Nick Captures A Jr. High State Championship---Part 3

Winning An OAC Jr. High State Championship Is Making A Serious Statement

Nick Makes A Statement In Some Very Impressive Tournaments 

The OAC Jr. High State Tournament is a very reliable predictor of high school talent. If a wrestler can do well at the OAC Jr. High State Tournament..from what I observed over the last 15 years...chances are he's going to do very well in high school also. Physical maturity is starting to kick in...definitely for the middle weights and heavy weights...and many of the kids who have wrestled through the youth programs have developed their techniques and style to an impressive degree.

I heard many people say, during Nick's youth wrestling years: "this is only youth wrestling...it's just practice for high school. I completely agree. There isn't any need for a parent to be overly concerned about a young wrestler's performance during the youth developmental years. But by eigth grade Jr. High State's absolutely does mean something. And if you disagree with me then go to the OAC website and look at how the top placers...in all the weight categories...fared during their high school years. You will quickly see that there's a strong correlation between the high performers in Jr. High and the high performers in high school. Are there exceptions to this? Of course there is. But Jr. High States IS more than practice and winning it is certainly making a statement that your wrestler is usually very well prepared for high school.

So picking up from where we left off Nick is in the middle of his eight grade season. He wrestled in the Super 32 and a few other good tournaments but there were some other very competitive tournaments to wrestle in before OAC Districts came around.

Two such tournaments were in PA. The notoriously tough Young Guns tournament and North Hills tournament. At the Young Guns tournament pinned Turner Gray, his QuarterFinals opponent wrestling out of the OMP club. Here's the match:  

He then faced, and pinned, Michael McIntire, a solid Ohio wrestler who wrestled out of the Akron Wrestling Club.




In the Finals Nick won by decision over a game young wrestler out of the OMP club, Anthony Boeh, 6-4. You can see in these videos during Nick's eighth grade season that he was putting things together quite nicely and you can hear Coach Heil giving him timely coaching cues to which Nick responded very well to. Here's his Finals Match:




Young Guns was a good win and confirmed that Nick was headed in the right direction before States with just minor improvements to be made.  Here's a picture of him with his bracket, medal, and a nice hoodie that he was awarded. You can see him wearing it proudly when he posed with Kevin and I after Kevin won a tournament in Medina. Good times.

There were three good tournaments after the Young Guns tourney that Nick wrestled in. A week after Young Guns Mike Heil took his TWC boys back to PA for another very competitive tourney, the North Hills Open. Nick pinned Tyler Grine of Burnett's Trained Wrestling to start the tourney and then pinned Christian Hyrb from Beaver PA in the Quarter Finals. In the Semi Finals he teched Team Erie's Shimeir Jones 16-1 to advance to the Finals where he lost by decision to a solid 9th grader from the OMP Wrestling Club, Logan Heinl, 9-4.

On 1-12-13 he wrestled in an outstanding regional tournament. The Philo Electric Invitational was known to bring great wrestlers around from Ohio, PA., W. Va., Mi., and even Georgia. We traveled down with the Brecksville Club and I was really excited to see if Nick would meet up with a boy from PA. who was very good...Cameron Coy.

Nick opened up the tourney by pinning Monte Tremonte from Medina Root. He then decisioned a Georgia wrestler from Team Minions, Cody Cochran 6-0. 

Nick got his chance to wrestle the highly touted Cameron Coy in his next match. Coy won by major decision...almost teching Nick 16-2. To be honest I was shocked. Once again a real wake up call to the talent that was out there throughout the country. It's one thing to be one of the best in your state...but it's a whole different ball game to be the one of the best in the country. I remarked to my friend Jimmy Fields that Coy "put on a cradle clinic" at the expense of Nick. 

Coy turned out to be an elite high school wrestler as well. Throughout his high school career he was always at the very top of the national rankings, culminating in his number one national standing in the 152 weight class his Senior year. He was a 3 time State Champion, only losing his Sophmore year to Sam Krivus. Krivus was no slouch either...a two time State Champ and a three time Super 32 Champion. Here's a picture of  high school age Coy:

     

Sorry no videos but the last tournament that offered Nick a look at some quality competitors within his weight class was the West Virginia Duals held on 1/25/13. Nick wrestled with the Brecksville Club and pinned and techedfalled his first three opponents until meeting up with a very game Joseph Koontz, out of the AWC, in the SemiFinals.  Nick decisioned Joe 6-5 and it was a very good match to watch. In the Finals he met up with a Golden Cross opponent, Michael Atkinson, who Nick majored 8-0.

The next post will be covering the Brecksville District Tournament and the OAC Jr. High State tournament. It was a great year of wrestling so far with Nick performing very very well.  We had high expectations for a very solid State performance based on this. Thanks for reading this blog thus far.   

The Road To Nick's Youth State Championship---Part 5

Chasing Down A Youth State Championship---Part 5

2011 OYWA 95 lb. State Champion!

Tom Roehlig told me, when I once came to pick Nick up from a training camp, "He's going to make you a proud father for many years." While I was a proud father already, I appreciated and understood what he was saying. He clearly saw the promise and potential in Nicky.  Tom would wrestle with Nicky who, by the time he was in 6th grade, was beginning to roll around with one of Tom's life long campers, Ivan McClay. We'll talk about Ivan here shortly.

But first let's talk about Jaret Lester. We met the Lester's when Nick was done with his first season. It was one of the few Spring/Summer wrestling tournaments that Nicky attended. They warmed up together and became friends.  Jaret was a very tough minded, scrappy kid who you could tell loved to wrestle. But in terms of his wrestling skill set, in the beginning, he had a long way to go to be up to Nick's level. But he was going to be good.  I was sure of that.

When Nicky was in his 2nd season of wrestling he wrestled him twice. On 2-11-07 at the Beachwood Brawl Nicky won by major decision 11-2. And even though the score was lopsided, I could see he was improving.  At the Stow Bulldog Open on 4-14-07 they wrestled each other again with Nicky winning 11-1. I knew by Nicky's not being able to pin Jaret (Nicky has always been a pinner) that Jaret was working hard.  Here's a couple pictures of Jaret Lester when he was a youth wrestler.

Early in Nicky's 3rd season of wrestling Nicky and Jaret met up for the 3rd time at the Valley Forge Tournament. This was on 11-18-07. In small talking with his dad I mentioned to him that Nicky and Jaret were in the same bracket.  His dad's response was...I shit you not..."Sorry about your luck."  I couldn't believe it given the fact that Nicky had majored him the last few times.  I told my wife what he said to me and she laughed. She was surprised also.  Well I guess Mr. Lester should have waited to say that to me because Nicky beat him 10-4....a decision. Once again though I could see that Jaret was closing the gap and had improved a lot. Nicky's level of athleticism was just something you couldn't teach, and remained the difference maker. 

Now, remember, I didn't start taking Nick to any Summer training camps until after Nicky's third grade season. But I could clearly see that Jaret was getting better and knew that it had to be the result of off season training.  That helped me decide that Summer training...at least some to the degree I felt was necessary...was crucial to Nick's future development.  I didn't know where Jaret was going...until I signed up for Tom Roehlig's Fall Club.  As we were waiting for Tom to arrive and unlock the doors at Massillon Jackson High School Jaret's dad strolled up with Jaret in tow.  So Tom's camps and Fall club were definitely contributing to Jaret's development. 

If I recall correctly, I didn't see too much of Jaret at Tom's camps & Fall Club after Nicky and I found out about Tom and started attending regularly.  But I knew, from the wrestling grapevine, and FB that Jaret was doing well, improving and looking good, and was attending other good camp systems. Here's a picture of Jaret with Jeff Jordan at one of his camps:

After that match at the beginning of Nicky's 3rd grade wrestling season Nicky didn't wrestle Jaret until they were both in 5th grade. On 12/05/09 they finally ran into each other again at the Barberton Open and Jaret won their match by decision 3-2. Jaret was wrestling out of the Akron Wrestling Club (AWC) and had Corey Simpson and Antwon Pugh in the same room, so it was a program full of talent and they were working hard and getting better.  As a matter of fact Jaret won the OYWA 79 lb. State Championship in 2010.  He was legit.  Here's a picture of Antwon Pugh, Corey Simpson, and Jaret Lester after winning their OYWA State Championships that year. 

I write about Jaret here because by Nick's sixth grade season Jaret obviously improved enough to where I felt that if Nick wasn't wrestling well, Jaret could definitely beat him.  I mean he was a State Champion after all. Like all the young tough wrestlers I saw Nicky wrestle and become friends with, I liked Jaret and enjoyed the friendly rivalry that had developed between them.  Jaret serves as a terrific example of how much a wrestler can progress when they love the sport and work their tail off to improve.  He is also the perfect example of why Summer Camps, under a great coach, can increase a young wrestlers technique and intensity, which in turn makes the young wrestler more confident and allows them to compete harder.

In Nick's 6th grade season, during the regular season, they wrestled three times.  At the Mantua Duals and the Young Guns tournament Nicky decisioned Jaret 4-2, but at the Shaker Duals Jaret won 4-3. Here's a picture of Nicky and Jaret that was taken at the Mantua Duals. So going into the post season I knew that Jaret was definitely a great competitor who was on Nick's level. 

At the OYWA Sectionals and District tournaments Nicky steam rolled through his opponents.  On 1/30/11 he pinned all three of his opponents at the Lutheran West Sectional and on 2/06/1, at Districts, he pinned all his opponents except for Kenston's Brad Verbic, who he techfalled 15-1.  He absolutely looked great and we could see that he was peaking at the right time. Here he is with his teammates from the Cardinal Club after they won the Lutheran West Sectional. It was the first time that the Westshore program didn't win it in 17 years. Nick was a 4X Sectional Champion.  

And here are a few shots from the Kenston District tournament.  He was king of the mountain after 3 years of being District Runner Up. This experience was going to serve him well later in high school.

The OYWA State Tournament was held on 2/13/11 at Akron Firestone High School.  We were all excited.  Mike Heil had a district tournament with his son on this day so I sat with Jeff Jarrell in Nick's corner.  It was a great experience.  I felt that Nick was going to go straight through the bracket and he did just that.  His first opponent was Lane Lucas from Madison.  Nicky pinned him. Here's the video:
  



His Quarter finals match was against Victor Marcelli from Jackson. Nick won that match by decision 12-6. Victor was tough and not really on my radar at that time.  Really talented kid.  Here's their match. It was a good one:

Nick's Semi-Finals match was against a kid we wrestled before, David Crawford from Canfield.  David was a solid wrestler, but we felt that Nicky had too much horsepower at that time for him and that proved to be the case as Nicky tech-falled him 13-0.  Here's that match:




In the Finals Nick faced Aiden Pasiuk from Carrolton. Pasiuk defeated Jaret Lester so while we didn't know a lot about him, we knew he had to be very solid and stressed to Nicky to be very aggressive throughout the match.  We just wanted Nicky to keep wrestling the same way he had throughout the season.  He did just that. Aiden was tough but as Coach Jeff Jarrell said after the match...Nicky "wasn't going to be denied."  He locked up a bottom leg cradle and secured the fall!  What a great way to win a State Championship!  Here's Nick's Finals match:




You can see at the end of his match that he was interviewed by the cable station that was airing the tournament which replayed the entire tournament later on in the week. We were so very proud of Nick. He accomplished a big goal. It took the entire 6 years of his youth career to reach the top of the mountain, but to us that made the achievement all the more satisfying. We understood that because Nick was a middleweight he was smack dab in the middle of the bell curve of the most athletic boys. Boys that are the position players on the football field...like he was. Rarely does anything good in life come easily.  He paid his dues, put in the time and effort, and was rewarded by reaching the top of the podium at the State Tournament. Here's some more pictures of him at States.

We were all pretty darn happy to say the least...but we had to TCB...(Take Care of Business) at the OAC State Tournament. With much larger brackets and even more boys who we were not familiar with to wrestle, we got back to training to prepare for the tournament.  And that's where we'll leave off for now.  :)