Yes, the Emporia High Spartan wrestling team would like to win its annual home tournament, the Winter Classic, on Saturday.
Yes, Emporia would like to claim the team title for the first time since 2003 and “show what we can actually do out there on the mats,” as sophomore Logan Gaskill said.
But those things aren’t what’s most important to the team right now. While winning the team title would be nice, there are more pressing issues for the Spartans, with the most important perhaps being just plain old improvement.
“We have good potential,” junior Zeb Peak said, “it’s just that we haven’t been using it to the best of our abilities.”
Fourth-ranked Emporia has been off and on in the early going this season, wrestling well enough to beat No. 2-ranked Arkansas City and place fourth as a team at the Arkansas City Tournament, only to lose 47-18 in a dual with Manhattan last Friday.
It’s been a frustrating sequence of events for EHS coach Greg Buckbee.
“So far, many times, the other teams have been more competitive,” Buckbee said. “They’ve been more physical, and we haven’t seemed to be ready. It’s as much mental as it is physical, and we’ve got to be mentally prepared.”
The battle cry for Buckbee after the lopsided loss to Manhattan has been all about being more competitive on a more consistent basis. He has stressed the importance of being competitive in practice, saying “what they do in the practice room is usually what they carry off into competition.”
But just how well his wrestlers have received Buckbee’s message might be a little harder than usual to gauge, as the Spartans have missed significant practice time this week because of the winter weather that hit the area.
Practice on Monday was cut short, and Tuesday’s practice was canceled. Wednesday was the first full day of practice this week, and a reserved Buckbee was encouraged by some of what he saw.
“We had a pretty good practice Wednesday,” he said. “We started to fix some things, and hopefully we’ll continue that. Hopefully we’ll be ready.”
Something must have gotten through, though, because on Thursday, some of the EHS wrestlers echoed their coach’s thoughts.
“We need to step it up a lot,” Gaskill said. “We just need to wrestle like we can and how we should be.”
Added Peak: “We know that the way we wrestle in the practice room will transfer into how we wrestle on the mat.”
Emporia High will face off against 15 other teams on Saturday, with the first matches scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.
Emporia High finished third as a team at last year’s Winter Classic, with Justin Rose and Sal Tovar each back this season after winning the Spartans’ two individual titles at last year’s tournament.
Since it is at home and it is the final action before winter break, the EHS wrestlers would like nothing more than to perform well — and perhaps even win a title — this weekend.
“If we do good in this,” Peak said, “it’ll set the tone for the rest of the year.”
But, Buckbee said, if his squad learned from the hardships it has faced so far this season, the Spartans should be fine.
“If we worry about ourselves and improving, the winning will come,” he said. “I’m not real focused on winning the tournament, I’m focused on us improving and doing the things we’ve been doing wrong correctly, and then I think winning will take care of itself.”