Pella High wrestling coach Jon Mendoza told his young grapplers at their first practice together this fall that they were going to work harder than they’ve ever worked in their life, and have the most fun that they’ve ever had.

Admittedly, Mendoza says that the before Christmas practices were probably more hard work, and not a lot of fun, but he’s already starting to see it pay off.

“We’ve worked probably harder than they’ve ever worked, and it’s showing on the mat. When we’re in the third period with kids who are better than us, more athletic than us, or just better wrestlers than us, we’re beating them because we’re more conditioned, we out-work them, and we mentally believe that we can beat anybody that we wrestle.”

Mendoza says that the squad just survived its first black flag practice before Christmas. That’s a day of extreme hard work that, based on Mendoza’s experience, usually results in quite a bit of crying and puking. While there was certainly some of both, Mendoza says that the guys really embraced the hard work.

Pella gets back to action tomorrow night at Norwalk against the Warriors and Urbandale.

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