This question often springs from the stereotype that wrestlers can't eat. This is not true at all. Wrestling is a sport you have to love to do, and if you don't love it, you have to let it take over your life for three and a half months.

Each year, on the first day of wrestling practice at ITHS, Coach Garcia says "For the next three months, you have three things to focus on: family, school, and wrestling."

A day in the wrestling room starts at 2:45 after school, and the only excuse for lateness is that you were at extra help. Practice starts with jogging and doing "high-knees" and shots around the room. Next, captains Matty Eberlein, Dan Nicolino, Nick Roa, and Paul Zbikowski come in and lead the team through a tough warm up.

Matty always pushes us to the limit, calling "sprint for ten!" over and over. After five minutes of getting loose, we grab our partner and do our daily shots and drills.

Coach Paletta talks to us about the day's practice while we stretch. He tells us we have to work hard because we're "Ford Tough" and we have tough match ups. Coach Paletta then runs through "everydays", after we learn new steps and moves.

Next, we do hard drilling with out partner. The drilling goes on for 15 minutes but feels more like three hours! Coach Paletta is always yelling, "if you're not tired, you're doing it wrong.

After drills, we wrestle "live" with our shark groups, (groups of three or four). This is when everyone gets to try out what they learned at practice in a "live" situation. We wrestle in a tight, hot room, so we have the music blasting, which keeps us going.

During the "live" situations, we are doing push-ups, sit-ups and squats on the side. We also get to see Coach Vinberg and Coach Scherline wrestle with the heavy weights. After "live" wrestling, when everyone is dead-tired, we do conditioning or a plate workout, and sometimes sprints throught the halls.

The hardest workout is when Coach Tuorto takes over after "live" also known as "Tuorto Time". He works us until we have no energy and then works, us some more. When he does conditioning, minutes seem like hours. This is the last thing we do in practice, and after we're done, the coaches talk to us and then let us leave.

Some kids stay after to drill more or do pull-ups, and some stay late to talk to the coaches. Our coaches are always there to talk to-even if it doesn't have to do with wrestling.

People ask wrestlers: Why do you wrestle? Even wrestlers ask other wrestlers this question. I wrestle because it's a change. Your life changes in those three months. Just like Coach Garcia and Coach Paletta say, "if you can get through a year of hard wrestling without quitting, you can do anything."