It is an Olympic sport; one of the oldest forms of combat. It is part of Mixed Martial Arts and the UFC, where many have found success using their honed skill and techniques to win championships.

At its core, wrestling is a fierce battle between two competitors. A man or woman gives all they have to out-work and out-perform their opponent.

At Washington State, wrestling is about community. Many people think it is an individual sport, coaches Chris Gambino, Kevin Poitra and the WSU wrestling team see their sport as a team effort.

“They hold each other accountable and support each other,” Poitra said, “They’re a team, a family.”

Since the club team’s inaugural season in 2012, it has grown in numbers and skill, and has attracted more talented wrestlers to the program. The program began when a core group of WSU students from the same high school team, led by now senior Brett Johnson, came together and decided they wanted to continue competing.

They recruited Gambino, a Ph.D. student in Animal Science at WSU, to coach them. Gambino said they wowed a lot of people the first year when they came in second at the Washington State and Northwest Conference tournaments.

Last year was a breakout season. The club won the Northwest Conference Tournament, and had seven national qualifiers. The team also features two All-Americans in Johnson and senior Dave Stratton, who both placed sixth at the NCWA Nationals last year.

At the beginning of the year, the club usually starts with about 20 people, but then drops down to a dedicated core of about 10. People drop out due to other commitments or injuries, which Johnson said a lot of people were battling throughout the season.

The wrestlers that remain at the end of the year are a close-knit group, Coach Poitra said. They’ve had good development and work hard but have fun. The coaches hope to have all their athletes perform well in the post-season tournaments.

“The goal is a team title,” Gambino said, “In order to get there we need to have everyone at All-American level.”

More importantly, the coaches want to build the wrestling community in Pullman and Moscow, and go from a club mentality to a family mentality. They have also been involved in the community through charity work, running their Wrestlers for Warmth campaign in 2013 and 2014. The team collected gently-used winter clothing, boots and blankets in November of each year for a local charity.

With the amount of success they have had on the mat as well as the good they have done in the community, the team is hoping for more exposure at WSU and around the region. This year, they will host the NCWA Northwest Conference Championship on Feb. 28th, where they hope to repeat as champions.

The wrestlers also hope to work with University Recreation to secure more funding for tutors and other academic support. After all, they are students first, and with their busy practice schedule, it can be hard to keep up with everything.

“To compete at this level, you got to be somewhat crazy,” Johnson said, “You’ve got to want to win.”

As the coaches said, the program is focused on building everyone up and helping them find themselves. Gambino said they have had some members of the team lose their way, but that those members were able to get their lives back on track and rejoin the team.

With postseason tournaments fast approaching, the team is working on getting back to their roots and growing as a unit. And in a little more than two weeks, everyone in the area will have a chance to see how much they have grown and improved. The 2015 NCWA Northwest Wrestling Championships are Saturday, Feb. 28, in Bohler Gym. The tournament starts at 10 a.m. and the admission is $4.