Nick's Freshman Year In High School---Part 4

Nick Suffers A GSW! (Gun Shot Wound) And Misses The Bill Dies Tournament.

As we entered the new year of 2014, Brunswick wrestling was looking good. We were all very excited about the remaining part of the schedule and knew, or at least felt very confidently, that we were going to take a handful of wrestlers down to the state tournament in Columbus in March. 

The wrestlers who we felt most confident about based on their performance thus far were our sophomore 120 pounder Josh Heil, our senior 126 pounder Brett Thomas, our freshman132 pounder (Nicky), and our junior 138 pounder Christian Camacho. We also felt that some of the upper middleweights had strong potential.

With that being the case we were looking forward to the up coming Bill Dies Tournament to continue to improve and showcase our talented lineup.

Life has plenty of unforeseen things planned for us however and one such incident side railed us, which gave us quite a scare and put things in perspective in terms of what was most important in life...our own well being.

In the Winter of 2013/2014, which I mentioned was one of the most brutally cold winters on record there were a lot of "Cold Days" in the Brunswick School District. What that means is the schools were closed because the temperatures were too extreme for the kids to wait for their buses and things like that.  Safety first. All about it.

However when the cold is that extreme the kids are pent up inside at home. As parents we try to do everything possible to keep them busy and entertained. In our house we had Alex sleep over for a few days. Alex you may remember from previous posts was our neighbor who Nicky and Kevin grew up with and I affectionately call him my "third son" as we were around each other so much as they were growing up.

Just as a side note...this is what Kevin looked like in 2014. He was still pretty wishy washy about wrestling but we kept him involved the best we could without forcing it on him...and he showed the same type of athleticism that Nick possessed.

Kevin with 1st place medal at an open tournament in Bay Village.

Well at some point during one of these brutally cold spells when Alex was visiting, Kevin and Alex decided it would be a great idea to go outside and shoot one of Nick's pellet guns. I really don't understand to this day why they thought this would be a good idea, especially in light of the fact that it was so cold out and there wasn't a snowballs chance in Hell that my wife or I would let them out in that kind of weather! All we can attribute it to is boys will be boys and they were a little stir crazy from being inside too long.

I have to state for the record that my boys have been shooting BB and pellet guns since they were young.  Around 7 years old. And they were supervised until Nick and Alex were teenagers. They understood not to point a loaded gun...of any type...at a person or animal. They did not hunt with them.  Just shot objects. Target practice. And I always had the guns put away in my room. Unloaded. 

I'm not trying to start a whole gun control debate here or anything of the nature. In hindsight I bear full responsibility for not having them locked up whereby they couldn't have access to them. 

Anyhow Nicky wasn't there as Kevin and Alex were planning to go outside. He was at a wrestling practice. The boys and coaches still had access to the wrestling room and the roads were clear and safe to drive upon, so why miss a practice?

Well when Nicky returned home it happened. Alex had, at some point earlier, put a pellet in the gun and Kevin was unaware of it. Nicky said something to Kevin and Kevin, not knowing there was a pellet in the gun, playfully lifted the gun, pointed it at him and pulled the trigger.  

Pam and I were upstairs.  There was no commotion or anything that we heard. Nick calmly walked upstairs and said that Kevin shot him in the neck. We went to him and there was blood trickling down from the entry wound which was located below his right ear.

The facts that the blood was not "spurting" out, that he was conscious, could move his head all around and was not in a tremendous amount of pain told me that, THANK GOD, it wasn't a life threatening injury. 

Pam was naturally upset and started to get excited and emotional seeing what happened but I calmed her down.  I didn't want Nick to be scared any more than he was either. He was remarkably calm. Love that kid. Always cool under pressure.

To be honest I thought it was a simple matter of just going to the emergency room and having it extracted. So we decided that Pam would run Nicky to the hospital, which is probably less than a mile from our house, and I would stay with Kevin and Alex. So that's what we did.

Kevin came upstairs and started crying, telling me he didn't mean to do it and that he didn't want Nicky to die. I reassured him that Nicky wasn't going to die and that we knew it was an accident and that he didn't have to blame himself.

I got all the facts out of him and Alex regarding the entire situation and we had a long talk about everything. As I said, I bear full responsibility for not having the pellet gun secured better. We all learned what is, I am sure, a life long lesson in the storing of BB & pellet guns.

As it turned out, the staff at the local hospital felt it was best to transport Nick to Rainbow Babies And Children's Hospital. They had X rays and MRI's done to locate the precise location of the pellet. What I thought was going to be a simple extraction process wasn't the case at all.

Because there was tissue trauma, the pellet looked as if it was lodged dangerously close to the spinal column in the upper cervical area. However several doctors felt that they really needed to let the tissue swelling subside to get an exact location and determine how to move forward. With that being the case, and because Nicky showed no signs of being in immediate danger, they sent Nick home with an appointment to follow up...but with instructions not to wrestle or do anything of a physical nature.

So that is why Nicky didn't wrestle in the Bill Dies Tournament his Freshman year. The team started to refer to the whole incident as the GSW, short for Gun Shot Wound, and busting Nicky's chops about not beating up on his brother any more etc... 

After a couple more weeks, on January 21st, we had a follow up visit (and X-Rays and MRI's) with Nicky's neurosurgeon. Here's Nicky in the waiting room that day:

After reviewing everything the Dr. ascertained that there was no need to surgically remove the pellet as it was lodged in muscle and wouldn't be moving around anywhere. Unless we wanted to. When the swelling from the tissue trauma subsided it revealed exactly where that was. We decided to not undergo surgery. And it has never bothered him since. And he's wrestled hundreds of matches and countless hours of wrestling practices since. 

It was close enough to the spine however to make us all realize how fortunate we were. It could have been so much worse. And the fact that the pellet didn't hit a major artery was another true blessing. All I know is that we love our sons with every fiber of our bodies and we are so very grateful that it turned out the way it did. This was one of those freak random occurrences that make you reevaluate all that is precious and significant in your life...and without a doubt Nick and Kevin are exactly that and so much more.

Thanks for taking time to read this latest installment on Nick's journey spanning his youth to high school wrestling career. Next installment will cover his first post season tournaments. Until next time, take care.

Nick's Freshman Year In High School --- Part 3

The Medina Invitational Tournament..."The Greatest Show In Wrestling" 

Yes this blog is all about Nick's youth through high school career, but I thought some might want to see how he looks now as he begins his sophomore year at West Virginia University. Happy to oblige! These are his most recent team photos of my son:

Wrestling Stance Picture

Gun Show!

WVU Roster Portrait Shot

Mom planting a kiss on her West Virginia wrestler after a visit.

Yes that's my boy all grown up. He sure has changed a lot as he grew up.  

Okay so we left off after the North Coast Classic Tournament. Before we move on to the next big tournament that he wrestled in, I'd like to talk about some other things that Nick had going on.

As a freshman Nick was extremely fortunate to have, as his main drilling partner, Josh Heil. He would have Josh as his main drilling partner until his Senior year. This was a very good thing. Josh Heil placed 3rd at States the previous year, his freshman year at Brunswick, and was dead set on establishing his own legacy. I say this because not everyone has a big brother who was a 4X high school State Champ!  Josh did however...his brother the incredible Dean Heil. That's a hard act for a younger brother to follow.

Josh Heil in his Sophomore year with his dad and coach Mike Heil.

Josh is now wrestling for Cary Kolat...a wrestling legend who now is the head coach at Campbell University. Josh is currently ranked 16th in the nation at 149 lbs. by Flo Wrestling after having an amazing red shirt year as a sophomore last season. Here's a couple of relatively recent pictures of Josh:

Josh was a very dedicated and hard working kid during high school and it's important for me to acknowledge him in Nick's story. After Josh's freshman year he approached Nick and asked if I would strength train him and I had the privilege to do so for the next three seasons.  I can honestly say that he was one of, if not THE, hardest working kids I've seen pass through Brunswick Wrestling in the time that my boys have been there...7 years in total now...the better part of a decade.  I'm sure Coach Koshar, who's been at the helm for over 20 years, would also attest to that.

The winter of 2013-2014 was absolutely brutal. One of the coldest in history.  With it came a very tough cold and flu season. Nicky got nailed hard with it a couple weeks before the Medina Invitational Tournament...commonly known as the MIT.  He did not wrestle in two dual meets (Cuyahoga Falls and Medina) before the MIT because of this.  Nate Taylor wrestled both times and secured the wins for Brunswick.  

Nate was just one of a lot of very good wrestlers who did not start varsity because of the exceptional lineup that Brunswick had for a while. He would have definitely been a varsity starter in any other time period of Brunswick wrestling. Having depth is an important thing for any team that desires to be competitive...in any sport.

Another thing I need to document is that Nick cut weight big time his Freshman and Sophomore years in high school. Twenty pound cuts for both seasons. I admittedly should have been more involved with the weight cutting process in his freshman year.  He made weight every week though, so I didn't interfere.  

This would not continue into his next season (sophomore year) as his weight management became problematic and I got involved to create and implement a strategy that was sustainable for him. His body wanted to grow...was growing in fact...as all teenage boys do...and with him not having a lot of body fat to give up we learned a lot and we revised many things in our overall weight management philosophy and strategy moving forward. I'll talk about that more during his sophomore year recounting.

So that...being sick and a first season of really having to do  big weight cutting and what it entails...was what we were dealing with as Nick was going into the weekend of the MIT.  This FB post I made reflects the anxiety he was feeling about it.

On 12/27/13 the MIT tournament began.  The Medina Invitational Tournament is billed as "The Greatest Show in Wrestling" and 44 teams, including most notably St. Edward, showed up.

Nick, definitely not running on all 8 cylinders yet, opened up the tournament with a 7-2 decision over Bedford Bearcat senior John Williams Jr.. He followed that up with a solid 7-0 victory over the number one seed of the tournament, Senior Nick Durieux of Westerville North. He dominated his Quarter Finals match and won another decision, 11-5, over Pinkerton North Senior Jared Ferguson.

The next day was when intestinal fortitude had to kick in for Nick. He lost his Semi Finals match to yet another senior in a scramblefest of a match. It was a fantastic match to watch and head coach Mike Koshar described the boy as "Nicky in three more years." He lost 11-6. The wrestler was from Willard, a young man named Major Moore who went on to wrestle at Toledo University. He told Nick later in the day that his match against Nick was his toughest of the tournament. Good to know! Moore went on to win the tournament 8-5 over Jackson's Justyn Bostic.

Nick bounced back nice, which would be characteristic of his high school career, by defeating Hudson's Chris Motter by decision 8-6, to be able to wrestle for 3rd place in the evening.

To end the tournament Nick faced St. Edward wrestler Hunter Ladnier. Hunter, a sophomore, was a very tough wrestler who had teched his way through the tournament before losing a close one to Bostic by decision 7-5.

Hunter bested Nick 7-4 to earn 3rd place. After the match Nick said..."Dad if I wasn't sick I'd beat him.  I know I could." I told him he'd probably get a chance to wrestle him again in the post season. No big deal.

Hunter went on to have a great high school career.  He was a 2016 Ohio State Champion, and finished 2nd at the State Championship in 2015. By the end of his Senior year he was ranked as high as 3rd in the nation.  He also won the prestigious Ironman tournament. He currently wrestles for Harvard University.  Here's a pic of Hunter after he won his 138 lb. State Championship in 2016.

So that concludes this installment of Nick's journey.  As always thanks for taking the time to read this! It's just going to get better so keep coming back. Nick had a crazy injury that could have ended his wrestling career...and his life.  He got very lucky.  It will be detailed in the next blog entry.

    

   

  

Nick's Freshman Year In High School---Part 2

AND SO IT BEGINS... 

Nick's first high school wrestling match was a dual meet between Brunswick and North Royalton on 12/6/2013. He wrestled a Junior named Jon Bonnaci. Jon was a former youth teammate of Nick's, from the very first wrestling club that Nick participated in while he was in first grade. 

Any anxieties I had about the match disappeared pretty quickly. Nick dominated the match and won by major decision 11-0. Bonnaci was warned for stalling and you could clearly see he was wrestling to take away the tech fall or pin that would have surely resulted had he engaged Nick more in the match. 

It was a good first high school match however and Nick and his coaches were satisfied.  His coaches were of course (just in case you're reading this blog for the first time) long time Brunswick Wrestling head coach Mike Koshar, and head assistant coaches, Mike Heil & Jim Hewitt, and Boomer Fechko. These are great coaches to have in your corner with a wealth of coaching experience with different personalities and coaching styles that all complimented each other.  

Nick scoring his first official high school takedown!

About to power half. 

Breaking down opponent from top.

Extending opponent after being shot on.

Riding.

Digging in an arm bar.

Coach Heil trying to get more bonus points out of Nick.

Nick happy that his first high school match was in the books.

The next day, on 12/07/2013 Nick wrestled at his first official high school tournament, the Copley Duals.  He wrestled Hudson's Nate Szoch, Copley's Brandon Grimes, and wrestlers from Carrolton, Norwalk and Maple Hts., whose names I didn't record. He pinned all of his opponents and placed first! Great start so far to his high school wrestling career.

Nick receiving feedback from Coach Koshar after his first match.

Coach Jim Hewitt preparing Nick's mindset before a match.

Nick securing a cradle against an opponent.

Leg turking an opponent. 

Pinning his opponent with a head lock.

About to lock up a near side cradle on opponent.

Pinning opponent with a double arm bar.

The following weekend Nick wrestled in the North Coast Classic.  A very solid tournament with 24 teams with a few teams that travel from Pennsylvania to participate in it. This was a definite upgrade in competition and Pam and I were very excited to watch.

The North Coast Classic is a 2 day pool type tournament where teams were grouped into pools and after the teams all wrestled each other they are put into brackets with other wrestlers who had the same record (wins/losses) thus pitting wrestlers of similar abilities against each other more times than not.

Nick before his first match at the North Coast Classic. Coach Heil said Nick looked a little apprehensive at the beginning and I would have to agree with him based on this picture. He definitely relaxed as he began to wrestle. 

The first day was on 12/14/13 and Nick opened up his tournament with a 15-0 techfall against Padua's Steve Shivak. His very next match was the one Brunswick wanted to see. It was a match against a very solid wrestler named Jarrad Lasko. Jarod was a Junior who was a 2013 Division 1 State Placer at 126 lbs. who was ranked 2nd in the state at 132 lbs. 

Jarrad, who currently wrestles Division 3 for John Carrol University, finished his high school career as a state alternate in 2015 and 2015. He also was a 4 time Sectional Champion and a 3 time District placer.  All around very solid kid.  

It was a good competitive match, but Lasko's high school experience paid off for him on his feet and on top. Nick was able to score a reversal and had a couple cradles locked up, but was unable to turn him. In the third Lasko caught Nick in a scramble and pinned him.  

All in all Nick had a very good first day.  He went 4-1with two pins, a tech fall and a 14-2 major decision. The following day was a continuation of the pool format to completion. 

The 132 lb. weight class was one of only two weight classes that were completely filled and it was very competitive. Alec Benedetti, the North Royalton wrestler who defeated Nick back in the Summer at the Baldwin Wallace Duals was there, a Solon Senior named Chris Wymer, who was at the top of his game, and two tough PA kids...a Junior and a Senior. They ALL traded losses to each other.  It was crazy.  Round robin wrestling at its best!

The next day Nick came in loose, without the jitters, and wrestled tough again. Beat the Senior from PA., Ken Tarpley by decision 8-2 but dropped the next match to the Junior from PA. 13-10. Nick got off to a slow start but finished strongly with three take downs in a row, but couldn't overcome the point deficit that the wrestler, Greensburg's Austin Shaw, established. I clearly remember Coach Heil and Coach Fechko emphasizing to Nick that in high school he needed to come out with more urgency.

Nick with teammates Brett Thomas and Austin Fallon.

Nick playing around on the mats before tournament began.

With his biggest fan...his Mom!

Relaxing sometime between the matches.

His 3rd match of the day was a rematch with Jarrod Lasko from Madison again. This time Nick looked more poised and aggressive from the start and in all positions. He beat Lasko by decision 7-2 and this time 3 of these points were from earning a near fall off a scramble. It was great to watch.  He was serving notice! 

With the win Nick earned the right to wrestle for 3rd place later in the evening.  It was against Ringgold's (PA.) Ken Tarpley again. It was a good match and Nick wrestled solid the entire match and earned his 2nd trip to the podium in as many tournaments. He won by decision again...8-2.

In deep on a shot in 3rd place match.

Trying to finish a single leg on his feet.

Opponent quad podding up while Nick attempts far side cradle.

Winning his 3rd place match.

Third Place finish at the North Coast Classic.

This was a great learning tournament for Nick who finished 7-2. Also a really impressive showing for Brunswick Wrestling as a whole. Brunswick crushed the tournament field by 125 points and was also serving notice that they were deep in talent and would be a force in Division 1 wrestling for the foreseeable future.  With a young talented squad and able committed coaches, fans of Brunswick wrestling had a great deal to be excited about. 

Coaches Mike Heil and Boomer Fechko

Coach Boomer Fechko giving Nick feedback after a match.

Brunswick 2013 Team Picture.

Team picture hoisting the first place trophy. 

That's it for this installment.  Next week we'll be covering more of this special and unique period of time that everybody involved with Brunswick Wrestling got to experience. By the way...here's a picture of how Nick looked at the end of this tournament.

Sporting a nice shiner...but also a smile.  Ya gotta love a grappler. Take care and thanks for reading my blog and following Nick's high school journey.

Nicks Freshman Year In High School--- Part 1

Saying Goodbye To Grandma And A Best Friend 

Nick Chooses Brunswick High Over St. Edward High School

There are so very many things that happen when our kids are transitioning from being a relatively care free kid to being a young teenager in high school. It's a period of time that goes by in the blink of an eye and if we're not present...I mean really tuned in...we can easily miss them. Some things that occur however, are really big, and affect us in many ways. Such was the case in Nick's freshman year of high school.

Outside of wrestling, Nicky's summer was spent as it usually was...spending lots of time with his friends, who were becoming increasingly important to him, fishing, swimming and camping, and playing outside basketball.

Caught a three pounder here!

Nicky and his friend Tomas Castaneda rowing in from fishing.

Getting his old man to take a selfie with him on his new phone.

Spending a few moments grilling with dad.

Hanging with Brunswick friends in Summer. 

Okay back to wrestling! I have been asked many many times why Nick did not wrestle for St. Edward High School. St. Edward is a private, all-male Catholic, college-preparatory high school located in Lakewood Ohio. They are, and have been for quite some time, the most dominant OHSAA wrestling program in Division 1. When I say dominant I mean Dominant...with a capital D! They've won 32 Team State Wrestling championships since 1978. 

We were approached, advised, and steered towards talking to Coach Urbas so much concerning Nick that we felt it should at least be explored. And so we did.

Coach Urbas was the long standing Head Coach for St. Edward at the time Nick was going into high school. It is absolutely impossible to meet this man and not like him and I have yet to meet a person who said otherwise. 

We met him with Coach Urbas several times. Nick applied, took the apptitude/entrance test, and was accepted.  Coach Urbas and St. Ed's was very appealing for many reasons other than the wrestling program, the main one being the extraordinary graduation to college rate that they achieve. I can still hear Coach Urbas: "He sure would look good in the green and gold!"

We ultimately left the decision to Nicky.  He chose to remain in Brunswick and be the guy who would take on the Ed's wrestlers in their own backyard...and beat them. One thing about Nick is he is loyal. He said he could not see himself at Ed's and the rest is history. Having explored the option, Nick decided he would make the best of his high school days in his own neighborhood and community without regrets. And that is basically the long and the short of it. From that point on Nick was a Brunswick Blue Devil wrestler. I just wanted to add that part of the story...it's the little things that make it interesting.

With the beginning of the school year came a lot of excitement. Nick, being our oldest, was bringing us on an incredible journey and we had no idea the twists and turns, and the peaks and valley's we were going to encounter.

First day of school as a freshman.

Freshman year school picture.

Pam and I are incredibly united and single minded when it comes to doing everything possible to help our kids grow...in all areas of their lives...and succeed. We feel that no matter what comes their way...whether it's good or bad...and life is a combination of both...we are going to provide unconditional support and encouragement to the best of our abilities and resources.

And so it was when my beloved Irish mother passed away. This was the first death in the family my sons were experiencing being older than toddlers. They were very close to their grandma as she was a stroke victim who spent several years living with us before her physical condition worsened to the point where we had to enter her into a nursing home. Her departing our lives was very difficult and we miss her greatly to this day. Here's a few pics of us visiting her on Mothers Day, which unfortunately was not too long before she got very sick and passed away later in September.

  
And then...as if the loss of their grandma wasn't enough for my sons to deal with...our beloved dog Mack passed just two short weeks later. So my boys were really getting a crash course in loss. It was not easy and was definitely a challenge to be dealt with emotionally for our entire family. 

Of course there is nothing we can do when dealing with the loss of a family member, but with the passing of a pet I've always believed that it is made easier by acquiring a new one. The pain subsides a little easier because you have new life to focus on.  

So I went to the animal shelter and picked out Buddy, a Lab/Pit mix to bring home.  That was close to 5 yrs. ago now and it was a good move.  He's a little crazy...but he fits right in! Here's a couple pictures of both Mack and Buddy:

My best dog ever...Mack!

Kevin with Buddy within moments of his first arriving.

Buddy's "Welcome Home" Bone

So that's a little about what was happening in Nick's (and all of our) lives as he began his high school wrestling career. A tough choice between a premier wrestling powerhouse school and his local high school where he already had friends and relationships established, and the adversity that comes with the loss of a beloved family member and pet. 

Stay tuned into this blog to see...if you don't already know...how it all plays out for Nick and our family.  As always thank you for taking the time to read my blog!

Until next time.