Junior Zane Farone was on varsity two team for Viper wrestling. He had a record of 12 wins and 7 losses this season along with 10 pins, where you put the other person on their back and you win instantly, under his belt.

“So far we’ve been pretty good. Our varsity one has won all of our duels so far and varsity two has lost I think one to Cedar Park,” Farone said. “We are really looking like we’ll have a lot of guys to stay good at the end of the season.”

Practice is a lot more restricted than in previous years, and the players are separated from larger groups to reduce the spread of covid. 

“We can only practice with a couple of other guys this year, unlike last year where we could practice with anyone,” Farone said. “The amount of teams at events is way less. We don’t get as many matches during the season.”

With the matches they are allowed to compete in each player is able to gain points for the team as a whole. Each point is worth more or less depending on how they won the match.

“The 66 team points is for during the duels each match you win your team gets a certain amount of team points,” Farone said. “Based on how you did in the match at the end the team with the most team points wins the duel.”

As many athletes understand losing their season is probably close to one of the worst things to happen to you. This year and last year a large number of seasons were cut short because of the pandemic, including Farone’s.

“This year it’s only about a month and like a week, really. It’s not that long, and we can only do meets. I can’t do any tournaments,” Farone said. “We work harder in practice to make up for the amount of time that we missed to COVID.”

The future is always undecided for athletes. Deciding whether or not to play at the next level depends on the college and if they make the teams.

“As of now I don’t see myself wrestling for any college,” Farone said.