The Talent In Ohio Wrestling Runs Deep
The Preseason Arrives...Along With A Few New Adversaries
The talent in Ohio wrestling runs deep. Very deep. Every year kids change weight classes due to the fact that they're growing up, and with the changes in weight classes come new opponents to face and compete against. We would encounter another great Ohio wrestler on a preseason trip down to the Super 32.
Nick (we'll be calling him Nick from this point on) was looking very strong down on his trips to Tom Roehlig's. He was training regulary with a solid high school kid named Hunter Pizzone (who now wrestles for Heidelberg University) and looked very good. Definitely could easily mistake him for a high school wrestler. I remember quite vividly one time seeing a look of surprise come over Ivan McClay's face when they were wrestling and when I spoke with Ivan he said that Nick "got a lot better...was a lot tougher...and wasn't falling for the things he used to." This was just a few weeks before our trip to the Super 32.
The Super 32 is the premier national folkstyle wrestling event for high school. It's an absolute meat grinder for the high school division and a great way to see the up and coming talent in the junior high division. It takes place in the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center in Greensboro North Carolina, and wrestlers come from all over the country.
Nick opened up the tournament on fire with a pin and then a 16-0 tech fall over North Allegheny wrestler Jake Woodley. Jake would go on to become a 2X PA State Champ in high school. In the Quarter Finals he met up with another talented and accomplished Ohio wrestler, Corey Shie from the Cincinnati area who was wrestling out of the Golden Cross Wrestling Club.
You can put Corey right up there with all the other great Ohio youth wrestlers that I discussed while covering Nick's youth career. From 2007-2011 he was a perennial state placer...a three time State Finalist...and a two time State Champion. They had a great match, but Nick came up short losing a decision in double overtime 3-2. Here's that match.
You can put Corey right up there with all the other great Ohio youth wrestlers that I discussed while covering Nick's youth career. From 2007-2011 he was a perennial state placer...a three time State Finalist...and a two time State Champion. They had a great match, but Nick came up short losing a decision in double overtime 3-2. Here's that match.
In the first round of the consi's Nick lost 1-0 to Louie Deprez from Hilton New York. Deprez would go on to become a 3 time New York State Champ. To give you more of an idea of just how competitive and tough a tournament the Super 32 is, by the time these guys were seniors Woodley was ranked 3rd in his weight class (195), Deprez was ranked 1st (182), Shie was ranked 15th (138), and Nick was ranked number 10 (160)...nationally...by InterMat. Here's Nick's match against Deprez. Definitely a winnable match against a tough kid.
The regular season was a blast for Nick. For the most part he was with the Brecksville Club, but practiced out of Brunswick's room. The main reason for this was that in the very beginning of the season, when they were wrestling live together at Brecksville, Luke Strnad broke his finger. It was a bad break that eventually required a surgery because it didn't run across the bone, but rather ran vertical along the bone.
We didn't know it at the time but it would cost him the entire season. It's too bad because Luke would have more than likely been in the Finals against Kaleb Romero. Kaleb was an extraordinary youth and junior high wrestler who had never lost a State Finals match in youth or even 7th grade. He would end up being a 4 time high school State Champion for Mechanicsburg and signed with the Ohio State Buckeyes. A Luke and Kaleb's match would have been fun to watch.
My friend Todd Assad boys, Aaron and Austin, would sometimes be in the Brecksville room and would wrestle with Nicky, but not nearly enough to warrant going there all the time, and to be honest there wasn't anybody Nick'y age who was really on the same level as him. Heck once Nick was wrestling with one of the Brecksville Club coaches, Ryan Marks, and hit a nasty Twister on him...putting him to his back! Believe me...Ryan Marks was trying too. Did it right in front of where I was sitting. Looked up at me and winked. I liked that.
Brecksville Club had an aggressive tournament schedule and I knew that I could fill in the gaps for tournaments when they didn't have anything to attend. So that's what we did. And of course Nick would travel with the TWC boys to the good tournaments that Mike Heil would be coaching at. Coach Heil always liked those tough PA tournament.
Nick opened up the season with Brecksville Club at the Claymont Invitational. Claymont is a Division 2 high school and they always do a great job of developing their boys. They have a kick ass atmosphere to wrestle in also. Nick pinned his first opponent in the way that most opponents fared against him at this point...unless they were really good.
Nick then wrestled Claymont's Chandler Golic. Nick lost 8-7 in what I can only express as a total homer ref called match. Sorry I can't show the video. It was all over the damn place and I was yelling too damn much! We looked forward to possibly meeting up with Chandler at some point in a more neutral environment lol! But now Chandler was on our radar as well. We knew Chandler from before...he was one weight class heavier than Nick before and placed 2nd in the 100 lb. weight class at OYWA states.
The rest of the tournament went as expected. Nick placed third. Pinned everyone there except Chandler. Here's another short match:
Nick then went on a nice little run through some very good tournaments. He traveled up to the Border Wars Duals in Battle Creek Michigan and pinned all his opponents. One from Indiana, one from Michigan, one from Illinois, and two from Ohio. Because of this outstanding performance he won the Outstanding Wrestler award and a nice plaque to add to his already impressive bling collection.
He then attended the Cleveland State Duals and pinned his way through. Here's his Semi-Finals match against a Burnett Trained wrestler:
And here he is in the Finals match against a Massillon Perry Club opponent:
Next was to Nick's soon to be high school! Had to show off in front of his soon to be high school coach Mike Koshar. He just made short work outta kids here in the first couple rounds with his Twister. He loved that in Jr. High school. The last State Champ from Brunswick was also in the crowd watching Nick...Richie Spicel:
And here's his Finals match...Blue Devils baby! Go Big Blue! You can hear Coach Koshar coaching him in the match. Just the beginning between these two.
I'm going to have to wrap this post up right here. Nick wrestled a lot his 8th grade year so I'm going to have to break it up a bit. I'll cover the other regular season tournaments in my next installment. Eighth grade was a lot of fun. Top of the food chain again and it was always exciting going to a tournament and wondering if a top notch wrestler would be there so we could watch Nicky wrestle in a really tough, competitive match. There are a few tournaments coming where Nick would definitely run into some hammers. I'll be happy to share those with you in the next post. Until then...take care.
