Paired off in the cramped wrestling room on the second floor at Minneapolis Henry, many of the 10 Minneapolis City Conference wrestlers who qualified for the state tournament's individual brackets were prepping Tuesday.
They came from across the city, along with coaches and teammates, to practice together in a show of solidarity. They are wrestlers, first and foremost, doing what wrestlers do: work extraordinarily hard. They chose to do that as a group because of what they represent.
"This is big for Minneapolis wrestling," Henry head coach Anthony Minus said. "It's really important for all of Minneapolis to work together because we're so divided by schools but we come together through sport."
Wrestling in the Minneapolis City Conference is a long way from the well-funded, booster-club-driven programs that dot the metro. At Henry, there is no extensive trophy case, no banners trumpeting past successes.
What the wrestlers have to inspire them are a dozen or so enlarged photos on the wall of former wrestlers who accomplished things greater than expected, with a special row reserved for those who used wrestling as a steppingstone to college.
They also have pride, in themselves, in their city, in being wrestlers who scaled tall odds.
And they have Peter Yang.
Yang's role at Henry is officially assistant coach. In reality, he is the driving force of the program. He was hesitant to talk about it, preferring to remain outside of the spotlight.