There’s nothing cold about winter in the gymnasium and the mat room at South Whidbey High School.

Last week, more than 100 athletes started practice on the basketball court and in the wrestling ring at the school. Boys and girls basketball teams and the boys wrestling team are tuning up for a season of games and matches that should bring more wins and excitement than in any recent winter season.

Expected by their coach to take several places on the winners podium a the state meet this year, the Falcon wrestlers are looking at the season as a long series of training bouts. With their minds focused on the post season, the 30 grapplers out for this year’s team will spend the next few months teaching each other to be perfect wrestlers. Senior wrestling captain Chris Martin said this week the 2001-2002 team is more organized than in past years, even in daily practice.

“We’re pretty much following a schedule,” he said.

In the gymnasium, the boys basketball team is bigger and better-prepared for play than any time during the past five years. Having played about 50 games during the spring and summer, the team — which lost all 20 of its games last year — already has players jumping higher and shooting more accurately than they were at the end of last season.

“These practices this year are better than at the end of last year,” said Tim Gabelein, a senior captain for the Falcons.

The girls basketball team, which practices in the early evenings in Erikson Gymnasium, spent the early days of practice getting to know itself. Four new coaches — Sam Lee, Howard Collier, Henry Pope, and team alum Kendrah Wick — are running the practices this year, while a cadre of underclassmen have worked their way into the varsity lineup.

In spite of the preparation the athletes did prior to the start of practice, the workouts were difficult. In the gym, the basketball players ran baseline sprints almost to exhaustion, while the wrestlers did their conditioning work before grappling on the mats. They are learning to wrestle tired this year, said Chris Martin.

Both the Falcon basketball teams start play today at jamboree events. The wrestling team has its jamboree on December 1.