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.
