Atwill, Gig Harbor wrestling past sickness, looking ahead to second half

It’s been a trying season for the Gig Harbor wrestling team as the Tides look to overcome sickness as well as keep in good condition.

Coach Jacob Spadoni spoke to these struggles and how the sport made them uniquely vulnerable.

“Pretty much our whole team had gotten strep (throat) and been out for about two to three weeks.” Spadoni said. “It’s kind of been the same story every single week. It’s just the next group of kids that is sick and we have finally gotten through every single kid. Everyone has been sick. Wrestling is one of those sports where a whole team is going to get sick. It’s just a matter of time.”

The team has managed to come back from the sickness and is hopefully in the clear as the widespread strep left them often shorthanded.

“It was a pretty good bounceback. Everyone came back and we just got right back to business as usual. A lot of people still missed out. For our Yelm duel we were pretty light. We were missing a few kids due to sickness,” Spadoni said.

With all the sickness, the team is looking to one of it’s veteran wrestlers in junior Simon Atwill to help set the tone even as he has had some of his own struggles.

“I thought I’d be having more success but that just means I have to work harder in the mat room to get better,” Atwill said. “I need to work harder on my defense and just catching guys when I should.”

Atwill, who wrestles in the 182-pound weight class, was lucky and ended up only being sick briefly, compared to the rest of the team.

“I was only out for one day,” Atwill said. “I dodged a bullet definitely this season.”

His coach was all praise of what Atwill brings to the team and the effort he has put in.

“He’s a super hard worker and he’s game whenever we need him. He steps up when we need him.” Spadoni said. “He’s definitely a leader in the room. He pushes everyone else in the room. He’s easily the hardest worker in the room. We do a lot of stuff in here that’s pretty difficult like stance and motion and a lot of the kids aren’t really game to do that.”

Atwill is currently 15-4 and has frequently been in the top twelve at tournaments though he still hasn’t broken into the top ten.

“Pac Coast was a rough tournament for me. I did not do as well as I thought I would be and it just wasn’t my best tournament,” Atwill said. “My first match I think I just didn’t warm up properly and wasn’t ready for the match. The guy caught me off guard and I wasn’t responding the way I should have.”

Atwill did bounce back from those initial struggles he had in his second match but still wants to work harder.

“Then my second match it was actually a close match, I only lost by a couple points,” Atwill said. “I need to work harder and be able to grind.”

He chalked the team’s struggles up to the lack of bodies the team had to help during practice.

“I think it did hurt the team’s preparation because we didn’t have a whole bunch of guys in the mat room so we didn’t have partners for everyone necessarily,” Atwill said. “We had a bunch of guys when they came back they were unfit and just not ready to wrestle at the level everyone else was.”Even with these struggles, the team is hopeful that they can make a good run in the postseason.

“Definitely we want to be in that top three spot at league this year and we definitely want to bring a good handful of kids to state,” Spadoni said. “We’re looking to bring about seven kids to state. I feel like there’s definitely seven kids on our team that are ready to take that next step. Last year we brought six and we graduated most of those.”

This story was originally published January 16, 2020 at 6:00 AM.