By Lakin Dorion

The South Lyon East boys wrestling team started their pre-season conditioning in November held at Matcats Regional Training Facility. The season started with a parent welcome meeting on November 5. Then the training began.

Weight training was on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30-4:30 p.m. Their first practice was November 12. Preseason and regular season conditioning is almost every day for the guys.

Senior  Micheal Pepper has been on the South Lyon East Boys Wrestling Team for years. “We do conditioning and weight lifting for two weeks during off season; we have optional open mats occasionally. We are also welcome to go to MatCat workouts, they’re all year round,” said Pepper.

Junior A.J. Garcia said of the program, “Because we are a relatively new school, I believe we still have a lot to do. During my wrestling time here at East, we’ve had a lot of different coaches come and go. Coach Cepack and coach Brocky came last year and they’re here to stay.”

“Our biggest weakness is the lack of numbers, we give up so many points because of our numbers,” Garcia concluded.

Pepper and Garcia both are heading to nationals along with Matthew Cepack and Jaden Smith. All of the boys are excited to be carrying on to Nationals as a team.

“[Our qualifying for Nationals] really showed the heart that our team has. Everybody is supportive and we are a family,” said Pepper.