Champions Never "Come out of Nowhere"

Wrestlers don't wake up one morning and say to themselves "I think I'll win State today". These guys have been fighting it out on the back mats for years, in bush-league local tournaments that very few parents even attend, where the only guy watching you from the bleachers is your next opponent.

I once passed out flyers for a "Super Tournament" to the parents and wrestlers in my kids club and told everyone that all the 1st year wrestlers should go to the "local" tournament that weekend. I was a little annoyed when I got there and saw one of the 1st year dads there with his 4th grader. I naturally figured I had another "little league" wrestling dad throwing his son to the wolves.

Since they were brand new I had never spoken to the father [the mother mostly brought the boy to practice because the dad worked nights at a gas station] so I went up to the dad and started repeating everything I'd said at practice. He listened, nodding his head without interrupting me and when I was done I wasn't sure he understood me, so I finished with "you know he probably won't win a match". He said "I know, but he didn't want to go with the beginners. Maybe he'll win some points". The boy went 0-2 but did score 1 or 2 points. On the way home we stopped at a bowling alley to let the kids play video games and I found out that the dad was a soccer player, not a wrestler.

That year the boy placed 4th at our local association kids championships, losing to his practice partner whose uncle was the High School Head Coach. As the years rolled by other kids in the club became State, Regional and National Champions while this one was just 'there'. Sometimes he'd win, sometimes not. But he was always there; doing his best and watching his pals get their pictures taken on the top of the podium.

Year after year he never wrestled in less than 20 tournaments and in 7th grade he logged 150+ matches wearing the same reversible singlet his father had purchased at his 1st Super Tournament [it was really baggy back then, the dad planned for him to "grow" into it].

Other kids had come and gone but this one was still there and was wrestling with more intensity than many of the "Champions" in the club. The dad was going to buy him a new reversible singlet in 8th grade [his was coming apart at the seams] and I knew the boy would not be happy with another "beginner" singlet so I mentioned to him that if he won the State Kids Tournament the club would buy him any singlet he wanted. Many of the kids had $80 Barcelona's and some even had custom made [Miles Hahn out of New Jersey] but only beginners wore reversibles.

What a weekend. He teched and pinned 8 in a row including a Super-Star who would go to win three State High School State Championships. After he'd been awarded his singlet at practice he asked me in his little boy voice [that was soon to change] if he could get a blue singlet if he won Greco State. I smiled and said of course. He got the singlet.

The next year he was a freshman in High School and everything was a lot tougher, but he was always there. No trip to High School state that year or the next, but he continued to work on his technique to defeat older, stronger opponents. The summer between 10th and 11th grade he made it to the Freestyle State Finals only to lose in overtime, but went on to Cadet Nationals where he again made the finals, and lost again.

In 11th grade he made his 1st trip to the High School State Tournament, lost in the quarters to the Super-Star and finished 4th. His Senior year he lost in the finals of the State Sub-Sections. He lost in the finals at Sectionals and entered the State Tournament ranked 9th with 11 losses.

He made it to the Semi-Finals only to face the #1 ranked wrestler in the state who had already given him 3 losses that year. On the other side of the bracket were the #2 & #3 ranked wrestlers who had each defeated him twice. The Semi's match started badly. He gave up the 1st takedown straight to his back. Then something magical happened. We've all seen it a few times here and there. The match started going his way. He was taking down the #1 ranked wrestler in the state, to his back, and letting him go. The match ended 18-8 and he went on to become the 1st ever State Champion from his High School [another boy from his High School also won the tournament that night at a heavier weight].

Did this young man "come out of nowhere" to become a State Champion. Neither did anyone else. You just don't know there story.

PS: This young man is now wrestling on scholarship at a Div-I school, just made his 1st trip to the NCAA Championship where he drew the #1 seed in the first round [who won the tournament] and he has 3 years of eligibility left. If, God willing, he someday wins the NCAA Tournament, and becomes the 1st NCAA Div-I Champion from his college, I'm sure that hundreds, maybe thousands will say "this guy came out of nowhere". Maybe you know him, or someone like him.