FAIRBURY, Neb. -- As Fairbury wrestling prepares for the start of its season, it is apparent that the culture of the team is a big part of what can fuel their success. 

“We have such a great culture with our group of wrestlers,” said Head Coach Derek Garfield. “Every one of these kids who are in our program right now have either come through our youth program who are now freshman and we have a lot of seasoned returning varsity wrestlers. We have 18 guys out so it’s a good mix of a little bit of youth, all of our young guys have a lot of talent, and then we have a lot of seasoned guys.”

A lot of the wrestlers on the team participated in offseason wrestling tournaments in the spring and in camps and mats in the summer. 

Senior wrestler Riley Arner plans to work hard at practice to see his hard work pay off in the competition. 

“To have a winning record for sure, to get up on the podium, medal, and those are my main goals this year,” Arner said. “My plan is to work hard every day in practice and get up on that podium this year.”

Senior Noah Hyson bonds with his teammates and calls them his family, a testament to how tight knit of a group they are. 

“I’m really excited to just bond with our family and hopefully try to make it up on the podium,” Hyson said. “We all just know what we are going through, like we know what we’re all going through up there together and we are all just working our tails off, all together as a family.”

This season, Hyson would like to get to 100 wins overall in his career. He currently stands at 72.

Coach Garfield is not only excited about his wrestlers, but with his experienced coaching staff as well. 

“This is one of the best coaching staffs I’ve ever had,” Garfield said. “We hired a kid this year, Jacob Johnson is his name, he is a new P.E. teacher in town. He’s a former state champion wrestler himself in Fremont Bergan. I’ve got two other guys who have been with me for the last couple of years. My top varsity assistant has been with me for about six or seven years.”

The team executes “Jeff Style” which is the way the team functions, with helping out the younger guys and maintaining the bond that the team has together to put them in a successful position. 

“The word I want to go back to all the time is culture,” Garfield said. “We have very high standards in our wrestling program. We do not allow people to skirt by and stay with our program. So all 18 guys that we have right now, they understand the expectations of what we do and that just draws everybody else even tighter."

Fairbury will start its season on Dec. 2 at the York Invite and follow it up with a double duel against Tri County and Fillmore Central before heading to the Crete Invite.