Alonzo Geno is a freshman wrestler at Elk City, and he said that to him stepping out on the mat for a dual feels “safe.”

“I was in sixth grade when I first played football, and it was something to get me out of the house,” Geno said. “As far as wrestling, I felt safe the moment I had my first practice. I felt I had a passion for it. I’m also running track this year and I just want to see how that goes.”

Geno admits that he sometimes distances himself from others, but that hasn’t stopped his teammates and coaches from helping him become the best he can be.

“I just try my best not to get in my head,” he said. “I pray before I go out and try my best. My teammates hype me up and tell me that I’ve got this, and one day I’ll be that senior.

“On game days I wake up and get dressed,” he continued. “Normally I would eat, but since I have weigh in, I normally wait until after. Sometimes if we don’t have work during first hour, I’ll nap, but third hour we check weight. If I’m over, I’ll run or work out. I usually don’t eat lunch just in case, and I just try to stay focused. Then I plug in some headphones and sit behind our chairs. Then before a match I’ll dress, jump rope, hit the mat and wrestle.”

So far that routine has proven successful for Geno who received an outstanding wrestler award in his conference this past season. He placed first at the conference tournament, and said he’s placed at every tournament since he started wrestling his seventh-grade year.

“I feel like I haven’t really gotten to where I want to be yet,” he said. “But I know it’s a process and I really don’t know how to feel about my success yet. I feel like I’ve done well for the most part.”