BELLOWS FALLS — I stand in the doorway of the Bellows Falls Union High School cafeteria during the week of February vacation. It's 10 a.m. Lunch tables are folded upright and pushed against the wall and wrestling mats are rolled out across the floor.
Eight wrestlers, ranging from 106 to 240 pounds, jog around the edges of the mat. Music plays loudly from a stereo in the corner of the room, but coach Todd Swisher's voice can be easily heard above it.
“Let's go, boys! Work hard! You get out what you put in!”
On consecutive laps, the wrestlers do somersaults, cartwheels, front handsprings, handstands, and “bear crawls,” all part of a typical wrestling practice.
After their dynamic warm-up, Swisher calls his wrestlers to the center of the mat, and demonstrates a new technique. The wrestlers partner up to practice the move, and Swisher's voice booms again, keeping his wrestlers focused.
For the next 90 minutes, wrestlers take turns practicing techniques (such as the front headlock, double-leg takedown, and cross-face cradle), gradually increasing their intensity until drill partners provide full resistance.
During breaks, the wrestlers and coaches joke around, smiles flashing. But by the end of practice, the wrestlers are completely exhausted. They ignore the new bruises and “mat burns” that come with every practice and match, wonder silently about their weight, and talk about the upcoming tournament.
Here in Windham County, wrestling is rarely part of the wintertime high school sports conversation. In fact, the Bellows Falls Union High School wrestling team is the only team in the county, presenting unique challenges.
For example, the team struggles to fill all weight classes, and so it runs a co-operative team with Hartford High School, which is 45 miles to the north.
Assistant coach Mike Viens, a faculty member at the Hartford Area Career & Technology Center, drives student-wrestlers from Hartford to Bellows Falls five days a week. He has done this for eight years.
Two additional wrestlers, from Compass School in Westminster and Green Mountain Union High School in Chester, train with the Bellows Falls-Hartford team as independents.
With no teams nearby, nearly every wrestling match and tournament requires substantial travel time.
Despite these challenges, the Bellows Falls-Hartford wrestling team showed that it is one of the best teams in Vermont at the State Wrestling Championships on Feb. 28 and March 1 in Bennington, placing seventh out of 22 teams.
Out of 14 different weight classes, five BF-Hartford wrestlers placed at the tournament: sophomore Sawyer Reis (sixth; 132 pounds), sophomore DJ Snide (fifth; 195 pounds), junior John Harris (fifth; 285 pounds), and senior co-captains Austin Viens (third; 122 pounds) and Kyle Record (second; 182 pounds).
Wrestling as independents, Compass School freshman Lucas Saunders placed third at 106 pounds and Green Mountain sophomore Charles Dolloph secured a win in the tournament, but narrowly missed placing.
Saunders, Viens, and Record all qualified for the New England tournament on March 6 and 7 in North Andover, Mass. Viens and Saunders lost their second-round matches, but Record made it into the third round before losing.
Building a tradition
These wrestlers carry on an 18-year wrestling tradition at Bellows Falls, started by recently retired coach Claude Weyant.
“Claude built this program” says Swisher, who is finishing his first season at the helm. He came to the team with 6 years of youth coaching experience for the Cavendish USA Wrestling program, and brings energy and enthusiasm to the wrestling mat.
Like most wrestling advocates, Swisher sees unique value in the sport.
“Wrestling is such a good sport because it demands accountability,” he said. “You can't fake accountability. If you get your hand raised [signaling victory], it's what you've done in practice that made that happen. If you made some mistakes, and you don't get your hand raised, maybe you're not completely focused in practice, maybe you're not eating right, maybe you're not sleeping enough, but it all comes back to you.”
Swisher acknowledges the great paradox of wrestling: the very lessons one can learn through the sport are often what drive people away from it.
“All of that responsibility lies on your shoulders. That's a lot to carry.”
That responsibility doesn't seem to affect the Bellows Falls-Hartford wrestlers. Rather, they seem to revel in it.
“It's one of the toughest sports in the world and not many people can do it, but I can. It's a pride thing,” said Viens, who is also a standout football player at Hartford High School.
Snide is also a multi-sport athlete in track and football for the Terriers. When asked about the demands of wrestling, Snide responded, “I certainly don't hate wrestling, I just hate losing. And the only way to avoid losing is practicing.”
Swisher is optimistic about increasing the size of the team in subsequent years, because he sees great value in pairing Vermont's hard working populous with the tough love of wrestling.
“The more you put in, the more you get out,” he said. “I don't know if there's a better life lesson you can learn.”