The wrestling team has a lot of hope for this season with an incoming wrestler of Grady Greenwood and returning wrestlers like Peyton Aipperspach, Drake Reinke, and Corbin Harrington.  The team no longer has Isaac Odell who was one of the best wrestlers to ever attend East.  These returning wrestlers have had great coaching with Coach McCurdy and Coach Rutledge.

They are a very closely knit team and they do workouts almost everyday when they’re not in season.  The wrestling program takes great pride in having multi-sport athletes, they even encourage their wrestlers to try other sports because it can make them more competitive.  Peyton Aipperspach and Grady Greenwood were some of East Football’s best players in the 2016 season.

The team also had the privilege of meeting an Olympic Gold Medalist and Husker Alumni, Jordan Burroughs. He is one of the most prominent wrestlers in the world, so a chance to meet him is incredible.  Coach Rutledge is friends with a coach who wrestled with Jordan at Nebraska.  Rutledge gave him a call and Jordan was happy to come visit.  “It was a surreal experience to meet someone of his skill and his national prowess,” said Grady.  The main thing that Jordan preached was to never give up on yourself, and how to be a better individual to help the team win.

One of Grady’s reasons to transfer to East was because of Coach Rutledge.   Rutledge was his coach at Southeast through sophomore year.  Coach Rutledge moved to East the next school year to coach wrestling and also teach Health/Physical Education.  Grady compares his wrestling skills to that of his favorite Pokemon Dugtrio.  They are very scrappy and do anything they can to win.  And as many people know Grady has a huge celebrity crush on Emma Watson, maybe his wrestling skill can grab the attention of Emma!  Grady wants as many people as possible to come to the duels this season.