New wrestling mats are mixed blessing

The wrestling teams’ new mats cause scheduling problems.

Both the boys and girls wrestling teams have their home in the student cafeteria.  Until this year, they used a mat that was custom fit to accommodate the poles in the cafeteria. During the construction in the cafeteria,  the mat, which was old to begin with, was completely destroyed.  Athletic director Eric Ritzer  along with Pete Devlin and Joe Sicilian  helped facilitate the purchase of a new mat for the wrestling team.

The mat came with a little history, it was used once at a national tournament before it landed at Curtis.

Malik Grant, a senior who’s been on the team since freshman year shared that the new mats are just as good as the ones that have been used since freshmen year.  With two PSAL Mayors Championship wins and two trips to States, Grant has wrestled on many mats and really appreciated the new mats.

The new mats have been a great aid for the team and have made practices a lot more productive. Alexandria Salmos, said, “The new mats made practice a lot more efficient because it is easier to do ‘roll ups’ and other wrestling techniques.”

Although the mats have made it more comfortable to practice, workout and perform drills, they have made it increasingly challenging to hold home games. This is because they aren’t customized and fitted to the cafeteria, where the team usually holds its matches.  For  practice the team uses half of the mat, but would need the whole mat for a match.

Since the mats don’t fit the PSAL standard because of their lack of customization to the cafeteria poles , the home wrestling matches have been moved to the boys gym.

Because of the basketball schedule, the team had only one home match, with all other matches scheduled at the opposing school. “It hurts the team, we have no fans to follow us and the kids want to wrestle at home so their friends can watch,” said Coach Alena.

Coach Alena has been coaching the Curtis wrestling team since 1999. He commented that despite the change of mats, this season has been much better that last year’s. “The team is much more dedicated, and we have a lot more players this year.”