This year’s wrestling group is going into the second semester with the new year on a high note after a recent string of good performances.

Following their outings in their first matches and success in the Puma Duals tournament on the 9 and 10, the team is glad of where they are, despite “not really being worried about the scores yet”, in the words of Head Coach Darren Johnson.

Now while these words may sound like a crime for a team’s coach to even think about saying out loud, there is a method to Coach Johnson’s madness.

First off, they have been wrestling shorthanded due to football’s deep postseason run (football players comprise a good portion of the team). However, Johnson believes that “it’s a good problem, it means football did well…we believe in multi-sport athletes.”

Second, many wrestlers have shown promise and poise individually, like in the Buckeye tourney earlier in this young season.

While the team placed seventh overall in this event, the five individual medalists were sophomore Joe Abieta (second), sophomore and senior brothers Travis and Tannor Calloway (fourth and fifth, respectively), sophomores Tucker Moore (6th), and Connor Boyd (6th).

The Calloway brothers are very pleased with how the season is going, both individually and from the team aspect. Travis, wrestling in 170’s, says that even though “it’s tiring, working hard in practices having the coaches push us” but it is all worth it.

His brother Tannor (132 pounds) added that “[Travis] did better than me last year,” at the Buckeye event but “I did better last year so it’s like a competition.”

This brotherly competition adds no doubt to both the fun and intensity of this team.

Tannor also added another aspect of the team that is helping the dynamic: new assistant coach Alex Pavlenko.

“Fundamentally, I think we are stronger as a team,” because of Coach Pavlenko’s guidance, according to Tannor.

It is always difficult to switch schools, but Pavlenko seems to be enjoying this new atmosphere at Perry. “It’s been real nice,” said Pavlenko, “it’s nice, the kids are all hard workers. The coaching staff is probably one of the best coaching staffs I have seen.”

As the season moves on, he is looking forward to “seeing how well the team comes together, how the football players are going to play a big part.”

At Puma Duals, the team beat Gilbert, Millennium, Willow Canyon, Thunderbird, Vista Grande and ACP. They then faced Desert Edge to take third in the whole tournament.

Johnson added that he “likes the work ethic of this group, we’ve pushed them much harder and they don’t whine or complain. They’ve embraced it.”

And their hard work will surely pay off towards pursuing their team goal, in the words of Pavlenko, “state champs”.