Home on the road

Alex Wegener could see himself getting used to this.

The Kewpies’ 171-pound senior wrestler with the quick smile and the thick red beard remembers his sophomore year, the last season he wrestled, and winces when thinking of Hickman’s old practice facility.

“It sucked,” he said of the old place, a room underneath the home bleachers at the Hickman football field. “It was one-third the size of this, it was always 92 degrees in there, plus humidity. Lots of mold, dripping water, custodians bringing dirt on the mats.”

So Wegener doesn’t mind hopping in his early ’90s-model BMW for the drive over to the new home of Kewpies’ wrestling practice.

Hickman finds itself setting up shop in the basement of a Stephens College performing arts building on Dorsey Ave., a good two miles from the high school campus on Providence Road.

The Kewpies’ set-up at Stephens College is unique.

To get to practice, the wrestlers must plunge into the darkness of a long staircase, making their way to a poorly lit alley down below.

The alley appears to extend forever, but a quick right at the bottom of the staircase through double doors leads to the room.

Newspaper articles wallpaper a bulletin board near the entrance, which is designated only by a small, laminated “Hickman Wrestling” sign.

The room itself is long and slender, covered in yellow paint, blue padding, and many motivational posters.

At the end of practice, the wrestlers run circles around the three thick, padded poles that seem out of place in a wrestling room. The poles aren’t the only obstacles that the place presents.

“The only downside is that we’re not on campus,” coach J.D. Coffman said. He also said there are some students who can’t join the team because they lack transportation. “The kids that we do have struggle with getting rides on a day-to-day basis.”

The Pescaglia family, which includes three brothers in the Hickman starting lineup, pays the rent on the room’s 12-month lease.

With Tony, an 119-pound senior co-captain, K.C., a junior co-captain (125 pounds) and Vince, a 103-pound freshman, all playing major parts for the Kewps, the investment is a labor of love.

Although Coffman said the location isn’t ideal, he thinks his program will be fine.

“We’d like to see a quality facility on campus, but at this point, we don’t have any,” he said. “So we love this place. We’ll use this place as long as we need to.”