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By Anthony Clay
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Dec. 13, 2007 |
In sports, the true test of a team’s caliber is based on how they deal with bumps in the road.
For the varsity wrestling team the bumps in the road came in the form of a depleted roster. Entering the season, the team was already short-handed, after last year’s top male wrestlers Jacob Berry and Andrew Yip and top female wrestlers Anny Nyugen and Kelsey Fong graduated.
The Cardinals’ line-up became smaller after they lost two of their top wrestlers this year, juniors James Tse and Spencer Tang. Tang and Tse were both very experienced wrestlers but more importantly, they were the team’s only juniors. With the loss of the two, the varsity squad includes only 16 seniors –- and more importantly next year’s team will have no seniors.
Despite the shrunken lineup, Lowell’s returning seniors will undoubtedly provide leadership and experience. Two of these seniors are Vicky Wu and Jason Jee. Wu, a third year wrestler, provides leadership and experience, and Jee, a fourth year wrestler, is a two-time All-City champion.
One diamond in the ruff for the wrestling team is sophomore Samuel Berry, brother of Jacob Berry, class of ‘07. Jacob brought an inspirational work ethic to practices and his efforts made him one of the top wrestlers in the state. Like his brother, Sam shares the Berry work ethic, which motivates others around him. Tse feels with hard work Berry has potential. “Sam tries very hard and works very hard, if he keeps that up who knows what could happen.”
The Cardinals have also been practicing every day to make sure that they keep their dominance.
“We’ve been putting in a lot of work to make sure that we are ready for the season,” Berry said.
Hopefully the amount of practice will pay off and allow the team to overcome their shrinking lineup.
“I hope the team does well,” Tse said. “They deserve to win. The best of luck to them when the season hits.”
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