Alex Settle
Staff Writer

Winter sports are starting up for another season, and among them is what is considered by some as the hardest working team at Harriton High School, the wrestling team. A few weeks ago head coach Anthony Ciarlello’s practices started once again and this year’s team is ready to go for the new season. “We are really excited for the new season because of our coaching staff, we have excellent coaches and four out of six were state finalists. We can learn a lot from them and now have the talent not only in our coaches but in ourselves as well,” says Junior Connor Wortley, who was named a captain on Tuesday.
Many wrestlers were excited to get back to their daily routine of exhausting practices. At 3:00 p.m. the wrestlers start with a run, and practice continues non-stop until 5:15. Saturdays, while most of us sleep in, practices start at 7:30 and run until 11. As Wortley put it, “An average practice is grueling yet very fun. It’s not a sport for everyone and it challenges you mentally and physically to the extremes. I’m on three other sports teams as well that I consider to be very tough as well but I would easily rank it as the hardest sport at Harriton. There are no breaks in a match and therefore no breaks in practice.” Senior captain Colin Powell may have put it best, “Wrestling is not for the faint of heart, if you’re not ready to sweat, hurt, bleed, or just work until you can’t move, then wrestling isn’t your sport.”
Another thing for the wrestlers to get excited about this season is the new facilities of the school. With the new locker room and wrestling room the team has more room to move around and practice so as a result, training is more efficient and more effective than ever. Wortley commented that it wasn’t the “secluded dungeon” they were used to but it is certainly a change for the better. Wrestlers can now use the weight room more easily because there is more room and more weights, making it easier for everyone to get on the machines in a shorter period of time. The Highlander Gym, unlike the wrestling room at the old Harriton is much more open and has much more room for practice.
Last year the team finished the season as District runners-up, behind Octarara, with an impressive record of 14-17 in the juggernaut Central League. Along with that, 8 people made it to the regional tournaments, something to be proud of considering the toughness of the region. The team, led by the captains Mark Singer, Haddon Corbett, Colin Powell, and Connor Wortley, is reach new heights in this young 2009 season. The team has almost doubled in size since last year because of the new freshmen and sophomores. This will help the team fill in the gaps in the roster, which will be key when they reach higher-level tournaments like Districts and Regionals.
But as with every year, the team is always looking for support. Wortley points out “Wrestling is a great spectator sport and the team improves with fans. Even if you don’t understand it, you can still pick it up easily and everyone in the stands yells from the bleachers. We really would love to have fans come and support one of the more successful teams at Harriton and we appreciate every fan we can get.”
Harriton’s Wrestling team shares a strong team bond with one another and this a strong force that will hopefully drive them to victory this year. Powell wanted to point out, “You’ll find the atmosphere and the overall bond that our team has to be too over powering to leave.”
The new season is beginning and the future is looking bright. (Insert the results from Friday here) With the new wrestling room, new weight room, great coaches, and the huge numbers of new wrestlers, the outlook is bright for this year in Harriton Wrestling.