Esteban Lucero who is currently enrolled as a Student-Athlete in our very own Praire High School joined our journalism team to help us understand more about being a student-athlete. He has wrestled since Junior year after being recommended by a close friend in the wrestling program as well as having multiple cousins who wrestle as a hobby. Esteban resides in the 138 weight class for this upcoming season where he plans to close out his student-athlete career and make regionals again as he did the year before on a technicality.
When asked about pregame rituals “Yeah before every game we do like a little sacrifice we grabbed from somewhere but in truth, it usually is just some old shoes or something like that.” which is to be expected as most sports carry some type of superstition and of course the same applies to wrestling. But now that we have passed formalities it is time to get a deep dive into our guest’s regiments and guidance tips.
Before running into a season headfirst, Esteban recommends doing out-of-season tournaments to prepare yourself. Don’t hope to win but just get a chance to test your skills and perfect your form. “but I mean I went to it, yeah I lost all of them, but I mean, I still did it.”
But what about the time before the match, when the tensions are high and the stress is almost over-encumbering? The answer is simple, nothing. In our senior’s case, his team hypes each other by running around with all sorts of shenanigans up to keep a high heart rate, which is essential to keeping endurance in a match. During the week before the fight, Esteban is eating almost nothing, and when he does it is in small increments and only foods like granola, fruits, and steak, but his top two recommendations are classics, chicken and rice sourced from his local Winco for protein.
All this makes you wonder how somebody juggles school and sports daily. Put bluntly by our advising athlete “I dont, no.” followed up with“Wrestling ends at 5:30 every day for practice yeah so I, um go home, take a shower do my homework, and cry myself to sleep.” which if you think about is a crazy schedule to maintain for an entire season!
To maintain this schedule he credited his time in basketball and baseball for his punctuality, endurance, and team bonding skills. Looking towards the future Esteban had to say “As much as I love wrestling I don’t think I’ll join any leagues after school unless they are college-based. Wrapping up our talk with one of Prairie’s many athletes, we asked for any advice he may have for new faces to the school who want to try wrestling in the future. ”wrestling is an extreme sport.”
“It’s a big commitment.” You’ll have to wake up every day ready to commit to wrestling from November until December. Completely encompassing what we have learned, to wrestle one must be disciplined, driven, and have a tenacity
