Another Kansas sport
Kansas and basketball. They go together like peanut butter and jelly or salt and pepper.
If Texas is the football state, and California is the volleyball state, then we'll gladly take the title of basketball state.
Basketball is everywhere, from the local TV news telling us who won the Kapaun-Bishop Carroll game in Wichita to USA Today proclaiming KU as the number-one ranked college team in the nation.
But a week and a half ago, I experienced a sport that's not quite as publicized.
It was the Saturday that I went to the MCAA wrestling meet.
I'll be the first to admit I know very little about wrestling. My high school didn't have the sport; neither did my college. So my prior experience with any form of wrestling pretty much consists of me watching "The Rock" host Saturday Night Live.
When I walked into the gym that Saturday morning, the crowd wasn't as big as the previous night's basketball game. There was no band, no cheerleaders.
But the competition couldn't be more intense.
Wrestling is a very personal sport. It's one-on-one; you on the mat against your opponent. Nobody else to help you, to bail you out.
I watched the guys wait for their turns on the mat. Some sat with headphones on, letting the music focus their minds. Others jumped up and down on the sidelines, warming up their muscles for the next match.
It's a lonely sport. But maybe that's why wrestlers take it so seriously. It's a sport that might just require as much mental strength as physical.
Glorifying the basketball teams is easy. It's the habit. But these wrestlers work just as hard over the course of a season without the pep band and the hordes of fans.
Let's give them the recognition they deserve.
— JENNIFER WILSON
