Senior Calista Rodish from the Raccoon River Northwest Wrestling Team, who Adel-DeSoto-Minburn partners with, wants to leave a positive outlook for the upcoming girls in the program.

Rodish, who wrestles at the 140 pound weight class, says that a big area of focus coming in this season was becoming more aggressive on the mat, as she primarily had a defensive mindset. She credits Head Coach James Biscoglia who helps schedules meets that feature bigger schools, that way the competition is more fierce, preparing them for the state meet later down the road. Rodish notes that as a leader, she does her best to motivate the younger girls who will eventually emerge onto the varsity roster.

“We have youth practice (on) Monday, Wednesday, and Thursdays, so I do stay after there for roughly an hour, helping out the little girls. I know that it brings a big smile to their face seeing all the older girls coming in and helping them out. And then we do run youth tournaments, which we go and we ref or sit tableside, and we help out that way.”

Rodish emphasizes that she hopes that when she leaves the program that the team never loses the sense of community, as she believes that the close bonds she’s created has contributed to a lot of the success the squad receives. RRNW will next be in action on January 3rd in Council Bluffs at Iowa Western Community College for the Lewis Central Girls Dual Tournament.