An OAC Jr. High State Championship Is Won By Nick Kiussis
An Epic Battle Takes Place At 120 lbs.
When Nick was in Eighth Grade the toughest OAC District to place in was undoubtedly the Brecksville District. So when it was time for the district tournament, and especially since we lived within a half hour of Brecksville High School where it was located, that is where we decided to compete. Some of the wrestling dads that I know use to wrestle their sons at the other districts where they felt their sons had a better chance of winning or placing higher to secure a higher seeding in the state tournament. I did not feel the need to strategize in that way.
My feelings were correct as Nick went 5-0 to become the District Champion in a 32 man bracket. He pinned opponents Nathan Beaver, Luis Roman, & Brad Holmgren all rather quickly. He then went on to techfall Wadsworths Connor Clark 15-0 in the Semi-Finals to advance to face Joseph Koontz from Akron Wrestling Club in the Finals.
Heading into the match against Koontz we felt pretty confident that if Nicky was focused and kept his mistakes to a minimum he wouldn't be in any real danger as we faced Koontz a few times before and thus were pretty familiar with him. That proved to be the case as Nick won by decision 5-1. Koontz was game, a tough kid, but Nick looked sharp and controlled the match in all positions from start to finish.
Here's a picture of Nick posing with his buddy and future Walsh Jesuit State Champion and 3X State Placer Matt Fields, who also placed at the very competitive Brecksville Tournament.
Here's Nick with 108 lb. District Champion Antwon Pugh.
And a shot of Nick up on the podium and at home. Notice the banner concerning Saving Olympic Wrestling. Very proud of how the wrestling community throughout the country protested the decision of the Olympic Committee to drop the oldest Olympic sport from the games. I'll never understand how they could even be considering that!
On March 9th 2013 the OAC Jr. High State Tournament began at the Covelli Center in Youngstown Ohio. Nick felt great going into the tournament and so did I and his corner coach Mike Heil. Nick was officially wrestling under the Brecksville Wrestling Club but since we were going to Brunswick High and considering the facts that 1) Mike Heil was assistant head coach at Brunswick, and more importantly 2) Mike knew Nick's wrestling better than anyone! At the most important tournament to this point of his life, we definitely felt it was in Nick's best interest to have Mike there.
Nick wrestled GREAT! Came out strong and, like the District tournament, pinned his first 3 opponents: Justin Mason, Tyler Speelman, and Alex Neuberger. Mike Heil was running late and the Quarter Finals match was early in the morning. Nick got a little sloppy against Neuberger and went down in points 4-0 but, both of us (I was corner coaching him in Mike's absence) remained calm and knew he could turn things around quickly. Which he did.
This led to a Semi-Finals match the next day against his Brecksville Club teammate Trey Crockett. To be honest we felt that Chandler Golic, who Nick lost to in the beginning of the season at the Claymont Invitational, would be there, but Trey pulled off the upset. Although Trey and Nick were club teammates and friends, Nick focused and took care of business defeating Trey by major decision 12-4.
Of course Cory Shie, the future stud for LaSalle High, came out of the other side of the bracket. They hadn't met up since Corey handed Nicky a lost at the Super 32. If you don't remember from a previous post, Corey defeated Nick by a score of 3-2 in double overtime. That first match was great and we absolutely knew that to win this Jr. High State Championship it was going to be an all out war! Shie was well traveled and as battle tested as they come with a great support system behind him as well as a terrific club team to which he belonged.
As a side note this would be the last time Corey and Nick would wrestle each other as they went into different weight classes. Corey had a stellar high school career, being a perennial State Placer, Fargo All American in both Greco and Freestyle, and Champion of many tough tournaments. If I recall correctly he is the only wrestler to win the tough Top Gun tournament 4 years in a row. Corey's a great young man who is attending and wrestling for West Point now.
They had a great, very exciting match! They put on a real show and the match was broadcast live on the internet by FloWrestling. Just goes to show Ohio wrestling is no joke! Even in Jr. High! They had a back and forth barnyard brawl with tons of scrambling that prompted the commentator to say that they "look like two T-shirts in a dryer!"
The match, like their first one, went into overtime. Shie locked up a cradle but Nicky avoided being turned and there wasn't enough control for it to be considered a take down. It would be something that came to be a hallmark move for Nick throughout his high school wrestling career. As they were wrestling for the take down Nick was able to gain enough position to throw a leg in and the refs awarded Nick the two points for the take down and with that he won a Jr. High State Championship! That match will always be a very memorable one for me as I knew that with a victory over such a great wrestler as Shie, Nick was bound to take a renewed sense of confidence with him into high school.
Here's the video of the match:
I cannot express how proud we were of Nick. He put in a lot of work and determination to get to this point and he deserved to be on the top of that podium. Here's a few pictures immediately following the tournament:
Podium shots: One is with Mike Heil awarding the State Placers with their medals around their necks and one is of his son Dean walking the medals to his dad. Dean Heil was fresh off his Senior year of wrestling for St. Ed's and securing his 4th high school State Championship. He then went on to have an illustrious career at Oklahoma State wrestling for the great John Smith and winning two National Championships and becoming a 3X All American!
Here's a couple with Coach, dad and Mom (his biggest fan) Dean, his friends Stan Bleich and Antwon Pugh, who won the 108 lb. State Championship a few matches before.
All in all Jr. High was quite the experience for our family. Nick was heading in the right direction and Pam, Kevin and I were all excited to support him as he went into high school. We would soon be wrestling for Head Coach Mike Koshar and the Brunswick Blue Devils. Many adventures lied ahead! Thanks for taking the time to read this. Sorry it took so long to get back to this. Many times as we know life gets away from us a bit. I'll definitely try to put out a few installments..hopefully conclude his high school career much sooner! Take care.
