Date 12/19/2024
Issue no. 1. Page 2
One-on-One with Coach Grandpre By Warrior News Service
How long have you served as the wrestling coach at WHS? I have been coaching for the last five years and volunteering eight years before that. I have three oth- er coaches, all who graduated from Woodlawn and wrestled here. I graduated in 2009 from Wood- lawn and wrestled for three years here myself. Describe your wrestling team this year. Do you have returning ath- letes? Is it a new team? Yes, I have majority new people meaning they are all starting from the very beginning. Wrestling is not just about being physically strong. You learn many different techniques and moves. So, the combination of physical training, mastering technique and mental understanding when/how to use everything will shape them into complete wrestlers. Your season began last week, Dec. 5 and you have another match slated for the week of Dec. 9, tell us how the team did in the match and who were your standout com- petitors? Our first match we ran into a team of experienced wrestlers. With a team of new people, they struggled to perform their moves and techniques on someone more experienced.
During our break between matches, we drilled what we expected to do in the match and were able to not just implement our moves but also win many of our matches. Share your coaching philosophy. My philosophy is simple: Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work. Throughout my close to 20-year history of wrestling and coaching in Maryland, we have been able to successfully bring new people into wrestling that are eager to learn and work hard. With those two, many have gone off to place top four in our county, our region and even the state champion- ship. Can students still join the team? If so, what characteristics are you searching for in an athlete? Unfortunately, the last date that the county lets students get certified for wrestling was this past Monday. With all the techniques we learn, it is difficult to come this late into the season not knowing any of the moves. We have the foundation and bases of our house complete and now we are filling it out to be complete. I’m also just looking for anyone ea- ger to learn and compete. Not afraid to put in work in order to get better. That drive comes from within. You
Coach Grandpre, wrestling coach
have to train hard, diet, drill wres- tling and study wrestling. How can WHS support your team? WHS can support us by coming to our matches and sharing our fund- raiser that I will send to everyone’s email soon Is there anything that you want to add? I am eager to see the growth and strides this group takes. The first couple of matches are the hardest. Once the nerves go away and we fix everyone’s faults, they will start winning more matches and beating the more experienced players. If you have questions about the wrestling team or want to further support Coach Grandpre, his email address is dgrandpre@bcps.org.
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