As the Saint Louis U. High wrestling team progresses towards the District Tournament this Saturday, they are making their final preparations to give themselves the best chance at reaching the next round of the postseason, the Sectional Tournament.

The team is currently rounding out its second consecutive week without a competition as their last matches were on Jan. 30 at the MCC Tournament. In order to avoid team-wide quarantines due to other teams they could potentially wrestle testing positive for Covid, SLUH decided to play it safe and schedule only practices for their final two weeks of the regular season.

However, with a prolonged postseason—last year it spanned eight days, while this year it stretches four weeks—the team is taking a revised approach to final practices before postseason competition.

In years past, the team has been able to limit conditioning and strength building exercises in the week leading up to districts. Rather than expend energy in these areas, they would primarily work on specific wrestling techniques and their go-to moves.

Now, because this postseason’s format will require the wrestlers to stay in shape for an additional three weeks, the team is placing continued focus on the cardio and strength aspects of the sport.

Practices are still filled with drilling shots, working on escapes, and live wrestling, but the team doesn’t plan on abandoning end-of-practice circuits and other workouts just yet. Realizing that the lengthy postseason will demand more strength and grit than former postseasons, the SLUH wrestling team is planning to see the extra work pay off this Saturday.

“This time of year, we start focusing on working on the things that we're good at instead of trying to learn whole new things. But in addition to doing that at practice, we can’t let up on our conditioning, because of this new postseason format,” said assistant varsity coach Todd Clements.

Early this Saturday morning, the wrestlers will travel to Fort Zumwalt North for the first tournament of the postseason. SLUH will be represented by wrestlers filling nine of 14 available weight classes, seven of which are occupied by seniors.  

Featuring eight-man brackets instead of the typical 16-man format, the tournament is expected to go much quicker than past seasons. While it used to begin on Friday afternoon and often continued late into Saturday evening, this year’s postseason will begin in the mid-morning on Saturday and conclude in the mid-afternoon.

“The schedule is obviously a big change.  We’ll have three tournaments while there used to be one.  We’ll have to gear up for these battles and make sure we stay ready even though we have two weeks between each competition. We gotta keep the pedal to the metal and keep going as hard as we can,” said Clements.

Following Saturday’s District Tournament, the Jr. Bills will return to the wrestling room for another two weeks of practice before the sectional tournament on Saturday, Feb. 27. Although it is a long break without competition, the two-week pause will allow the team to get Covid tested and still have a full week of practices in the final week of February, granting them the time necessary to prepare themselves for the opportunity to make it to the state tournament on Saturday, March 13.

“The postseason is where the magic happens.  This is what everybody is working towards all season, working to get to the next level,” said Clements.  “As I like to say, the preseason is over, and we have to wrestle every match like it's our last.”