Wrestling season is in the air at Simpson College. So that means if you are going to have to be cutting weight, you can’t eat, right? Wrong. That particular myth is one fallacy that gives wrestling a bad name to many people.

“We don’t want to use the old technique of starvation for our wrestlers,” said Head Coach Ron Peterson. “We educate our student-athletes about proper nutrition from research we’ve done. We also make them weigh in at least once, if not twice a day.”

In 1997, the NCAA put together a “Safe Guard” committee that has focused a tremendous amount of research on the proper weight for most athletes. It states that no athlete should have less than 5 percent body fat.

The committee also puts together a diagram of how much weight a person can lose in a week.

Let’s say there is a wrestler that is 150 pounds. The “Safe Guards” believes that this particular individual should not lose over two pounds in a week.

“We are constantly talking to them (wrestlers) about eating and sleeping right in order to hit their peak performance,” Peterson said.

Sophomore Clint Manny knows what life is like when it comes to losing weight. “It is not a lot of fun,” Manny said. “I felt weak and run down after awhile but you just have to know your limits and make sure you are getting enough rest.”

Manny grew up in a wrestling family but he understands that many parents are not in favor oftheir child wrestling.

“My parent’s are completely supportive since my dad is a coach and all, but in high school, parents had to sign a waiver to let their kid cut a certain amount of weight,” said Manny. “A lot of parents wouldn’t sign it for their child to participate.”

Last year’s squad broke a school record for dual wins, by winning 23 out of 30.

Leading the way for the Storm will be the two returning national qualifiers, junior Bart George and Manny.

“One of the reasons for our success has been that I now have a full time assistant on campus, Jeremy Whalen,” Peterson said. “It helps a lot with our recruiting. He made a lot of calls and contacts when I was busy handling my administrative duties.”

This year the Iowa Conference should once again be on the top or one of the top, in the nation for Division III competition. At last year’s national meet there were 34 representatives from the Iowa Conference with 24 of them earning All-American honors.

“Our conference has just dominated the national scene,” Peterson said. Peterson looks for Wartburg to once again be on top of the conference with seven All-Americans in their lineup.

“We feel that with the solid group of returnees along with a talented new group of freshmen, we will be competitive with everyone we go up against,” said Peterson.