Two Years To Prepare For High School Wrestling
Junior High Can Be Quite The Challenge
My oldest son Nick began Summer session at West Virginia University a couple weeks ago. He earned an athletic scholarship to attend and represent WVU after an outstanding high school career in which he became only the second wrestler in Brunswick High School history to place at the OSHAA State Championships Tournament 4 times.
This blog, if you've found it for the very first time, is chronicling Nick's journey from his youth wrestling days to his last high school match. At this point in my blog Nick is just entering Jr. High school as a 7th grader...after winning a youth state championship in 6th grade.
But life isn't all about wrestling, and Nicky (as we call him in our house since my name is Nick also) always had a well rounded life. In 7th grade he attended N. Royalton Middle School, had many friends, and enjoyed life off the mat as well. Here are a few pics of Nicky with his younger brother Kevin waiting for the school bus on his first day of 7th grade and Kevin's first day of 4th grade.
One thing about Nick that I noticed as he was growing up was that it was rather easy for him to leave wrestling alone. What I mean by that is when he wasn't at practice or somewhere competing, he had no problem finding things to do or friends to do them with. He had many friends who didn't wrestle, and he enjoyed their friendship as much as he did his wrestling friends.
Kevin and Nicky had/have the typical big brother little brother relationship that most brothers experience. Kevin went out for wrestling in 2nd and 3rd grade...but didn't take to it even though he showed the same potential Nick did when he first started. He didn't wrestle at all his 4th grade year, and I pretty much resigned myself to the fact that it wasn't for him.
Here's Kevin's very first wrestling match when he was just 8 yrs. old. It's one of my all time favorite wrestling videos because of how Nicky is rooting his brother on and because of the little celebration Kevin has when he wins. Too damn cute.
He began wrestling in 5th grade when a few of his friends decided to wrestle and has stayed with it ever since. Wrestling is definitely not the type of sport you can force on your kid, and I know many wrestling dads who have multiple sons, some who don't wrestle at all. So I'm very grateful that Kevin chose the toughest of all sports to participate in given the fact that he could have easily picked another sport to take part in and have our full support.
In my opinion (this blog is, after all, titled The World According To Nick) it's important to recognize the attributes of each of your kids, the unique characteristics that make them who they are, and to develop a deep appreciation for these attributes lest they go unnoticed...or worse yet by far...neglected. How can one foster a loving, caring, life long relationship with ALL their children without making the effort to do so based on their childs interests?
As Kevin was growing up we saw that although he is himself very athletic, he doesn't seem to have the same competitive drive to push himself in sports to the degree that his older brother does. Simply doesn't seem to be as important to him. By no means do I consider it a character flaw. I am absolutely convinced, knowing him as only a father can know a son, that Kevin is going to excel in life and already is doing so academically and socially. That's not to say that his competitive drive won't manifest itself more as he makes his way through high school...it's just saying that he's his own person and doesn't have to have his brothers success to get a lot out of the wrestling. The vast majority of wrestlers never experience the type of success that Nicky experienced...yet I'm sure every single one of them would say they grew as a person because of the life lessons developed both in competition as well as the practice room.
He enjoys being fit, reading, drawing, playing his video games, conversing about varied subject matters and has inherited the quick wit and humour that runs in our family. He's loving and caring and even though much of our family's time and energy has been devoted to Nick's wrestling, we have always taken great care to make sure Kevin feels just as valued as Nick every single day of his life. Here's a few more pictures of my boys just having fun throughout the year. Heck I even consider Alex my son! He was always around as he was growing up. Lot's of great memories with these three.
In preparation for Nick's 7th grade season we continued to do the things that led us to having the success that he experienced thus far. A couple Summer camps at Tom Roehligs, working out 3 times per week (all bodyweight training still at this point...no weights other than weighted pull-ups), and one Summer tournament just for a little competition. We also continued Tom's Fall Club. I knew at this point that Nick was a gamer, and I wasn't worried about all the other guys who were criss crossing the country trying to win every national tournament there was instead of letting their kid enjoy their childhoods.
After OAC States on 3-20-11 Nick didn't compete for nearly 4 months! The Summer tournament I entered him in was the annual Lutheran West tournament on 7-15-11. The next tournament he wrestled in was nearly 3 months later at the Green Bulldog Round Robin on 10-6-11. So in 7 months he only competed once! I wasn't paranoid about Nicky losing ground. I felt it was the healthiest thing I could have done for him...both physically and psychologically. I wanted him chomping at the bit to compete when the season rolled around.
As Nick was growing in size Tom Roehlig could wrestle with him more and course correct him when necessary. Another huge advantage of going to Tom's regularly was that Nick could wrestle with Ivan McClay on a regular basis. In 2011 Ivan placed 3rd at States (Division 1) as a Sophmore at 112 lbs.
Ivan was great with Nicky and worked with him regularly as they built a friendship. They actually knew each other for few years prior to this, as both were long time Roehlig Wrestling campers, but Nicky was too small to really wrestle with Ivan until now.
Ivan went on to become 3 time OHSAA State Placer, winning a State Championship in 2013 at 126 lbs. He then went to wrestle for NCAA D2 powerhouse program Notre Dame where he became an All-American his freshman year and won a National Championship at 125 lbs. his sophmore year. He was as nice a kid as he was/is skilled. Here's a picture of Ivan when he was in high school helping some of Tom's younger campers.
Back to Nicky's journey. We found ourselves, in Nicky's 7th grade year, wrestling out of 3 practice rooms again. The reason for this was that the Jr. High School programs have an influx of new wrestlers who did not wrestle when they were in elementary school. The competition just isn't there for a kid whose wrestled since they were in first grade and was as good as Nicky and his many youth peers were. So we wrestled out of Brecksville Club, Brunswick with Mike Heil, and St. Peter Chanel. As noted before these were always our "go to" rooms.
I corner coached Nick for most of this years tournaments before States. Except for the McDowell Open in PA. and the Virginia Duals. Heil coached Nick at McDowell and one of the Brecksville Club guys coached Nick at the Virginia Duals. I cornered Nicky through a few hundred matches since he began wrestling and know him inside and out and so I was always comfortable doing this. It didn't hurt that Nicky wants to win bad and always put forth his very best effort. We did pretty good. The only matches he lost we're before the OAC District Tournament were to two PA. 8th grade wrestlers. He lost to Terry Victor 4-0 at the Green Bulldog Round Robin his first tournament of the year and then at the Battle At The Bay he lost a close one to a real stud, Gage Curry, 2-0.
Here's the Victor match. This is why Jr. High can be a real challenge. An 8th grader has a big advantage over the average 7th grader in terms of physical maturity. He was just a little behind in horse power.
The only organization that has a Jr. High State Tournament is the OAC. The public schools systems hold Conference tournaments, but as I noted earlier the competition simply isn't at the same level as the kids who will participate in the OAC District and State events.
The toughest OAC District at the time when Nicky was in 7th and 8th grade was the Brecksville District. In order to qualify for the District Tournament, a wrestler must place 1st through 6th place. Wrestlers who place 7th and 8th are State Alternates. We felt confident that Nick would qualify...and possibly win.
Nick wrestled the tournament in the 108 lb. weight class. If memory serves me correct he had to cut 4 lbs. No big deal. It was a 23 man bracket. He opened up by pinning Nathan Zurzdo. He followed that up by pinning his next opponent, Trevor Garner from Woodridge. His Quarter Finals match he dominated, Tech Falling Jake Little from Massillon Perry 19-2.
In the Semi-Finals Match he met up with Alex Mackall. We heard that Alex was favored to win States this year but had never seen him wrestle. Alex was in 8th grade and definitely had the physical maturity advantage. He was a short, muscular fireplug of a kid and he moved great. Todd Assad, who was sitting with me in Nick's corner told me "this kid's really good" before the match began. Alex, who was wrestling out of the North Akron Club, majored Nicky 9-0. Obviously a super tough kid. Nice kid too. I had a chance to speak with him and his dad Bob after our boys wrestled. Good people. Told him hopefully we'd see them at the Finals at States. Always thinking optimistically I am. It's hard not to with a kid like Nicky.
Nicky bounced right back and wrestled to 3rd place. He won by decision 6-4 over Lake's Tyler Whitmeyer, and pinned Lake Catholic's Joe Boley. A very solid District performance.
On 3-10-2012 it was time for the Ohio OAC Jr. High State Tournament. It was a 48 man bracket. Nicky began the tournament by pinning Matt Shaney of Massillon Perry.
He then majored Brendan O'brien of Team Foxfire 11-0. He was wrestling very well. Here's that match.
In the 3rd Championship Round, one round before the Quarter Finals, Nick faced a Team Jordan wrestler. a boy named Mario Kastl. He wrestled tough but got off to a slow start and made a few mistakes, and those two things were the difference in the match. He lost by decision 8-6. Coach Heil said, correctly so in my opinion, that the mistakes that he made were rooted more in the mental aspect of the sport and that in jr. high and high school the mental aspect becomes a much more critical component of wrestling. Here's the Kastl match. Mario would make it to the Finals before losing to Alex Mackall 4-2.
I've always maintained, unless you're a wrestler in the lighter weight classes, the OAC Jr. High State Tournament is largely an 8th grade tournament. In the lightweight classes you'll see the occasional stud 6th grader place high and even win. You just don't see that in the middleweight classes. If you do you'd better follow that kid throughout high school because chances are he is going to be something very special!
Nick wrestled 8th graders throughout the tournament thus far and the next morning in the Consolation Rounds that picked up again. He faced Tyler Whitmyer from Lake and decisioned him 6-0.
Nick's next match was against Tyler Wiedaholt, a very solid and tough opponent. He dropped the match and lost by decision 4-0. And that was the end of States. We felt strongly that Nicky was going to be much more confident and competitive one short year from now when he was an eight grader. In hindsight, knowing who turned out to be who in high school, this was a very tough bracket with a lot of big names. Mackall, Wiedaholt, Hobbs, Lawson, Georgio Poullas, Ben Darmstadt, Koontz, Stower and more. Very competitive kids. Here's his match against Wiedaholt.
All in all a very productive learning year in which Nicky showed, once again, that he was heading in the right direction and was going to be a force to be reckoned with for years to come. The stars were aligning. We'll pick up Nick's journey in the next post as he moves to the top of the food chain...eighth grades has it's rewards. Until then, take care.
