I am a junior in high school and the captain of my wrestling team. In addition to myself, a few other guys are very dedicated and are pretty nasty wrestlers. The problem is, my wrestling team has really declined since my freshman year in high school. About 10 wrestlers have graduated since then and only 4 or 5 new guys have come out for the team. As of now, the wrestling team consists of 10 people, of which only 5 attend every practice. We are having trouble recruiting new guys because up until this year, the school did not take the wrestling team seriously and the student body was hesitant to join a team that is not taken seriously. Furthermore, the student body is tiny, perhaps 40 male students per grade. Many of them are doing other sports such as basketball or hockey and the rest don't want to wear spandex or get hurt. How can I get new people to come to a few practices to try it out? Intimidation? Logical reasoning? Any advice would be helpful.

Also, a problem exists with the current members of the team as well. About 3 or 4 guys don't take the team seriously and miss practices for absurd reasons. How can we get these guys to get serious? Punishment isn't an option because that will just make them quit the team entirely, and we can't afford that right now.