On January 19, the boys wrestling team took on Clayton High School, Fox High School, and Afton High School. Leading into the meet, the energy was high as the schools prepared themselves.

Fox and Pattonville were the only two schools in their conference going into this meet undefeated. This left both schools in excessive anticipation for the meet and asking themselves, who will walk away as the conference champs?

Going into the meet, the Pirates knew that Fox was a good team. Captain and junior Paul Palermo led the team to stay confident.

“We just tried to keep everyone positive and focus on our matches,” Palermo said.

The whole team knew that this competition would decide who would be the conference champs.

“Everyone was buzzing. The atmosphere was electric and everyone was super supportive,” Palermo said.

The Pattonville team wrestled Afton first, then took on the matches against Fox. The Pirates only lost by three matches against Fox.

After each match, the wrestlers talked to their coaches and rewatched their match to see what mistakes they made and how they can improve.

“It’s a sport that is very unforgiving and no one can take the blame if you lose,” Coach Kim said.

Losing a match can be hard on the wrestlers.

“I was in the dumps after losing one of my matches but then recovered and won the next,” Palermo said. “I was happy with the team’s progress too.”

The team did lose to the Fox Warriors in the end, but walking away from this meet, Coach Kim doesn’t want the wrestlers to walk away discouraged.

“Most importantly we just want the boys to be better than the last match and learn from their mistakes,” Coach Kim said.

The season isn’t over yet, with a few more meets and districts. The wrestling team’s current standings are 14-1 in the conference. Districts will be February 17 and 18.