Mats covered the tile floor of the Cripple Creek-Victor High
School cafeteria. Chairs and tables were folded up and set aside in
piles, clearing room for the wrestlers to practice.
This setting for practice every day means nothing to Pioneer
wrestling. What concerns the team is building a collective inner
strength, a confident outlook on the upcoming season.
“Attitude is going to be everything for us because we have to
lead by example,” first-year coach Michael Akana said. “If it looks
like we kind of have a little bit of a chip on our shoulder it’s
not because we’re upset about anything. We just want to show people
that wrestling can be successful in Cripple Creek, too.”
The program’s biggest achievement last season was taking two
wrestlers – Cody Arrick and Matt Vial – to the state tournament in
Denver.
Arrick has since graduated, but his presence is still felt when
he works out with the team at practice. Vial, a 215-pound junior,
is one of a few experienced wrestlers returning to the mat for the
Pioneers.
Leadership is a trait Vial feels he must focus on this year,
using his wrestling knowledge to better his inexperienced
teammates.
“I want to motivate, keep them going,” Vial said of the younger
CC/V wrestlers. “I want to keep them at a pace where they can take
my position when they get up here.”
Akana believes team togetherness can guide the younger Pioneers
to Vial and Arrick’s path.
“We don’t leave anybody behind,” Akana said. “We do everything
as a team in here.”
Such unity has the team believing in itself as the new season
approaches. CC/V begins competition at Custer County on Nov. 30 and
at the Woodland Park Invitational on Dec. 2.
“We can do all we can, but, in the end, it all comes down to
their self-motivation,” sophomore Ryan Bowman, 140 pounds, said of
the team’s many inexperienced wrestlers.
Akana knows the learning process will take some time for the
younger wrestlers. But with a sturdy backbone of team support,
inexperience can turn to confidence.
“He’s more of a team aspect coach,” Vial said of Akana.
“Wrestling is an individual sport but it’s also a team sport. He’s
letting us all work together so we can build each other
up.”
Vial is in a unique place. Few high school wrestlers qualify for
the state tournament, let alone as a sophomore.
“I want to place at state, that’s my goal,” Vial said of
furthering last season’s accomplishment. “I have to work hard in
practice, get it done in here so I can get it done out
there.”
Several of Vial’s teammates also have aspirations of heading to
Denver for state in February.
Brian Bielz, 145 pounds, is the team’s only senior. He is ready
to make a final push in high school wrestling.
“It will take everything I’ve got,” Bielz said of qualifying for
state.