‘Rines wrestling looks to pin the Wootton Patriots to the mat this Saturday after losing 9-70 to Quince Orchard on Tuesday.

December 12 marked the ‘Rines first win of the season. They have many first year wrestlers and are excelling individually. The team also has a new coach, Ryan Geary. “He’s different. He’s amazing,” junior wrestler Christian Forku Tchoffo added.

The Watkins Mill varsity boys wrestling team had their first match of the year on December 5 at Northwest High School. The mat was filled with many close matches. The ‘Rines fought hard, but in the end, they were clawed out by the Jaguars.

Forku Tchoffo thought that the main reason for the loss Saturday was because the team has “new wrestlers so they didn’t know what to do basically, but I think they did good.” Forko Tchoffo added that the wrestlers “got tired” and suggested that the loss mostly had to do with the mentality of the wrestlers.

Sophomore wrestler Clint Okoli said, “It’s all mentality and you [have to] put your mindset to it and if you do it, you win the game. You win the match. That’s all it is. That’s where I put my mindset to and I won [my match].” It “doesn’t matter if you’re tired or [if] you’re strong enough. You [have to] have your mentality set and [you’re going to win].”

Forku Tchoffo suggested that the wrestlers think to themselves, “Who’s the best? I am the best. I’ve got to win,” to better their mentality before a match. “It’s kind of scary once you get on the mat because one time I had to wrestle someone [big] and it wasn’t funny. He was right in my face but at the end of the day, 13-20, I won.”

Senior Miguel Carreno-Vega III is currently 10-1. He pinned his opponent from Bullis High School in five seconds last weekend. Junior Favio Quintanilla is currently 9-0, winning all nine of his matches last weekend at Richard Montgomery High School. Sophomore Kelvin Quacoe Dameshie slammed his opponent from Poolesville High School. This is Quacoe Dameshie’s first year on the wrestling team and while he plays other sports, he believes that wrestling really works on “mental toughness.”