For Love of the Game

Sam Morris, Las Vegas Sun

Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2007 | 7:19 a.m.

In the cacophony of a wrestling meet, the squeak of shoes and buzzers calling time, a flurry of activity arises in the Del Sol High School corner.

A voice shouts, "C'mon guys, let's send Mustang out."

Another answers, "Who's gonna call it? Ryan, Ryan, Ryan, call it, OK?"

After a pause during which teammates gather around and, like a bunch of tent revival preachers, place their hands on Gerardo Aguilar, aka Mustang, Ryan shouts in rapid fire:"Mustang on three! Mustang on three!"

He's answered by a tenfold cry of "One, two, three. Mustang!"

Wrestling is a martial art, and it is not lost on some of the participants. "It's like the wrestling team is another family for me," team member Stone Xiong says. "When my teammates send me out, it's like they are sending me off to battle."

Caleb Darby is more pragmatic. "We just have a little psych game going, just to help build our confidence before going out to the match. It helps our mental toughness; it helps get us psyched up and helps us win. It helps knowing my team is behind me."

Sports psychologists can debate whether it helps. On this Saturday afternoon, on a mat in the dimly lighted gym of Ed W. Clark High School, one wrestler believes.

"It gives me good luck. And I know they are there for me," says Aguilar, who pinned his 160-pound opponent midway through the first period. "It keeps me pumped up so I don't have to lose."