Avon Old Farms hosted two “JV Jams” on Wednesday, January 25 and Saturday, January 28. These competitions were designed to help JV wrestlers gain match experience against one another.

Varsity & JV Wrestling Head Coach Cooper Puls ’11 said, “[The JV Jams] don’t count towards records, but it’s a full match format. They are not making a weight class, which is different, and they’re coached by primarily Assistant Coach Marc Dittmer instead of primarily by me.”

Opponents included Taft, Trinity-Pawling, Rumsey Hall, Choate, and Brunswick. The school brought a dozen wrestlers to Avon. Sam Mao ’24 said, “At the JV Jams, I look forward to wrestling people who I can comfortably assume to be at my level. By going into the match with a calmer mindset, I am able to perform better and remain less stressed throughout the match.”

A day after the JV Jam, five female wrestlers traveled to Andover, to compete in the 9th annual Phillips Academy Girls Tournament. Opponents included Andover, Taft, Deerfield, and Thayer. Coach Puls said, “There are competitions on the schedule where we have non-male athletes wrestling other non-male athletes and [I tell them that] if you can hold out for those competitions, you’re going to have a great experience,” Coach Puls said.

Sadie Salter ’25 said, “We show up to practice and work hard. I’m looking forward to this competition, because it provides an opportunity to become friends with other female wrestlers and have some good matches.”

Coach Puls had high expectations for his team leading up to the girls’ tournament at Andover. “[We have] 2 or 3 girls in particular with really solid experience who have the ability to win, and I would love that for them,” Coach Puls said.

The wrestlers’ hard work drilling and preparing in live situations leading up to the Phillips Academy Tournament paid off in a victory in the first match.

Prior to the matches, Coach Puls said, “I’m excited for kids who have never won a wrestling match before to win. It’s a really hard sport; it’s not a fun sport; it can be demanding and uncompromising, but it’s hard to explain the feeling you get when you win your first match. It can be hard to keep kids who don’t have that experience. So I want them to feel how amazing it is and just lean into that because that’s how we build Varsity wrestlers.”

Both the JV Jam and the Phillips Academy Girls Tournament were opportunities for wrestlers to apply the skills that they developed throughout the first half of the season and compete with their teammates in a Varsity-like environment.