The took some instruction before pairing up and trying to perfect what they were shown.
Spread out across six mats, the Holmen High School boys and girls wrestling teams — a combined 82 strong — took the first official steps of what are anticipated to be very strong seasons.
Fifteen miles away, players for the Aquinas boys basketball team gathered start putting together their follow-up performance to winning last year’s WIAA Division 4 state championship.
Somewhere in between, Craig Kowal dispersed his Onalaska boys basketball players in groups of 10 across two gymnasiums to execute his first-day plan.
Girls basketball teams, boys and girls hockey teams and gymnastics teams started their seasons last week, and Monday marked start dates for boys basketball, wrestling and boys swimming.
“This is better than Christmas,” Onalaska senior Ian Kowal said with a smile about the official start to the season.
Everyone starts a new season with hope, but these three programs do that more often than not with the realistic chance that hope transforms into plenty of success.
“It was a matter of waiting all day at school to get to practice,” Holmen boys wrestling coach Justin Lancaster said. “It’s fun helping kids find that belief in themselves to do amazing things.
“This is the first day to start that.”
All three teams will have a blend of experience and new talent as they embark on the goals they have established.
Senior Logan Becker and junior Calvin Bahr were all-conference talents who helped the Blugolds tie Holmen for the MVC title before moving forward to win the state championship.
Ian Kowal was the conference’s player of the year and returns with junior Brendan Chenault and sophomore Tyler Kowal to help the Hilltoppers try to get their hands on a third conference championship in four years.
Holmen’s boys will battle Aquinas for the MVC wrestling title, and the Vikings will push to qualify for local representation at the team state tournament, which shifts to the La Crosse Center at the end of this season.
This is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of storylines for the winter season in the couleesports.com area. Visit the site daily to read about all of this and much, much more from now through the end of the season.
