The Maryland wrestling team had competed every week since the Red vs. Black Wrestle-Offs on Oct. 30 before coach Kerry McCoy gave his wrestlers time off last weekend. The 12-day hiatus was intentional, McCoy said, giving the Terps time to train harder and get more rest.
But this weekend, the Terps will have 41 hours between their second of two matches at George Mason and their dual meet against No. 12 Rutgers. Despite the short interval between competitions, McCoy emphasized focusing on the current match instead of looking ahead.
“It’s not hard,” McCoy said. “If we’re thinking about Rutgers and we’re not focusing on North Dakota State and George Mason, we have a bad performance there.”
McCoy said the Terps had the chance to recover during the break, but he still pushed his team during workouts. The wrestlers reviewed and worked on individual errors last week, he said, but used this week to prepare for the upcoming competition. Maryland wrestles North Dakota State and George Mason on Friday before going up against Rutgers two days later.
McCoy wants his grapplers ready for Bison and Patriots before preparing for Rutgers.
That mindset is similar for 141-pound redshirt senior Billy Rappo, who is 1-3 on the year. Despite whatever competition looms beyond Friday, Rappo echoes McCoy’s sentiment of staying in the present.
“There’s always the mindset and thought that you’ve got a tough guy coming up, and you still scout him but you can’t look ahead,” Rappo said. “That’s what everyone says. When you look ahead, you can always lose or do something bad.
“You’ve got to scout guys before, make sure you wrestle match by match and focus on each one.”
True freshman Alex Vargas, who has split time at 125 pounds with junior Michael Beck this season, isn’t used to the quick turnaround but understands McCoy’s message.
“Before the matches, I like to know who I have and how many matches I have,” Vargas said. “Then I just mentally prepare myself for it. I just look at whatever match I have ahead of me, then after that, I worry about my next match.”
McCoy said the concept of taking it match by match does not just apply to the weekend ahead. He talked about it at the team’s media day Oct. 27 and repeated it many times since. Whether it pertains to specific competition or the season as a whole, McCoy continues to drill that point home.
“We’ve got to take it just like a tournament,” McCoy said. “We’ve been telling our guys one match at a time, so we have to be focused on that.”
