While sports such as basketball and football garner attention from a large proportion of students, wrestling remains underrated at HHS, captain, senior Lila Tsao said.

“It’d be nice if more people knew that we had a team, so that more people would join it,” Tsao said.

Still, many people are apprehensive about joining a physical sport like wrestling, as it is perceived as more dangerous, junior Abbi Anderson said.

“Basketball, if you push, you’re gonna have a penalty, but in wrestling, there’s no penalty,” Anderson said. “You [can get] bruised and have nosebleeds, and you can get hurt.”

Unlike more popular sports, teachers occasionally do not know about wrestling at HHS, which can result in misunderstandings, Anderson said. 

“One time I had to leave early, and people didn’t know [if I could go],” Anderson said. “They had to [confirm] on walkie talkie. If we put it out there more often, everyone could be like ‘Oh, you’re in wrestling? You are free to go.’” 

Despite minimal awareness surrounding the team, senior Suleyman Yanik said wrestling still stands out to him as fun and thrilling

“I like learning different techniques, then trying them and seeing myself get better,” Yanik said. “We just try to get new people to join, like freshmen and also people in other grades, if they want to join.”

Ultimately, wrestling is remains less popular than other sports, but is gaining more traction within the school, especially among female athletes, Tsao said. 

 “A lot of people have no idea we have a team, or they have no idea we have a girls team,” Tsao said. “But we have more [girls] than last year. We have four instead of three, so that’s a 33% increase.”