Lofti Brothers going to the Mat

Prior to entering high school at King Philip, Mohammad Lotfi, now a junior, had never heard of the sport of wrestling. For some reason, however, he was attracted to a poster hanging in the school advertising the wrestling team. Lotfi went to John Adams, the KP wrestling coach, and asked him about the sport. The answer he got from the coach intrigued him enough to attend the meeting and tryout for the team.
“Coach Adams told me that wrestling was a sport like nothing I had ever done and it was quite unique, so I decided to give it a shot,” Lotfi said. “After that first day, I was not too sure that I was going to continue. It was one of the hardest things that I had ever done. I was leaving exhausted, hurt and bruised and I was terrible at it.”
While Lotfi gave some serious thought to abandoning the sport, his teammates and coaches encouraged him to continue, telling him that he could be really good at it.
“After going 1-21 as a freshman everyone thought that I was going to quit, but I wanted to prove them wrong so I went and joined New England Gold (Wrestling Club in Franklin),” he said. “When I returned the next season I had improved so much people didn’t recognize me.”
That sophomore campaign, Lotfi improved to 21-8 wrestling at 132 pounds, and qualified for the States. Once there, however, he didn’t perform as well as he had hoped.
“I was going up against the best and I got my butt handed to me,” Lotfi said. “It definitely was a learning experience for me and something that I continued to use as motivation to get better.”
As Mohammad was set to begin his junior year at King Philip, his younger brother Yousef was about to enter high school as a freshman. Having played football and lacrosse before he got to King Philip, the younger Lotfi was being recruited to join his brother on the wrestling mat.
“Mo was probably the biggest influence to get me to join the wrestling team. Last fall when he was going to New England Gold I didn’t have football practice so I went along to check it out,” the younger Lotfi said. “I found it very interesting and was looking to see where it would go and having a lot of the same friends as my brother they too were telling me to join.”
Even though he had played football and lacrosse, Yousef was not ready for what awaited him during wrestling practice.
“That first week was not fun at all. Having played other sports I found wrestling to be by far the hardest sport I have ever tried,” he said. “You have to give 110 percent all of the time or you are not going to succeed and let me tell you there was a couple of times that I said to myself ‘What am I doing?’”
As the two Lotfi brothers prepare to wrestle for the Warriors this season, both come in with similar goals –looking to make it to the States in their respective weight class.
“I want to keep getting better and place in the top of the Hock, the Sectionals and hopefully get to the States,” Mohammad said. “My weight class (138 lbs.) is one of the tougher classes out there so I’m not sure that I’ll get to the States this year, but I’m definitely going to do so by my senior year.”
The elder Lotfi believes not only will he make it to the States by next season, but also that he will be a state contender if he can just turn that corner and stop losing matches by one or two points.
Much like his older brother, Yousef is hoping to become a state champion by the time his high school wrestling career comes to an end.
“Of the three sports, I like wrestling the best. So far it’s been a lot more fun and I get to get all my controlled aggression out on the mat,” he said. “Mo pushes me more than anyone as he wants me to win. I believe that by my senior year I will be a number one wrestler and win at the state level.”
Coach Adams agrees that both wrestlers should be able to climb that mountain and reach the peak by the time they graduate from King Philip.
“Mohammad is a legitimate wrestler and puts in the work to improve. He’s willing to do extra in order to gain his confidence on the mat in order to focus and become better,” the KP coach said. “”Yousef is a very coachable individual and picks things up quickly. He is very agile and moves around like he’s in a light weight class although he’s wrestling in the heavy weight class. If he continues at this pace, he too will turn into something special in the years to come.”
Currently both wrestlers possess winning records in their respective weight class and are on target to have a shot at the State Tournament.