The ADM wrestling team finishes up its first full week of practice today, and we’ve heard from first-year head coach Justin Schmauss about his expectations for the season ahead.

With district and sectional qualifying wrestlers returning throughout his lineup, Schmauss expects his guys to produce at a high level this season, and that seems likely to happen given the commitment he saw this offseason.

“We had quite a few guys go to wrestling camps.  We had a Grandview team camp, we had a Wartburg team camp.  We had a couple guys go up to a Luther wrestling camp to get a few matches in.  We also had a few guys come to practices once or twice a week in the offseason to keep their skills up and put in the time.”

Schmauss says he hopes his wrestlers’ offseason time, especially in relation to getting competitive reps at camp locations, will help them find that more confident attitude and mentality (a necessity he has preached) earlier on in the season.

“That’s where you’re going to get better, is trying to seek out the good competition in the offseason and really challenging yourself to wrestle those guys who are supposedly better than you.  Eventually you’re going to realize that they’re not, they’re not that much further ahead of you and it just takes a little extra work… that’s how you’re going to start achieving things you never thought you could.”

Instilling the right attitude has been Schmauss’ biggest focus through the first five days, and he’ll have almost two more weeks to drive that confident mindset into his wrestlers prior to their first match. ADM will open up its regular season at home against Ballard on Thursday, December 5th.