The team has attracted a number of students who aren't part of any other Boyle athletic team — 18 in all— and coach Keith Smith said getting more students involved in extra-cirricular activities has to be a good thing.
"I'm getting kids who are interested in this that don't play anything else," Smith said.
With only one exception — a transfer from a school with a wrestling program — none of them had ever wrestled before. Here are some of their reasons for trying the sport:
Zach Cope, sophomore, 125 pounds: "I've always wanted to wrestle, and we just never had it. I just thought it would be really fun to learn the moves."
Levi Jackson, junior, 130 pounds: "It's the closest thing I could get to doing UFC stuff, I guess. I've enjoyed it a lot."
J.P. Robbins, sophomore, 160 pounds: "Because it was something new other than soccer. It's a lot different. It takes a lot different conditioning than soccer does."
Max Bird, junior, 171 pounds: "I've done a lot of sports like boxing and stuff, and I thought it'd be something new to throw in there."
Hunter Sheegog, sophomore, 103 pounds: "I've got two uncles who are coaches (Smith and Scott Sexton). They started talking to me about it, and I figured I'd try it. It's been pretty fun."
Bottom, senior, heavyweight: "I knew Keith ... and coach Sexton came and talked to me, and I just thought I'd come out and see what it was like, and I liked it, so I thought I'd stay."
Alexis Cocanougher, sophomore, 119 pounds: "I've done kickboxing and grappling before, so I thought I would try it. I thought it would be similar, but there's so many more differences than I could imagine."
Cocanougher, the only girl on the roster, is one of the few who wasn't surprised by the large turnout for the team.
"Because it was a first-year team, I figured there would be a bunch that would want to try it," she said.
Several of the other wrestlers said the sport is harder than they thought it would be.
"A lot of people underestimated it, I underestimated it , and I didn't think it would be as hard as it is. There's lot of conditioning," Bird said.
Cope said he is already reaping rewards from his efforts, however.
"It gives you confidence in knowing that you can do the moves," he said. "After you do it for a little bit, you kind of get used to it, and it gets easier and easier."
And all of them said it has been at least as much fun so far as they thought it would be.
"More than I hoped for," Michael said.
