Olympic gold medalist and NCAA coach Dan Gable once said, “You don’t wrestle to beat others; you wrestle to beat yourself.” Rolla High School’s junior varsity wrestling team fulfills this quote, and throughout this season, has reflected its meaning excellently. The team did this by striving for personal growth and goal-setting throughout its season. 

Coach Jesse Maguire has been wrestling since high school and has been coaching for 12 years. He has been a major part of the Rolla JV wrestling program 

“The growth that the JV wrestlers had from the beginning of the year until the end was really huge.They started out the year, most of them, knowing a little bit, but the amount of detail that they were adding into their technique by the end of the year was great,” Maguire said.

This growth is not from nowhere; goal setting is a major part of the wrestling program. “I know some of the kids, their goals were to win X amount of matches or whatever, and another kid’s goal may have been to just win a match, if they were brand new. But all of our JV group worked really hard all year in working towards those goals.”

This growth has been shown throughout the season in many tangible ways. Tanner Lewis, a freshman on the junior varsity wrestling team recently participated in JV’s last match of the year.     

“I was down, this kid beat me twice before, and I was down by fourteen, but he couldn’t get that last point, and then I turned it around in the end and won by one point. I wrestled him at the JV Tough as Nails Tournament and when St. James came here for a try against another team.” Lewis said. 

Personal growth is major for the wrestling team. Wrestlers are constantly trying to do better than they did the day before, pushing themselves to new limits.

“We’re big on goals where we can track and achieve individually, not so much wins, losses, stuff as far as growth with their development and on their technique,” Maguire said.

Growth comes in many forms. For some, it’s a change in partners and for some it’s a change in motivation, or their reason for wrestling.

“I’ve noticed that I’m getting better, like a lot better. We’re learning more moves, we did in junior high, and those types of things.” Maguire continues. “I picked a different partner than last year, because last year my partner, we just kind of messed around most of practice, but this year I’m practicing more with a better partner who’s gonna push me and get me better.” Lewis said.

The Rolla wrestling program’s success can be best put through Lewis’s own words: “Well, I’m working harder, I’m learning new things, I’m practicing hard.”