Seth: When did you start wrestling?

Fernando: I started this year.

Q: How often do you practice?

A: During the season we would practice every day in the morning from 7 to 8:30.

Q: Where do you practice?

A: We practice in the gym with mats.

Q:Has the school had a wrestling school in the past?

A: Yes, not a lot of people know about it then or still.

Q: What made you interested in joining the wrestling team?

A: It was something I wanted to do for fun since it’s my senior year and I wanted to try it.

Q: Do you want to continue wrestling in college?

A: Maybe, if I like the team there and the environment; and it its my schedule.

Q: How often does the Bellaire team go to competitions?

A: Not very often because signing up for tournaments is pretty expensive so we have to fundraise a lot and even then we only do about 2 or 3 a year; and maybe 4 or 5 meets.

Q: How many people are on the team?

A: I think there are about 15 people on the team.

Q: What aspects do you like about wrestling?

A: While I’ve been doing endurance sports throughout my life, it’s much more anaerobic.

Q: What other sports have you played in the past?

A: I’ve been on the cross country team since freshman year and I was on the team in middle school. I’m also on the mountain biking team.

Q: Are there any very experience people in the sport on the team?

A: Yes, we have a few people that have been training since before they started wrestling. One person has been training jiu-jitsu for 8 years. Most of the people in wrestling have experience in jiu-jitsu

Q: Do you have any particular goals by participating in wrestling?

A: Not really, it was just something to do for fun.

Q: How does the wrestling team practice?

A: During practice we did drills which included shots, takedowns and escapes. Also during practice we wrestling among each other.

Q: Is there a wrestling coach?

A: Coach Pettigrew coaches the wrestling team. He’s also one of the football team coach. He teaches World Geography.

Q: Do you have any particular experience during the past season that was particularly memorable?

A: Yes, if you wrestle you’ll remember every opponent and it’s just such an exciting sport that no matter what every match will have something to remember.

Q: How many competitions have you done this year?

A: I think around 8 or 9 competitions.

Q: How do tournaments work?

A: During a meet every wrestler from each weight class goes against the opposing school. If its a dual meet then every wrestler from a particular weight class will go against every wrestler in the other school in that same weight class. After that at a meet they look at the school that has the most points and whoever has the most points win. At tournaments there are single-elimination and double-elimination competitions.

Q: How have you performed in tournaments?

A: The only tournament that I went to was the district tournament. I was eliminated in the second round?

Q: What weight do you compete in?

A: In the beginning of the year I was competing at 152 pounds but after 2 meets I decided to go up to 160 pounds.

Q: Why did you decide to change weight class?

A: It takes a lot of monitoring of what you eat to stay in the same weight class. I figured that it would be better that I was at 160 because at the lower weight I felt more fatigued during the matches.