Sophomore Ariana Farr wrestles here at Morgan, class of 2025. This is Ariana’s 3rd year wrestling. 2021-2022 was her first year of wrestling in high school for Morgan. She had a tremendous season.

Ariana was introduced to wrestling through Clinton’s Youth wrestling program called “Sled Dogs.”  Assistant Coach James Lewis, who is well known as Coach Lewis, Morgan’s Football and Wrestling assistant coach, persuaded Ariana to start wrestling through Sled Dogs. 

Once she got to Morgan, it was hard for her to get the courage to join the team. It took some convincing, but eventually, Ariana started going to practices. Ariana said, “at first it was very awkward being a beginner to the sport and being the only girl there, but towards the end of the season, the whole team felt like family.” Wrestling is a very competitive and difficult sport. Ariana finds that the most challenging part of it was all the conditioning. She also shared that going on the mat takes a lot of confidence, and it is hard to decide what to do quickly in order to gain points. Along with the challenging parts of a sport comes the most rewarding part. Ariana found that being on the team allowed her to make so many new friends. She gained much more confidence.

Last year the team had a tournament at Amity and Ariana was approached by a group of girls who were wrestling on separate teams. They invited her to join a group chat of girl wrestlers in Connecticut. They got to know each other and supported each girl in each of their matches. Ariana also got the opportunity to be in a promotional CIAC video about friendly Sportsmanship. Former Athletic Director, Lewis Pappariella knew that she would be a perfect athlete to choose from Morgan for the video. Ariana was asked to read lines given to her and share how wrestling is different from other popular sports at schools.

One of the biggest matches last season was Ariana’s tremendous win against Fairfield Prep. She won by points in the 3rd period. The energy in the gym accelerated. Everyone was on their feet cheering her on. Once she beat her opponent, she ran over to both coaches, who were proud of her for being tough in the lively match. Later, Morgan Athletics posted the end of her match, and it was shared all over social media, spreading word of her victory. Ariana is very thrilled for the anticipated season approaching shortly.