The wrestling team is preparing for their first meet with the support of their coach and mentor Bill Kalivas.
Kalivas, the wrestling head coach for Bakersfield College, said that the team is young, with only three sophomores, but he thinks they will catch up to speed and be successful.
“We have a really good group of athletes,” said Kalivas. “They have a good work ethic, and I think what they don’t have in technical ability they make up in determination and hard work.”
Kalivas is looking forward to the team’s first meet on Sept. 24-25, and he says that they will compete against the one, four, and seven overall teams from last year.
“It will be a good test for them to see where we’re at and prepare for the tournament season,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll find our 10 best athletes per weight class and see what we can do.”
Kalivas is preparing the wrestlers physically and mentally.
“Right now it is a matter of some physical conditioning,” said Kalivas. “We’re getting their body prepared, trying to get their fast twitch muscles and getting them to learn and make some adjustments.
“You may only get one or two opportunities to score,” he said. “And you have to maximize those opportunities, otherwise you’re not going to be very successful.”
“We have a good nucleus of athletes, and we’re pleased with the kids that we have,” he said.
Kalivas said that the speed of the matches gets faster at every level, from high school to Division I, and that is something he is pushing his athletes to get used to.
Kalivas is confident in the depth and balance throughout the weight classes.
“I think we’re fairly balanced,” said Kalivas. “We’re probably deeper at certain weight classes than others. It just depends.
“We had some high hopes for some other individuals and we had some people that, for personal reasons, had to withdrawal from the team,” Kalivas said. “And we were disappointed because we felt that they would make good additions and make some good strides, but this sport’s not for everybody, and the only fun thing about wrestling is winning.”
Kalivas said that they are fairly balanced around the weight classes, and that A.J. Smith and Brad Carls are their top two wrestlers. Barring injury, he said, they have the potential to be the tops in their weight classes.
Kalivas talked about the future potential of the team and the academic expectations of the athletes.
“The future looks good if they can all maintain their academic standing and put in the extra time,” he said. “One of the things that makes teams successful is to have committed individuals that want to improve, so if this group can stay together cohesively and learn the skills that our coaching staff is trying to teach them, we’ll be successful.
“The winning and losing takes care of itself. Our concern is that they prepare themselves physically and that they try and do the things that we ask them to do like working on getting an education and having a good experience,” Kalivas said.
“Athletics can end at any time so we look for the positive and make sure that they are going to class and they’re focused on working toward their associates degree and getting something out of college, not just competing and taking units just to take units.”