varsity Wrestling team and the rest of their season!
Interested in reading about more winter sports? Check out, “Colonia’s Swim Team achieves 6 game win streak“.
