![French teacher Marieme Toure serves a plate of the Senegalese food she prepared for her AP French Language and Culture class, to senior Faiza Syed. “I never had Senegalese food before,” Syed said. “I thought it was so cool that she was able to bring a part of her culture [and] background to us.”](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/IMG_0798-1200x906.jpeg)
![NEW CHALLENGE, NEW TEAM MEMBERS: Every season, VEX creates a new game that robotics team members are faced with and have to build a robot to compete in. This year’s game forces students to create a robot that is able to stack rings onto mobile goals in order to score points. The change in games each season is something that robotics teacher Audrea Moyers appreciates.
“One of the things that I like about VEX is that they have a new problem to solve every year,” she said. ¨Even though the equipment’s the same, they have to analyze the game, and they have to come up with solutions that are unique that year. They are using their knowledge from prior years, but they have to kind of redesign a problem.”
As returning teams were faced a new game, some new teams and members had to adapt to a uncommon playing field and game.
“Three of our four teams were competing for the first time this year, and they had very different experiences match to match, so I think they learned a lot,¨ she said. ¨It’s hard just watching a video online to know how it’s actually going to be in person, so they all learned a lot about what gameplay is like, how to work with an alliance partner [and] how to adapt during the day to changes.”](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_9283-1-1200x800.jpg)
It can be hard to perform when it comes to high-demanding sports that affect your body. Wrestling is a sport that can affect the participant’s weight and hydration. High school athletes who play wrestling must undergo lots of conditioning and healthy habits to maintain the weight they want to compete in.
When it comes to gaining or losing weight, there are healthy and unhealthy ways to obtain it. Chris Brown, the head wrestling coach at Francis Howell North High School, advises his players to lose it or gain it healthily and safely so that they can compete at the top level.
“Once they pass hydration, they will do skin fold measurements to see how much body fat they have on them,” Brown said. “And that, into a formula, that determines what weight they can wrestle at during the course of the year, and they’re only allowed to lose 1.5% of the body weight per week.”
Wrestlers have to maintain and stay on top of what they eat and how much or little they are eating. When the wrestlers have to eat less or eat more to reach their goal weight, it takes extreme self-control to lose or gain weight quickly. Junior Cole Dillon, who wrestles in the 157lb weight class believes that the hardest part about meeting goal weight is having to hold back on some of his favorite foods and not eat as much as he normally would.
“I like food a lot so not eating is just really hard,” Dillion said.
According to Dillon, there are a lot of things that can go wrong if wrestlers aren’t watching their weight carefully.
“If you don’t make weight and it’s a meet, you can just bump up a weight class so you can wrestle a different weight, but if it’s a tournament you won’t get to wrestle,” Dillon said. “Most of the time when you miss weight you just don’t get to wrestle.”
Making weight for meets and tournaments can be difficult yet very important. Missing a weight could result in missing out on competing and losing points for the team. The whole sport of wrestling depends on the participants’ weight so that they compete at an equal level.
With that being said, health, nutrition, hydration, and eating habits play a key role in the wrestler’s success. If a wrestler does not prioritize those things, it can be hard for them to succeed. Ashlynn Alexander, a sophomore girls wrestler can understand the struggle of maintaining weight. She has certain ways to help her lose weight quickly so that she can maintain her goal weight.
“During practice, if I’m overweight I wear extra layers of clothes. I say no to unhealthy food and try to eat healthier,” Alexander said.
Wrestlers have a difficult and demanding season, but when they are out of season, they can have some more freedom with what they eat and how much they consume. Wrestlers that have goals during their season to place high in standings and win tournaments have to start maintaining their weight earlier and for longer periods than newer wrestlers.
“[For] most of our newer wrestlers, I just tell them weigh what they weigh and wrestle that first year [in] whatever they weigh,” Brown said. “Some of our wrestlers that have higher aspirations than just being on the team: being a state qualifier, state medalist, or state champ even. A lot of them are watching it sooner. They start cutting out their body fat earlier, getting in a lot of extra workouts, and starting to watch their diet a lot closer. That’s usually a month or two out at the most.”
Not only is diet essential, but hydration is as well. The wrestlers have to pass hydration tests throughout the year to be able to wrestle. If they don’t pass, they must test again 48 hours later. This is done so that they are healthy and able to wrestle at a healthy hydration level. Drinking water is crucial for them when taking the hydration tests especially the day of. Kaitlin Edison, the FHN athletic trainer, tests hydration levels.
“We do the hydration test because if they’re not hydrated enough, their weight’s not going to be accurate,” Edison said. “They have to be hydrated enough because the whole purpose of the test is to make sure that they’re at a healthy weight and that they can if they want to go to a lower weight class, they can lose weight healthy and not too quickly.”
Wrestling can be tough and is a huge demand on a student athlete’s body, it takes self-discipline, and healthy habits to succeed. The wrestlers have much support to make sure they are wrestling safely and their bodies are well taken care of.
“I love the friends you make while doing the sport because wrestling just brings you all into one family even though it’s more of an individual sport and I love when we get to go travel to wrestle in tournaments. Those are always super fun,” Dillion said.
This story was originally published on FHNtoday.com on January 21, 2025.
