The Road To Nick's Youth State Championship---Part 4

Chasing Down A Youth State Championship---Part 4

Strategy Matters.  Positioning Nick For Success At States

Rinse and repeat. There's nothing to it but to do it! We kept doing what had gotten us to this point.  A few Summer tournaments, Tom Roehlig's camps and Fall Club, and more football.   

Another thing Nicky had going for him was (if I may take a little credit here) was knowing our family's genetic potential and what I could bring to the table.  I knew from how Nicky was built and how he was growing that he was going to be a middleweight during his high school years. Having done my share of serious lifting and strength training...and more importantly training several other men over the course of twenty years...I knew that I didn't need to find another trainer to address his strength development.  

Even though I've neglected myself over the course of the last 15 years, I still have a deep knowledge base of how to build strength and have remained a student of strength training.  It was becoming evident that Nicky was always one of, if not the, strongest boys his age and size in any room he went into.  Add in the core exercises that my friend Tom Roehlig introduced Nick and I to and I felt pretty confident that Nicky would retain that "edge" he had over the competition throughout Jr. High and High School.      

Steady strength training and, for the most part, keeping my sons diets relatively clean were factors that we definitely could control, so Pam and I were very diligent about that. Of course they're eating their fair share of junk food like all kids, but we were very consistent with their breakfasts, lunches and dinners.





A complete protein source with every meal, starchy complex carbs to fuel their muscles, and fruits and vegetables for them to get the fiber, vitamins & minerals, and phytochemicals to grow and have the energy needed for solid sports performance.  Plenty of water. Fueling an athlete is important, and sports nutrition is a vital piece of the puzzle.  Two things an athlete needs more than the average person is better quality nutrition and more sleep.  Especially when their young and growing!  I saw many young wrestlers whose dads were restricting their kids diets too much...I personally felt they were crazy to do so, but hey, to each their own.

So let's get to the wrestling season and talk about another outstanding wrestler who Nicky competed against.  Antwon Pugh was yet another wrestler who Nicky had to contend with.  Antwon was heavier than Nick in past years, but Nicky put on weight every year and that put him in new weight classes with new faces to wrestle.  By Nicky's 6th grade year we were in Antwon weight class.

Antwon was a sensational wrestler. Another all around athlete. He was from the Akron area and I had watched him over the course of the last several years.  Super impressive. Antwon was the 2009 OAC  75 lb. State Champ in his age group and was the 2010 OYWA 86 lb. State Champ. 

Nick wrestled Antwon two times within a month when the wrestling season began.  Once at the Green Bulldog Round Robin and once at the Medina Fall Open. Although Nicky wrestled him tough, Antwon tech falled him the first match (12-0) and pinned him the second.  

Tom Roehlig, who was corner coaching Nick during the Green tournament, turned to me and said "That kid is really good."  When you have a kid as good as Nicky was, who is pinning and tech falling his way through a tournament, and then himself gets tech falled or pinned by a wrestler, you just have to accept it and acknowledge the other wrestlers ability.  And so that's exactly what we did.  Here's a few pictures of Antwon back then.

I felt that our best bet to win a youth state championship was to not be in the same weight class Antwon was in.  And what made it the best strategy of all was that I could wrestle Nicky at bodyweight. He would be well hydrated and fed properly...ready for the competition.

More strategy.

The Brecksville Youth Club lost most of the kids who were in the practice room for the past two years.  The only wrestler that remained who was tough enough...and skilled enough...to drill and wrestle live with Nicky was Luke Strnad.  However, these two were very used to each other and knew each other so well that it was a dog fight whenever they went live. I knew that the best thing to do was to get Nicky in a fresh room with as many good wrestlers as possible.

Mike Heil had settled into the Brunswick wrestling room and had a good relationship with Brunswick High head wrestling coach Mike Koshar.  This was to prove very valuable for Brunswick Wrestling moving into the future.  Coach Koshar is deeply committed to the program and had a number of good wrestlers came through under his watch...including two time State Champ Richie Spicel.  The influx of talent he was about to receive in a few years, because of his open mindedness, was going to elevate Brunswick wrestling to new heights. More on that later. Here's a picture of  Coach Mike Koshar with Nick and I during Nick's Freshman Year.

I needed an OYWA youth team...like Brecksville...for Nick to wrestle out of.  Mike Heil's Team Wrecking Crew wasn't participating in the OYWA.  He suggested to me that I approach Jeff Jarrell about Nicky wrestling with his Cardinal Club.  It made perfect sense to me for a few different reasons.

I was never the kind of guy who held any resentment towards another parent or coach of a wrestler who could beat my kid.  I brought Nick up with the belief that every kid he would ever face out on a wrestling mat had a warrior's heart, and that regardless of a match's outcome they were deserving of respect.  That would become a trademark characteristic of his.  Win, lose or draw, he was always a great sport after a match.  There is nobody out there that can say they've seen Nick lose his cool or anything remotely close to that. That being said, I was excited to reach out to Jeff to see if not only could Nick wrestle varsity at 95 lbs. for the Cardinal Club, but would he be willing to bring Hammer Tanyon in to work with Nick, especially in regards to getting better with his legs.

It worked out great.  Jeff had a great line up with some super tough kids.  Among them was Brendan Price and Stan Bleich.  Stan was a regular in Mike Heil's room and wrestled for TWC and Nick and Stan already knew each other well from going to a few tourney's together. Brendan was a hammer.  Tough, and a great scrambler, he was going to be the Cardinal Clubs 90 lber.  Between Brendan and Tanyon at the Cardinal Club, the boy's in the Brunswick room wrestling under Mike Heil, and going to Chanel's practice room once a week to wrestle with Austin Assad, LJ Bentley, and other tough Firebirds, I felt confident that Nicky was getting not only great drill partners, but great coaching as well. Here's a few pictures of the Cardinal Club members.  What a fun group of kids. 

Jeff went above and beyond with Nicky, having Tanyon work with Nicky, especially tweaking his leg turks, cross wrist tilts, and the figure four leg ride.  They had great chemistry and Nicky responded well to Jeff's coaching.  Nicky had become a serious wrestling shoe buff and collector and bought a pair of red John Smith's.  Jeff played with Nicky constantly, talking up "those shoes" and Nicky loved it. So he was having a lot of fun as he was working hard and learning.  It showed too. Nicky was catching on quickly and it was showing in the live goes with Tanyon.  More importantly...it was showing in competition.

One example of this was when Mike Heil took Nicky on two consecutive weekends to a couple of bruiser tournaments in PA. The Winter Storm and Young Guns tournaments. These tournaments had some elite level youth wrestlers attend from both Ohio and PA. Nicky placed 2nd in both of these tournaments.  He lost to the same kid, a boy who was a year older named Greg Bulsak.  Greg went on to become a 2X PIAA State Champ and Super 32 placer.  Very tough youth wrestler at the time.  Very solid. He teched Nick 11-0 at the Winter Storm, but at the Young Guns tournament he only lost by a score of 5-3.  Nick normally does very well in rematches and this would show itself to be true later throughout his Jr. High and High School career.  Mike said that Nick listened well and that Nick showed "great improvement." I was very proud of him.

My next post will cover the OYWA District and State tournaments. For now suffice it to say that during the course of the regular season he was an absolute wrecking ball. Up until the post season he only lost 7 out of 54 matches! Those loses were to State Champs and a few oddball matches where they combined weight classes with older or bigger boys at a couple open tournaments. He was clearly head and shoulders above 98% of the kids in his weight class and his coaches and I were very optimistic...and I would say even confident about his winning a State Championship this year. His time had come.

Here's a few videos from the OURWAY District Tournament. That's another youth league that has a State Championship tournament. The first opponent is DJ Skiba from St. Ed's feeder program Westshore, and the next is our friend (but always game and competitive rival) Cody Surratt from Wadsworth.  DJ ended up being a teammates of Nick's at Brunswick High. He's a great young man who always worked hard.  He's currently serving in the U.S. Air Force.

These pictures and videos bring back a lot of great memories for me, and I am sure they will for others who either had kids wrestling at that time, or were coaching.  Good times indeed!             

The Road To Nick's Youth State Championship---Part 3

Chasing Down A Youth State Championship---Part 3

Nick Gets Up On The Podium At The OYWA State Championships

After the excitement of his first trip to both OYWA and OAC States it was back to the business of having fun!  Riding around on his Yamaha 50 and Polaris 4 wheeler, playing in the woods and the creek that was besides our house in North Royalton, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire pit that we dug out in the back of our yard, playing plenty of basketball on the court of Albion Elementary which was directly behind our house, trips to the zoo and the parks and beaches of Greater Cleveland, blowing off the case or two of fireworks that "Uncle" Mike Mennozi always gave them after our annual Fourth of July parties, fishing and boating on Lake Erie with my old friend Gary Gottschalk and his son, and just hours and hours of Nicky and Kevin playing with Alex Ashworth, who lived next door and was Nicky's age.  I wish I had a dime for every time I pulled in the drive from work to see those three playing in one of our yards.  Good times.

My philosophy continued to be "if it's not broke than don't fix it." So I continued to have Nicky strength train under my watchful eye, attend a few camps at Tom Roehligs, wrestle in a few tournaments, get ready for football season that began every August, and attend Tom's Fall Wrestling Club.  That was the nature of Nick's off season schedule.  Once again...very moderate compared to many of his youth wrestling peers.

Nick continued to play football and showed super athleticism. Another great youth wrestler in the Brecksville Club, named Luke Strnad had a father who was aware of Nicky's ability.  Luke played on the Brecksville Bee's and Nick played on the N. Royalton Bears. Luke's dad, named Lee, decided to put together a Pop Warner football team to play against the tougher football teams in the Cleveland area.  

He formed the Southwest Seminoles and approached me to see if I would be interested in having Nicky play with Luke. I jumped at the chance because Luke was an incredible athlete and I wanted to see them play together also.  They had a blast and although they took their lumps in the Pop Warner league, I feel they were better for it. Luke went on to have a very good high school football career, becoming the starting quarterback for Brecksville-Broadview Hts. High School.  Always a favorite of mine.  Here's a few pictures of him, Nick, and future Brecksville High State Champ Austin Hiles...yes three wrestlers from the same club who also played football together!     

When wrestling season resumed the Brecksville Club was in high gear. Even though I really had no need to take Nick to additional rooms...I did...to get in a few practices ran by Mike Heil.  It was a way for me to have Nick drill and wrestle live with his group of boys who, as I noted before, were exceptional and who Nicky was now friends with.  

One practice room that I neglected to mention before was the Chanel Firebird wrestling room.  I use to take Nicky there also. Chanel closed down in 2013, but they were a powerhouse wrestling program over the years and had a great youth practice room also.  

Todd Assad, a friend from the city I grew up in, Bedford, had two exceptional sons who were developed there.  Their names are Aaron and Austin.  Both were high level wrestlers who went on to wrestle for Brecksville High. Aaron, the older of the two, would win a State Championship and Austin would become a 4X State Placer...and a 3X State Runner-Up.  

Austin was probably the best Ohio high school wrestler I know of who didn't capture a State title.  That being said, he more than made up for it by becoming a 2X National Freestyle Champ at Fargo. Aaron went on to wrestle for Missouri, and Austin wrestles for Michigan.  

Another very successful high school wrestler who came out of that room (there were many) who Nicky took his lumps from was LJ Bentley. LJ wrested for national powerhouse St. Edward's in high school and wrestles at the University of Pittsburgh now...so you can see there was some serious talent in that room.  Austin and LJ both had a few years worth of physical maturity on Nicky, but were both lightweights so Nicky was able to wrestle with them as he was a bigger young boy.

Nicky opened his 5th grade season up with a match against LJ.  He lost 10-0 but didn't get teched or give up the fall, so I was happy with that.  He had a very solid season and because he weighed 82 lbs. he had many tough sixth, seventh and even small eighth grade opponents to contend with. It was obvious he was still progressing. 

   
After a very fun and competitive regular season we were anxious to see how Nick would fare in the post season.  He won his OYWA Sectionals by pinning his way through it.  Dominant.  

At the OYWA Kenston District Tournament he pinned his way through...until the Finals when he ran into a total hammer of a kid...Tanyon Jarrell.  Tanyon pinned Nicky.   

A little bit about Tanyon.  Tanyon was the 2009 OYWA 76 lb. State Champ. Tanyon was wrestling out of the Cardinal Club that was put together and ran by his dad Jeff Jarrell.  Tanyon had been on my radar for awhile.  This kid was one of the toughest young wrestlers I had seen.  A brute.  He was solid in all positions and just a complete hammer on top.  Knew how to throw legs in and use them.  Nick wrestled him at the beginning of his 4th Grade season at the Valley Forge Tournament and lost a close match to him 6-4.  After that loss I knew he was tough and followed his matches.  He was exciting and fun to watch.  Here's a few pictures of Tanyon. All around athlete. Super tough. Just like Nick.  

I thought that Nick had grown considerably in his wrestling since Tanyon beat him.  And he did.  The only problem was so did Tanyon. His skill set was clearly above 99% of the Ohio Youth Wrestlers. He used his boots to turn Nicky and at that time Nicky just didn't have the defense or horse power to deal with him. 

Nicky was wrestling tough though and we still felt good about his chances to win a State Championship this year or at least place very high.  At OYWA States he won his first match by pinning the only girl he's ever had to wrestle, a girl named Katie Bender from Brookfield. He won his Quarter Finals match by a 2-0 decision over another tough kid, Victor Marcelli. Unfortunately he lost his Semi Finals match to a boy named Corey Simpson. Corey was another outstanding wrestler and, like Tanyon Jarrell, ahead of the pack.  

I truly believe Nick would have placed third at this State Tournament had a huge upset not occur.  However, as fate would have it, Tanyon, who was in the lower part of the bracket, was upset by Massillon wrestler Noah McCumbers 4-2.  I personally believe strongly that Tanyon would have beaten Simpson in the Finals. As it was, Nicky had to face Tanyon in his first Consolation match. Tanyon pinned Nicky and went on to capture 3rd place after a rematch with McCumbers who lost in the Semi Finals to Wadsworth's Joey Baughman.  So Nicky wrestled for 5th and 6th place against Wadsworth's Cory Surratt, a familiar foe.  It was a close match but Nick was able to win by a 6-4 decision.

We came away very happy as Nick earned his way onto his first State Championship podium.  And we learned a lot.  So we felt very optimistic about the upcoming OAC District and State Tournaments.

At OAC District's Nicky wrestled his way to the Finals by beating Midpark's Justin Clarke, Team Myron's Ben Tate, and Wadsworth's Cody Surratt.  Of course waiting for him in the Finals was none other than Tanyon Jarrell.  Hey! In wrestling if you want to be the best you have to beat the best! They had a good match and this time Tanyon won by Major Decision 13-5. Still...it wasn't a pin and we felt progress was being made. We absolutely respected Tanyon and his abilities and was happy to find ourselves competing against him in a District Finals for the second time.  We're on the right track I assured Nicky.

At OAC States we suffered huge disappointment.  In the second Championship round we got robbed of not only back points but a pin. I have it on my video tape and I assure you the referee who officiated the match was absolutely incompetent.  Joe Hiles and I shook our heads in disbelief as he made one officiating mistake after another. Our pleas fell upon deaf ears and a feeble brain.  So Nick's opponent, Robbie Oswald from Elder Kids, won by decision 7-5. Tanyon had a dominating performance, techfalling his first opponent and pinning his way to a State Championship in the Finals against Oswald...who made it through his bracket. We feel absolutely sure that outside of an injury occurring, getting caught, or horrible officiating (which is what happened) Nicky would have wrestled Tanyon in the State Finals.  

Nicky dropped down to consolation and won two matches in row before losing and bowing out of the tournament.  He lost 10-2 to Josh Herhold...the second year in a row that he was one match away from placing in the OAC.  To be honest he just wrestled poorly.  

We learned (or I should say had reinforced) a few valuable lessons after this tournament. Lesson number one: try as hard as you can to keep the match out of the refs hands and lesson number two: you have to wrestle better and not give your opponent so many opportunities to score off your mistakes as in the Herhold match. Lesson number 3: Have to learn how to bounce back strongly and be ready to compete after a setback.

And that wrapped up his fifth grade season. 

Season Five Record: (42-17)  Pins/Techs (27)

The big takeaway was that he earned his way up on the podium and that he was only losing to the very toughest of opponents...most of whom would be moving onto Jr. High School the following year.  We felt more confident than ever that Nick's youth State Championship would be accomplished next year when he was at the top of the mountain as a 6th grader. Here's an example of how Nicky was wrestling in 5th grade.



And here's Nick and the rest of the 82 lb. wrestlers on the OYWA State podium!  This was the Hammer bracket of the tournament.

The Road To Nick's Youth State Championship---Part 2

Chasing Down A Youth State Championship---Part Two

The Stage Has Been Set

Enter Tom Roehlig.  After Nicky's last season with the N. Royalton program I decided to have Nick attend some Summer wrestling camps to further his technique.  I jumped on the internet and came across Tom Roehligs wrestling camp.  After exchanging some e-mails and lengthy phone conversations I decided that Tom was a solid individual...not just for what he could offer Nicky in terms of wrestling instruction...but in many other ways also.

Tom currently owns a Cross Fit gym in Massillon Ohio.  He's what I consider a man who not only talks the talk, but walks the walk. He was a high school multi-State Placer himself and a former Ohio State wrestler.  He started training youth wrestlers in the Massilon/Carrolton area and had great results with many of the boys down there.  Two of his former long time Roehlig Wrestling Club members, Tom Straughn and Ivan McClay, not only went on to become high school State Champions, but NCAA Division 2 National Champions at the Division 2 powerhouse program Notre Dame.

Tom taught Nick (and I) a lot about core strength training and so many other things I couldn't even begin to put them all down in this blog post.  Suffice it to say that Nicky and I developed a great friendship with Tom.  Nick attended his camps every Summer and was in his Fall Clubs as well.  Even in Nicky's high school years Tom proved to be a valuable resource that I could depend on for timely advice...whenever I called he made himself available and we took advantage of his Sports Performance training knowledge also. While I have a fairly deep knowledge of strength training myself, it would be fair to say that Tom more than filled in the gaps that I needed when training Nick at home.  And yes that's Olympian Harry Lester who was giving a clinic at one of Tom's camps. Nicky was so excited to meet him. 

So now the stage was set. The actors were in place.  It was just a matter of time we felt.  As long as Nicky kept working hard and kept a great attitude it was only a matter of time before he won a Youth State championship.  So that's what he did with us (Mom & Dad & coaches) all supporting him and trying to position him for  it to happen.  But still, not at the expense of having fun!  Here's a picture of one of Nicky, Kevin, & Alex after trick or treating one Halloween. What a haul huh?  I tried to tell them that a wrestling mat is not supposed to be used in such a way!

So Nicky had a terrific year in 4th grade.  He won a lot of tournaments and continued to make progress in his wrestling.  The year prior, when he was still wrestling for N. Royalton, he won his Sectionals wrestling at 67 lbs. but failed to get out of Districts losing to 6-4 to Kenston's Mason Daugherty and 4-1 to Cuyahoga Hts. wrestler Nick Orr.  This year he won Sectionals again by beating his former teammate Paul Petras 2-0.  Petras returned the favor the following week defeating Nicky 6-0 at Districts...but he qualified for the OYWA State Championships and we were very optimistic.

He wrestled tough at his first States at 73 lbs.!  Came out on fire and avenged his last years District loss to Mason Daughtry by defeating him 9-0! Hit him with two nasty twisters!  A close friend of mine, Gary Gottschalk, told me that Mason's dad said to him: "Who is that kid? He's got the best hips I ever seen!"  A year can make a big difference in wrestling. Unfortunately, due to a very controversial ref call, Nicky lost his next match to Massillon's Jake Donahue 2-0. Won his next match against Tuskeegee Valley's Leland Hostetler 11-4 but failed to place losing to Jackson Purple's Kelan McKenna.

Although he failed to place, we were very pleased by his performance and looked forward to his first OAC District tournament.  He ended up placing third there, losing to another boy that he wrestled several times, Jaret Williamson.  Jaret pinned him there and it was the first time I really saw Nicky upset about a match.  It was the only time Jaret had beat him and he didn't like it one bit.  Jaret was a solid wrestler though and a good kid...but that didn't matter to Nicky!

At OAC States he wrestled great again, but fell short.  After wining his first three matches he lost to Team Myron's Ryan Thomas who went on to become the eventual champion.  The next time Nick would see him would be in their senior year of high school.  Nicky lost his next match in overtime 2-0...to Westshore's Garrett Lambert...a future high school teammate...who was coached by our friend Mike Heil.  So that was it for his 4th grade season. 

Season Four Record: (54-13)  Pins/Techs: (28)

My next post will cover his 5th & 6th grade years as they were pivotal in that a few key figures entered into the scene and moves were made that I feel positioned Nick perfectly for success.  Hope you're enjoying reading this as much as dear old dad does writing it! Here's a few more general pictures of Nicky.

And of course a video of him in action...this is a match between him and the always tough and dangerous Cody Surratt out of Wadsworth. These two wrestled each other a lot growing up and a few times in high school. Cody is as tough as they come,,,and as tough as he...is he's even a greater kid. Well a young man now. Cody will be wrestling for the Air Force in the Big 12 next year.

Here's a picture of Cody and another of Nick's wrestling friends and training partner, 2X State Champ James Handwerk out of Lutheran West, meeting with the Congressman who endorsed them to be accepted into the Academy.  Two fine young men. They both are on the ends, Cody has his suit jacket on.

And here's that video of Nick and Cody wrestling each other in an OAC District tourney.
   

The Road To Nick's Youth State Championship---Part 1

Chasing Down A Youth State Championship---Part One

Nick Develops Into A Force To Be Reckoned With

The next three years were super exciting for Nicky and our family. By now it was very apparent that he had the potential to be a great high school wrestler.  So my beautiful wife Pam and I did everything we could to position him for future success while first letting him be a little boy.

One of those things was to NOT wrestle him a lot during the off season.  I wasn't scared of "burning him out" or anything like that. I just wanted him have a lot of Summer fun and take part in other sports.  

Fishing and boating with our friends, shooting his BB gun, riding his dirt bike and 4 wheeler, playing with his little brother Kevin and Alex, the boy who lived next door, pitching a tent in our backyard, playing in the woods and building fire pits with old dad. Lots of fun stuff to do when you're a little guy.

So I...and this differed greatly from a lot of the other dads who had high caliber youth wrestlers...did not continue bringing him to a room anywhere to practice a few times per week.  Nor did I put him in countless tournaments over the off season.  I would put him in a few tournaments each Summer...with no practice and he would usually end up winning, but of course occasionally wouldn't place or placed 3rd or 4th.  It may seem like a bizarre strategy, but I wanted to see how much he was retaining and once again I did not want his life to be dominated by the sport at such a young age.  I rather he played a variety of sports and it was through the participation of other sports where I really began to grasp how athletic Nicky was.

When Nick was just a toddler I would bring him to any basketball court around where we lived to watch dad shoot around and to play. So his love for basketball began that way.  I knew basketball was a real threat to his wrestling, so I let him indulge himself in the off season when he was young and play as much as he wanted.  And believe me when I tell you...he's good. This picture was when he was 11 years old and the first time he beat me...hit all his outside shots and outran my fat ass for the rebounds!  So I memorialized the moment by taking a picture of me palming his head.  One good turn deserves the other! 

I have zero doubts that if he had of chosen basketball he would have been a spectacular point guard...and while he was in high school he probably could have started on many teams in the Greater Cleveland area.  I played him one on one as he was growing up and he has an incredible outside shot and can drive to the hoop with solid ball handling skills. Basketball was how I introduced him to Charlie Hustle...giving your all out running a man to get the loose ball rebounds, following your shot for the rebounds and things like that. He loved it...and so did I.  Great memories.  "Again daddy. Let's play again."  Over and over until Big Daddy couldn't play no more!  What a motor that kid had.  

Broke his forearm at the end of his first year of wrestling doing wall sprints.  Stuck his arm out straight to stop himself and broke it. We had to explain the concept of "pulling up" as he approached the wall so that would never occur again!  Hardly shed a tear.  Tough. Got a cast on & all his friends signed it.  So we signed him up for soccer the Summer of first grade.  Didn't want him to play football for fear of it breaking again.  He would have only been allowed to play flag anyway as he was seven.  He scored 35 goals in 7 games! I thought it was the second coming of Pele!

The summer of Second Grade he began tackle football for the Southern Hills league.  He was QB, running back and outside linebacker usually.  Played football until 8th grade.  Position player...usually the best open field tackler on the team...and one year with the North Royalton Bears averaged 150 yards per game from the QB position.  Have the DVD's to prove it.  Also played on a Pop Warner team called the Southwest Seminoles started up by a friends dad.  He faced better and tougher talent on the teams in this league, but still played great. 

 In Eighth Grade, or before 8th grade I should say, we sat down and talked about the risk of injury that football posed, especially as football season is right before wrestling season.  We decided that it was best to not risk injury and that was the end of his football career. Besides risking injury we felt that Nicky's best bet of obtaining an athletic scholarship was through the sport of wrestling. It was a decision we both were happy we made in the long run. We seen a few really remarkable youth and middle school wrestlers have bad injuries that pretty much put an end to their wrestling careers.  That being said, it's not like I didn't miss seeing Nicky out on the football field and often in his high school years I use to fantasize about what could have been.  I think it would be safe to say, based on watching the careers of the boys he played with, that he would have been a star football player as well.  Oh well.  No regrets.

Ok I have to back track a bit right here.  At the very end of the Nicky's first season Nicky wanted to keep wrestling...and so did I. So upon asking around I was told by another wrestling dad that practices were being held at the Strongsville practice room. Going there would have far reaching implications.  The guy running the practices was a gentleman name Mike Heil. 

Mike has five sons, three of whom wrestle.  All of them are excellent. One of his sons was four years older than Nick and is a phenomenal wrestler.  His name is Dean Heil.  Dean just won his second NCAA Division 1 National Championship, and is a three time All American at Oklahoma State.  As he was growing up he won everything...and I mean everything!  In high school he wrestled for the powerhouse wrestling program Lakewood St. Edward's and was a four time State Champ!  He also won the prestigious Super 32 and the Ironman tournaments. Without a doubt a very special kid who is now a very special young man.  Here's a picture of Mike with his youngest son Logan.  Logan was a Sophomore this past year and is a State Placer.

Mike's what I consider a great coach.  From my first time being in his room and watching him run a practice I could see a big difference in the quality of his instruction and the way his practices were run.  I decided to have Nicky attend his practices as much as possible. The only problem was that sometimes he didn't have a room to work out of in the early days.  Nevertheless we became acquainted with each other and began our friendship.  

The group of boys that were in Mike's rooms formed the club that later became his club team. They were known as Team Wrecking Crew (TWC).  What a kick ass name huh?  Kids like Garrett Lambert (3X State Placer), Josh Heil (Mike's other son who was the first 4X State Placer at Brunswick High School and who was Nick's main drill partner for 3 of Nicky's high school years), Matt Fields (who Nicky wrestled with and has been friends with ever since the North Royalton days...also Matt is a 2X Finalist who won his 1st OHSAA State Championship this year), Stan Bleich (State Runner Up this year and 3X State Placer), Tony DeCesare (4X State Placer), and many other tough kids.  I guess what I'm trying to say is...results speak for themselves.  Nick is still great friends with all of these guys.  Here's pics of a few of them throughout the years:

Because Mike is a great coach, I would have him coach Nick whenever possible if we were at the same tournament. Mike would also travel to different tournaments and welcomed any and all who would like to travel with his group and compete.  He would travel to the toughest tournaments where our sons could match up with the best competition and see how they stacked up.  It was awesome. His advice regarding wrestling was always sound and I consider him a mentor to this day.  More about Mike later as it turns out he was one of Nick's high school coaches.

The beginning of Nick's 4th wrestling season we chose to join the Brecksville Bee's Youth Wrestling club.  It turned out to be great move.  The high school program had emerged as a public school powerhouse under the guidance of Coach Todd Haverdill.  Todd took an interest in all the boys in the youth and middle school programs and it serves as a great feeder program for the high school.

The room was brutal.  Full of talented boys, many of whom also would go on to become youth, jr. high, and high school state placers with a couple of State Champions thrown in there as well! Sonny Lucas, Austin Hiles (who Nicky lost to in the OHSAA Finals match his Junior year), Danny Morell, Frankie Regalbutta, Luke Strnad, Kevin Naim, Nicky Kiussis, Zach D'Anna, Andrew Perelka, Jason and Jarod Bronstrup...what a great room and awesome group of hard working, fun kids.  What made it even better was that I got along great with all the parents and we just had a blast watching our youth team decimate other teams.  I remain friends with just about all of them to this day. Here's some pics of Nick's Brecksville days:

So for the next two years we would wrestle for the Brecksville youth program.  They did it right.  They had a tough tournament schedule and it wasn't a 90 day program like North Royalton.  If you put your kid in a tournament you could bet that he would have a teammate there to warm up with and spend time with throughout the day.  

North Royalton only participated in the OYWA. Brecksville went to OYWA and the Ohio Athletic Committe (OAC).  The OAC State Tournament was scheduled about a month after the OYWA State Tournament.  They both are prestigious.  The OYWA is a mini version of the High School State qualification process.  What I mean by that is the top 4 placers in each weight class in a Sectional Tournament advance the following week to a District Tournament. The top 4 placers in the District Tournament then qualify for the State Championship Tournament. The OAC only has District Tournaments, and you don't have to be a varsity member on any league team (since there is no OAC league) to attend a District Tournament and qualify for their State Tournament.  

Kids that wrestle in the OAC are usually in a little better shape, and their skill sets are a little bit sharper with that extra month or so of additional practice.  Also kids participate from all over the state of Ohio.  The OYWA participants were limited to the teams that were in the league.  While it wasn't a huge difference, you will definitely see some very high quality youth wrestlers at the OAC District and State Tournaments that you didn't have a chance to wrestle in the OYWA. Also, because there were no varsity line up requirements, any wrestler could engage in the event.  So the brackets are huge.   
For the most part, the great wrestlers from the OYWA also wrestle in the OAC.  

I always wondered why the North Royalton Wrestling Club didn't do things like their more successful neighbors at Brecksville did. Like take part in the OAC. There were only two wrestlers from the N. Royalton Wrestling Club, when Nicky began, who eventually captured a High School State Championship. Nicky...and Matt Fields. 

                     

While Matt stayed at N.Royalton all throughout his youth career, in my opinion, it was the extra that he got in addition to the N. Royalton program that made that long term difference. Matt was in Mike Heil's room (right after the end of the N.R.Y.W.C.'s season ended...just like Nicky) and accompanied TWC on wrestling trips. In other words his dad also established a relationship with Mike Heil. His dad also made sure that in the off season he was attending camps and clinics from Eric and Scott Burnett who run the Burnett Trained Wrestling Club (BTW) and have excellent camps and clinics.  They are legends.  

I am not trying to disparage the N.Royalton Youth Club.  I am very appreciative of the help and instruction they provided Nicky in the first three years of his wrestling career.  But, in my opinion, their limited participation in the off season is why their wrestlers didn't have any notable long term post season success.  From 1st to 8th grades whenever Nick attended a tough off season tournament we would rarely see a N.R. wrestler there...whereas you would always see a TWC, BTW, Brecksville, Elyria, Wadsworth, or Westshore (St. Ed's) in attendance.  Like that old saying goes....success leaves clues.  And that is why I left their club. Word to the wise.  You have to do what is best for your kid. If someone can't understand this and harbors a grudge then that's their problem. 

My next 3 or 4 posts will wrap up Nick's youth career.  It sure is fun writing this and thinking back about all the great times and the people we shared them with.  The wrestling community is like no other.

Here's a video of Nick wrestling in an OAC District Tournament against a tough youth opponent.  See if you can catch the little elbow he threw into Nick at the very end of their match.  I didn't catch it myself..Nick told me about it.  Nick took it in stride. Cool and calm is how he handled himself throughout his entire career. Super proud of him.