Garnet Valley’s Hollingsworth making most of season that should have offered more

In a non-COVID world, Garnet Valley senior Griffin Hollingsworth would have hit the revered 100-victory mark by the second month of wrestling season.

Hollingsworth would have given Matt Marino a run for his money in the school record book for second on the Jaguars’ all-time wins list. With a trip to Hershey already on the resume, Hollingsworth was within reach of cementing his legacy as the school’s eighth state medalist.

Of course, there is nothing conventional these days about high school sports, or the athletes competing against each other and the coronavirus. Masks, social distancing, few if any spectators and closed locker rooms are only some of the changes.

Hollingsworth was reminded of how different wrestling was upon winning his first match of the season in late January, not early December. Instead of the referee hoisting his arm, after a pin of Chris Green of Ridley, Hollingsworth raised it himself. No touching.

Hollingsworth had to learn to breathe through a mask that also fouls up takedowns and peripheral vision. The mask makes his lungs work so hard, it’s like hiking the formidable Manitou Incline again in the mile-high altitude of Colorado. Instead of showering after the match, Hollingsworth threw his sweats on over his singlet, rinsed with sanitizers, and drove home.

After countless hours of work, conditioning and sacrifice, after two months of cancellations and at best, an uncertain future, Hollingsworth had no trouble taking on the million-dollar question.

Was it all worthwhile?

Apparently so…

“If I wasn’t wrestling, I don’t know what I’d be doing,” the 132-pound senior Jaguar said. “It’s a good feeling going to practice and wrestling every day and not being trapped in the house. Going to different schools and wrestling, being around people is a good feeling. … I’d rather wrestle (seven) matches than no matches, and we’re lucky to have them. It is getting me ready for the postseason and hopefully going a long way.”

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