Every year Garfield has the notorious privilege of watching the Boys Swim Team cavort around the gym floor wearing nothing but supportive loincloths. This may seem like puerile shenanigans, but underneath it is a deep respect for the form of the human body as handed down from its chiseled and sexy creator, Zeus. However, the legacy of the sculpted deities lives on even more strongly in the most masculine and appealing of all the Garfield sports teams: The wrestling team.

There are three ways to win an individual wrestling match. A pin is defined as when one competitor locks their opponent’s two shoulder blades to the matt. A decision is a point-based result at the end of the three periods. A techfault is when one competitor goes up by fifteen points. Points can be scored in a variety of ways involving holds, takedowns, and technicalities.

Team scores are an aggregate of individual scores in the different weight categories. Not having a competitor in a certain weight class forfeits those points. For this reason it is paramount for a good wrestling team to have many members. Unfortunately, the Garfield team is severely undermanned.

“Garfield has always sucked at wrestling,” says junior co-captain Clifford Rostomily. “All the city schools do.”

This portrayal leads to few people signing up for the team, which in turn leads to the team being bad. However, the team has been trying to change its poor image.

The gentlefolk of the wrestling team take the legacy of their sport seriously. The manly physiques of the upperclassmen grapplers bring honor to our cut-up ancestors. Nevertheless, females are an integral and successful part of the wrestling team.

Freshman Ava Klein recently took fourth in girls state wrestling. Efforts like this help create the in-school publicity necessary to field a full team.

In addition, the boys of the team had moderate success at districts. Senior co-captain Gordon Loop won two matches, as did Rostomily. Unfortunately, senior Taji Thomas and junior Andrew Bennett received terrible draws and went down early. However, Rostomily’s loss was most cringe-inducing.

High school team wrestling is officiated and scored by referees. As anyone who saw Garfield-Franklin can attest, referees are the great satan. In a sport where points are paramount, the refs have power almost unsurpassed by any other sport. This makes it especially frustrating when someone gets blatantly shafted. The ref in question failed to give Rostomily points that he had clearly earned, points that even the official scorer believed to have been a sure thing. Rostomily went on to lose by one point, a heartbreaking end to a promising season.

Next year’s squad will have a strong foundation to build upon. Freshmen Gabe Tran, Wes Rostomily, Mark Paul, David Gonzalez, Ava Klein, Brohani Brostofferson and Kengel the Destroyer provide a solid foundation for superstars Bennett and Rostomily.

Ultimately, the only way the team will truely be succesful is through broad recruitment.

“Join the wrestling team,” says Rostomily “We’ll make a man out of you. Even if you are a girl.”