It may not be wrestling season yet, but the wrestling room at DMS is ready to go.
Duncan Middle School purchases new mats for the wrestling room, and wrestling coach Justin Pena is excited to put the new mats to use.
“We got new mats so now we can wrestle harder,” Pena said.
The mats the wrestling program has been using were purchased when the school originally opened in the early 2000s. In the more than 20 years since the school opened, the mats have seen a lot of wear and tear.
In fact, the mats are being semi-retired because of rips and tears on the outside fabric. But despite their age, the older mates are still in place, just overlaid with the new mats for added cushion.
Pena said the new wrestling mats cost approximately 1,500 dollars each. The mats were purchased from Resilite, a store that specializes in various padding and mats, including wrestling mats. The mats were purchased with bond money, which comes from ad valorem taxes (property taxes).
The new mats were installed during Summer Break after being purchased toward the end of the 2023-24 school year.
Pena said the new mats are heavy and took about 20 men to carry one section. The difficulty in moving the mats is another reason the new mats were placed on top of the old mats.
The mats were divided into three sections, with just one being around 1,000 pounds.
So far the mats have been used every day for some sort of practice or activity, including cheer practice. This is the first time since the school opened that the mats have been changed in the wrestling room.
The new mats are the same size and shape of the old mats, but the color is different. The older mats are red, while the new ones are black. The new mats are made of a certain type of foam that intended to protect the athletes from hard falls and injuries.
