The Washington Demons’ wrestling room inside the Washington State Bank Strength and Conditioning Center looked like a sauna by the end of Tuesday evening’s practice. Day two of Washington’s wrestling season saw the Demons do a lot of dueling drills with regular conditioning sprinkled in throughout the session. Washington head wrestling coach Brent Van Weelden says he is taking a different approach this year in his early season practices.

“We went to a camp and talked with coach (Jim) Miller from Wartburg college.” Van Weelden said, “His whole idea was to teach his kids to wrestle six minutes hard. We start by teaching them to wrestle hard 30 seconds at a time and increase the time from their until we are wrestling hard for six minutes.”

It’s only been two days, but an underclassman is catching the coaching staff’s attention early in the season. “One of the thing coach (Derrick) Ball does after every practice is give out a silver head gear to the guy he thinks works the hardest.” Van Weelden said, “On the first day Austin Hazelett, he’s a sophomore, he got the silver head gear.”

Tune in to tonight’s PM Sports Page for a full interview with Van Weelden about the beginning of wrestling practice. It begins at 6 p.m. on AM and FM KCII and KCIIradio.com.

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