The Auburn Wrestling Club is a small, but tightly knit community.
According to Will Griffin, president of the club, the group is so close that even former members who have graduated continue to come to practices.
"They can't compete, but we get a lot of support, especially from wrestlers that graduated in the past couple of years," he said. "They're all still really good friends, so they'll come to tournaments, and they'll come to practices if they have time and they're still around. A few of them have been gracious enough to pledge donations, so it's all very good."
Griffin said the club has a core group of about 10 participants who come to practices and compete in tournaments on a regular basis, but 20 to 30 guys come out maybe every other week.
Clay Wester, vice president, said most participants have had prior experience in wrestling.
However, this is not always the case.
"Really, we pull from mostly prior-experience kids," he said. "But there have been a few that have been interested in just coming and trying out.
"In the past we've had two or three people that had never even done it before that just picked it up."
Griffin said experience is not a requirement to join the club.
"We're open to all skill levels, so even if you have no prior experience, you're more than welcome to come," he said.
As a club sport, wrestling at Auburn does not have mandatory practices.
However, the club does hold optional practices Monday through Thursday from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Student Activities Center for anyone interested in attending.
"We're far more relaxed about training," Griffin said. "If you want to come in and work real hard and work a lot, then we can accommodate you. If you want to just come in and roll around on the mats, there are guys there who are more than happy to just wrestle guys for 35 minutes or an hour and then call it," Griffin said.
The club participates in several tournaments throughout the year.
According to Kimmy Broome, co-vice president of the Mat Cats, most of the larger tournaments, such as Nationals and the SEC, are held in the spring.
Smaller tournaments are held during the fall.
"We typically have good results," Broome said. "This year we have a lot of new talent. There's a lot of promising guys\0xAD--couple freshmen came out that did surprisingly well."
The Mat Cats accompany the wrestlers when they attend tournaments.
"They help us out when we go to tournaments," Wester said, "and they're actually very active at the various competitions we attend, with time scores and helping out the refs and officials at the different competitions we attend.
"They help keep track of our equipment and pretty much just help us out wherever we need it."
The last tournament in which the club participated was held at Mercer University Oct. 30.
"We took 11 guys that wrestled, and we had several second place--we had two second-place finishes, three third-place finishes, and four fourth-place finishes," Griffin said.
The club will go to the SEC Tournament in February.
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