Most everyone in this school has heard the name Chandler Owens, whether it’s because you have a class with him, you’re friends with him, or like most, you hear his name called on the announcements during wrestling season for the achievements.

Senior, Chandler Owens has been wrestling since he was in fourth grade, simply because his older brother had started; just wanting to hang out with him and all of his cool friends. He continued wrestling though, because his competitive side came out, he loved the thrill of winning. He practices two to three days a week during the off season, and three to four days during the season.

When asked what goes through a wrestlers mind while on the mat, Chandler said “Usually I try my best to keep focused on the points, the score board, what’s left on the clock, just mat awareness in general. I try to keep any other thoughts out of my mind, just me and my opponent.”

Emotion wise, Chandler said “Usually I’m pretty calm; I’m pretty energetic usually on the mat. Once in a while if someone gets a little to nasty, I’ll get a little aggressive and angry, but I do my best to be a good sport.”

Almost everyone has their warm up rituals of some sort to help them get pumped up and ready to go. Chandler said that whenever he was younger he would do exercises to get him ready and pump himself up; as he’s gotten older though, his rituals have matured a little too. “I always have to do a prayer before I go out, that’s just me personally. I just try to stay calm, focus on the match, who’s wining, what I need to do, and what my opponents like; study him and his rituals to see what kind of wrestler he’s like.”

Last year Chapin got the State tournament and lost to BHP. This was a gut wrenching loss for all the wrestlers, after coming so far and being against the odds. Chandler said “We went to state and had another hard match obviously. BHP was a great team obviously, but I’m not sure if they were the better team. I know I probably could have done better and I know a few other guys who could have done better. It really hurt after two years in a row of doing it but you learn from lessons and you move on.”

Chapin wrestlers definitely have their work cut out for them this year, after losing 12 of 14 seniors from the team. “It’s going to definitely be a building year, but I’ve wrestled with most of these guys before and I expect them all to do their best so we should have a pretty good season.”

And then there’s the big question of “have you ever considered quitting?”

“Yeah I’ve considered it, but never seriously. Everyone has thoughts of doubt once in a while. Practice gets too hard or you’re too much weight, anything like that and you’re going to be upset sometime in the season. It’s just something that you got to stick through… I’d never call it a fun sport, but I know for me it was necessary I needed something to make me a stronger person. When I’m done this year I know I’ll look back and will easily say I’m glad I did it. It’s made me a better person and learns a lot about myself.”