Football players fill out PU men’s wrestling roster

The Pacific University Men’s Wrestling team is getting a whole lot bigger, literally.

Third year Head Coach Severin Walsh saw his group grow from 14 members to 25 for this season.

These numbers stem from a group of Pacific football players who are on the roster, particularly in the heavier weight sets.

A number of these newcomers are freshmen and according to Walsh, this class looks to have enormous potential to make big strides for the Pacific program. The young group has four state champions and a number of state finalists from high school wrestling.

“The football players that have come in to the room after the season have been great,” said Walsh. “They are good people as well as good athletes and we look for them to have an immediate impact on our line up.”

On top of a big team, the Boxers also have set goals in mind for the upcoming season. Walsh doesn’t just want his team to be productive on the mat; he wants them to be productive members of the community.

“We want to accomplish what every team here at Pacific University wants and that is to win and produce strong productive members of the Pacific community,” said Walsh.

Walsh also added that one of the goals is to instill a hard work ethic and commitment level into his younger wrestlers. He said that the younger wrestlers are coming along nicely and making a fairly smooth transition into college sports. Though they may make mistakes, consistency is something that will be stressed throughout the season.

Being a student athlete in college has its difficulties and being a two-sport athlete at that is much harder.

“Being a two sport athlete is by no means easy but the kind of person that we recruit that are two sport athletes are can do people and make choices that allow them to be successful students and athletes,” said Walsh.

When asked about their transition to college and their time management skills Walsh said that they are doing an excellent job.

“I believe in young people and feel that the ones who choose to be involved in multiple healthy lifestyle activities that require time management and mental toughness are setting themselves up to better handle the challenges that they will surely face in life,” said Walsh.