Faribault High School Varsity Head Coach Jesse Armbruster was our guest Saturday on the Faribault Coaches Show on KDHL.  Armbruster told us he is "very, very optimistic" and "hopeful" there will be a wrestling season.

Armbruster understands many people raise eyebrows when wrestling is talked about because of the close contact associated with the sport.  "We can compete with a mask.  The talk is contact of 15 minutes. Our matches are 6 minutes long.  I think the concerns are valid but we have some things in place to keep the athletes safe as possible.  Not to say you can't still contract the virus."

The veteran Falcons wrestling coach says his sport is," very cleaning and disinfecting conscious" and was long before the current pandemic.  He points out, "When our kids come into our wrestling room our wrestling mats have been disinfected.  We disinfect them after our practice.  A lot of times before our youth would come in and use our mats after we're done.  So disinfect them in between practices.  We wipe down our walls.  We wipe down our equipment.  Our kids carry disinfectant wipes in their bags when we go to tournaments so when they're done wrestling they reach into their bags and wipe down their bodies."

Co-Host of the show Royal Ross asked Armbruster if it would be possible to disinfect the mat after each match.

His response, "I've thought about that.  I've actually heard people suggest something like that.  I think the biggest concern that I would have as a coach is the mats take some time to dry."  So he suggested maybe a quick mopping of the mat. Followed by a dry mop to follow and assist the drying process quicker.

"Our mats sometimes take 10 to 15 minutes to dry. For 14 matches you're adding a lot of time."  Armbruster is confident his sport will be able to make the environment as safe as possible.

"It's a group of doers as most athletics are.  They have people that want to figure out a way to get out and do their activity so I'm s ure we could figure it out."

"Moving forward hoping we're going to have our season we need to understand the schedule we make is going to be modified.  We're talking a maximum of 70 percent of our season.  You're most likely looking at a conference type of a schedule.  You're not going to have tournaments.  We're going to be allowed to have two meets per week  and those meets can be no more than a triangular."

Armbruster added plans are in place so he believes, "We should at least try to have a season.  If you have outbreaks and need to shut down much like some football teams and volleyball teams were forced to in the fall then you would do that.  In wrestling we've shut down teams after skin outbreaks.  We've taken 10 days and shut programs down for that period so these are things we've been doing for a long time.  We'll take it one step at a time."

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