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.
