Fall is here and with it brings a new season of wrestling for the Skyline College Trojans Wrestling team, a team that sees an influx of new members along with returning veterans from last season.

“We have a few good guys running over here,” second-year wrestler Anwar Halteh said. “We’re hoping to get a bunch of them to state this year, have a few all American (and) just have a overall good season.”

So, in preparation for the new season, the team did their own training during the spring semester, taking part in various matches, tournaments, and just training on their own. On July 14 the team took part in a five-week training camp that lasted until the beginning of the semester. Even with the end of the training camp, the team continues to train daily during class hours from 4:30 p.m to 6:45 p.m in room 3106.

With the influx of new members to the team, Coach Haddon said that this could be a challenge for them, since for many it is their first time wrestling at the community college level, however Haddon does not believe that the challenge will be entirely physical.

“I think primarily it would be more of a mental challenge, because skill wise and fundamental wise they are pretty good and ready to compete,” Haddon said.

“You definitely have to be more dedicated and you can’t get away with as many big moves…the basics matter a lot more in college,” freshman Brady Green said, when he was asked about the differences between wrestling in high school and college.

Green is one of the newest member of the team, though he has experience with wrestling and has done some coaching in the past before enrolling at Skyline, though he feels that his experience with wrestling in high school has prepared him for wrestling at the community college level.

In Coach Haddon’s mind, there are plenty of goals that are possible going into the new season, but first and foremost is having an even team (in other words having enough players to fill out each weight class), and secondly to have each of them physically fit and trained with the necessary skills to survive a tiring and grilling match that can easily last five or more minutes. And lastly, to give them a chance to get a taste of what wrestling is like at the community college level.

A step towards this that is aim at giving the team a taste of this will be on Saturday, Sept. 5. The team will be facing off against former members of the team in Alumni Scrimmage, which will begin at 7 p.m. inside the gym.

The Trojans continue to practice daily as the Alumni Scrimmage night gets closer and the first official match of the season, which is due to kick off on the morning of Saturday, Sept. 20 in Sacramento.