As fall sports come to an end and winter sports start up, for football offensive linemen, the season doesn’t seem to ever end. This year, assistant varsity coach Shawn Blevins implemented off-season workouts with the wrestling team for the offensive line.

All of the offensive linemen have the option of being a part of the wrestling team and actually competing or only doing the workouts.

The workouts include base training with the wrestling team, which is how the Russian Olympians are trained. This training consists of front rolls, sumo-squats, cartwheels, handstands and jumping. After base training, the offensive linemen do competitive wrestling-based games, which are developed to increase stamina, strength and aggression.

“They’re doing body movements and things they thought they could never do,” Blevins said. “It’s developing a lot of confidence and a lot of coordination and upper body strength for these guys.”

While the linemen aren’t required to go to workouts, it is highly encouraged by the coaches. Blevins knows that linemen want to workout with the “Hog’s Club,” which is the offseason workout group, because they take a lot of pride in the history of being a “Hog” at Westside. Being a “Hog” includes becoming stronger, faster and better at a particular position during the offseason workouts.

“We’re just becoming better athletes, becoming faster and stronger,” offensive lineman junior Dante Sortino said. “And we’re also learning to work with our body more, like one-on-one competition which is basically what we do during [football season].”

The workouts this year are much different than last year’s. Last year, the “Hog’s Club” did a short dynamic workout then lifted and was done within an hour. This year, they get done with wrestling workouts by 5:30 p.m. but still have to lift.

“This is like an extended football season,” Sortino said. “But it’s definitely worth it. We’re all going to be better. Last year, it was more independent and just lifted by ourselves. This year, it’s more of a team thing, involving everybody, pushing each other more, making each other better.”