Wrestling plays a big part in junior Alex Mattingly’s life. He said he started wrestling in the seventh grade and took a liking to the competitive nature of the sport. Now, he is a co-captain for the Dunbar wrestling team.

“I like the competition, and my uncle wrestled and was ranked number one in the state. He’s my inspiration,” said Mattingly.

Mattingly says wrestling is one of the hardest sports out there. He practices five times a week for two hours each day. During a typical practice, he goes through five strength building exercises, practices multiple different wrestling moves and techniques and ends the training session with either sprints or live wrestling.

“The practices are extremely hard and take a great deal of endurance,” said Mattingly.

Along with practicing five times a week, Mattingly also has to strive to maintain his weight. He started at 130 pounds over the summer and has cut six pounds since then. He has to cut four more in order to be able to wrestle in the 120 pound weight class.

Coached under Patrick Sinclair, Mattingly hopes to help win state for the team.

“I feel like we have a strong team and we are ready to compete for a state title. We want to be the best that we can be and push ourselves past our limitations,” said Mattingly.

Mattingly said that in order to be a successful wrestler, you have to train to your maximum and have a high level of commitment and motivation.

Mattingly doesn’t plan on wrestling in college because he wants to focus on academics, but he wants to work as hard as he can so that his junior and senior seasons can be very successful and hopefully result in a state title.