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.

    

   

  

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.  :) 

The Road To Nick's Youth State Championship---Part 1

Chasing Down A Youth State Championship---Part One

Nick Develops Into A Force To Be Reckoned With

The next three years were super exciting for Nicky and our family. By now it was very apparent that he had the potential to be a great high school wrestler.  So my beautiful wife Pam and I did everything we could to position him for future success while first letting him be a little boy.

One of those things was to NOT wrestle him a lot during the off season.  I wasn't scared of "burning him out" or anything like that. I just wanted him have a lot of Summer fun and take part in other sports.  

Fishing and boating with our friends, shooting his BB gun, riding his dirt bike and 4 wheeler, playing with his little brother Kevin and Alex, the boy who lived next door, pitching a tent in our backyard, playing in the woods and building fire pits with old dad. Lots of fun stuff to do when you're a little guy.

So I...and this differed greatly from a lot of the other dads who had high caliber youth wrestlers...did not continue bringing him to a room anywhere to practice a few times per week.  Nor did I put him in countless tournaments over the off season.  I would put him in a few tournaments each Summer...with no practice and he would usually end up winning, but of course occasionally wouldn't place or placed 3rd or 4th.  It may seem like a bizarre strategy, but I wanted to see how much he was retaining and once again I did not want his life to be dominated by the sport at such a young age.  I rather he played a variety of sports and it was through the participation of other sports where I really began to grasp how athletic Nicky was.

When Nick was just a toddler I would bring him to any basketball court around where we lived to watch dad shoot around and to play. So his love for basketball began that way.  I knew basketball was a real threat to his wrestling, so I let him indulge himself in the off season when he was young and play as much as he wanted.  And believe me when I tell you...he's good. This picture was when he was 11 years old and the first time he beat me...hit all his outside shots and outran my fat ass for the rebounds!  So I memorialized the moment by taking a picture of me palming his head.  One good turn deserves the other! 

I have zero doubts that if he had of chosen basketball he would have been a spectacular point guard...and while he was in high school he probably could have started on many teams in the Greater Cleveland area.  I played him one on one as he was growing up and he has an incredible outside shot and can drive to the hoop with solid ball handling skills. Basketball was how I introduced him to Charlie Hustle...giving your all out running a man to get the loose ball rebounds, following your shot for the rebounds and things like that. He loved it...and so did I.  Great memories.  "Again daddy. Let's play again."  Over and over until Big Daddy couldn't play no more!  What a motor that kid had.  

Broke his forearm at the end of his first year of wrestling doing wall sprints.  Stuck his arm out straight to stop himself and broke it. We had to explain the concept of "pulling up" as he approached the wall so that would never occur again!  Hardly shed a tear.  Tough. Got a cast on & all his friends signed it.  So we signed him up for soccer the Summer of first grade.  Didn't want him to play football for fear of it breaking again.  He would have only been allowed to play flag anyway as he was seven.  He scored 35 goals in 7 games! I thought it was the second coming of Pele!

The summer of Second Grade he began tackle football for the Southern Hills league.  He was QB, running back and outside linebacker usually.  Played football until 8th grade.  Position player...usually the best open field tackler on the team...and one year with the North Royalton Bears averaged 150 yards per game from the QB position.  Have the DVD's to prove it.  Also played on a Pop Warner team called the Southwest Seminoles started up by a friends dad.  He faced better and tougher talent on the teams in this league, but still played great. 

 In Eighth Grade, or before 8th grade I should say, we sat down and talked about the risk of injury that football posed, especially as football season is right before wrestling season.  We decided that it was best to not risk injury and that was the end of his football career. Besides risking injury we felt that Nicky's best bet of obtaining an athletic scholarship was through the sport of wrestling. It was a decision we both were happy we made in the long run. We seen a few really remarkable youth and middle school wrestlers have bad injuries that pretty much put an end to their wrestling careers.  That being said, it's not like I didn't miss seeing Nicky out on the football field and often in his high school years I use to fantasize about what could have been.  I think it would be safe to say, based on watching the careers of the boys he played with, that he would have been a star football player as well.  Oh well.  No regrets.

Ok I have to back track a bit right here.  At the very end of the Nicky's first season Nicky wanted to keep wrestling...and so did I. So upon asking around I was told by another wrestling dad that practices were being held at the Strongsville practice room. Going there would have far reaching implications.  The guy running the practices was a gentleman name Mike Heil. 

Mike has five sons, three of whom wrestle.  All of them are excellent. One of his sons was four years older than Nick and is a phenomenal wrestler.  His name is Dean Heil.  Dean just won his second NCAA Division 1 National Championship, and is a three time All American at Oklahoma State.  As he was growing up he won everything...and I mean everything!  In high school he wrestled for the powerhouse wrestling program Lakewood St. Edward's and was a four time State Champ!  He also won the prestigious Super 32 and the Ironman tournaments. Without a doubt a very special kid who is now a very special young man.  Here's a picture of Mike with his youngest son Logan.  Logan was a Sophomore this past year and is a State Placer.

Mike's what I consider a great coach.  From my first time being in his room and watching him run a practice I could see a big difference in the quality of his instruction and the way his practices were run.  I decided to have Nicky attend his practices as much as possible. The only problem was that sometimes he didn't have a room to work out of in the early days.  Nevertheless we became acquainted with each other and began our friendship.  

The group of boys that were in Mike's rooms formed the club that later became his club team. They were known as Team Wrecking Crew (TWC).  What a kick ass name huh?  Kids like Garrett Lambert (3X State Placer), Josh Heil (Mike's other son who was the first 4X State Placer at Brunswick High School and who was Nick's main drill partner for 3 of Nicky's high school years), Matt Fields (who Nicky wrestled with and has been friends with ever since the North Royalton days...also Matt is a 2X Finalist who won his 1st OHSAA State Championship this year), Stan Bleich (State Runner Up this year and 3X State Placer), Tony DeCesare (4X State Placer), and many other tough kids.  I guess what I'm trying to say is...results speak for themselves.  Nick is still great friends with all of these guys.  Here's pics of a few of them throughout the years:

Because Mike is a great coach, I would have him coach Nick whenever possible if we were at the same tournament. Mike would also travel to different tournaments and welcomed any and all who would like to travel with his group and compete.  He would travel to the toughest tournaments where our sons could match up with the best competition and see how they stacked up.  It was awesome. His advice regarding wrestling was always sound and I consider him a mentor to this day.  More about Mike later as it turns out he was one of Nick's high school coaches.

The beginning of Nick's 4th wrestling season we chose to join the Brecksville Bee's Youth Wrestling club.  It turned out to be great move.  The high school program had emerged as a public school powerhouse under the guidance of Coach Todd Haverdill.  Todd took an interest in all the boys in the youth and middle school programs and it serves as a great feeder program for the high school.

The room was brutal.  Full of talented boys, many of whom also would go on to become youth, jr. high, and high school state placers with a couple of State Champions thrown in there as well! Sonny Lucas, Austin Hiles (who Nicky lost to in the OHSAA Finals match his Junior year), Danny Morell, Frankie Regalbutta, Luke Strnad, Kevin Naim, Nicky Kiussis, Zach D'Anna, Andrew Perelka, Jason and Jarod Bronstrup...what a great room and awesome group of hard working, fun kids.  What made it even better was that I got along great with all the parents and we just had a blast watching our youth team decimate other teams.  I remain friends with just about all of them to this day. Here's some pics of Nick's Brecksville days:

So for the next two years we would wrestle for the Brecksville youth program.  They did it right.  They had a tough tournament schedule and it wasn't a 90 day program like North Royalton.  If you put your kid in a tournament you could bet that he would have a teammate there to warm up with and spend time with throughout the day.  

North Royalton only participated in the OYWA. Brecksville went to OYWA and the Ohio Athletic Committe (OAC).  The OAC State Tournament was scheduled about a month after the OYWA State Tournament.  They both are prestigious.  The OYWA is a mini version of the High School State qualification process.  What I mean by that is the top 4 placers in each weight class in a Sectional Tournament advance the following week to a District Tournament. The top 4 placers in the District Tournament then qualify for the State Championship Tournament. The OAC only has District Tournaments, and you don't have to be a varsity member on any league team (since there is no OAC league) to attend a District Tournament and qualify for their State Tournament.  

Kids that wrestle in the OAC are usually in a little better shape, and their skill sets are a little bit sharper with that extra month or so of additional practice.  Also kids participate from all over the state of Ohio.  The OYWA participants were limited to the teams that were in the league.  While it wasn't a huge difference, you will definitely see some very high quality youth wrestlers at the OAC District and State Tournaments that you didn't have a chance to wrestle in the OYWA. Also, because there were no varsity line up requirements, any wrestler could engage in the event.  So the brackets are huge.   
For the most part, the great wrestlers from the OYWA also wrestle in the OAC.  

I always wondered why the North Royalton Wrestling Club didn't do things like their more successful neighbors at Brecksville did. Like take part in the OAC. There were only two wrestlers from the N. Royalton Wrestling Club, when Nicky began, who eventually captured a High School State Championship. Nicky...and Matt Fields. 

                     

While Matt stayed at N.Royalton all throughout his youth career, in my opinion, it was the extra that he got in addition to the N. Royalton program that made that long term difference. Matt was in Mike Heil's room (right after the end of the N.R.Y.W.C.'s season ended...just like Nicky) and accompanied TWC on wrestling trips. In other words his dad also established a relationship with Mike Heil. His dad also made sure that in the off season he was attending camps and clinics from Eric and Scott Burnett who run the Burnett Trained Wrestling Club (BTW) and have excellent camps and clinics.  They are legends.  

I am not trying to disparage the N.Royalton Youth Club.  I am very appreciative of the help and instruction they provided Nicky in the first three years of his wrestling career.  But, in my opinion, their limited participation in the off season is why their wrestlers didn't have any notable long term post season success.  From 1st to 8th grades whenever Nick attended a tough off season tournament we would rarely see a N.R. wrestler there...whereas you would always see a TWC, BTW, Brecksville, Elyria, Wadsworth, or Westshore (St. Ed's) in attendance.  Like that old saying goes....success leaves clues.  And that is why I left their club. Word to the wise.  You have to do what is best for your kid. If someone can't understand this and harbors a grudge then that's their problem. 

My next 3 or 4 posts will wrap up Nick's youth career.  It sure is fun writing this and thinking back about all the great times and the people we shared them with.  The wrestling community is like no other.

Here's a video of Nick wrestling in an OAC District Tournament against a tough youth opponent.  See if you can catch the little elbow he threw into Nick at the very end of their match.  I didn't catch it myself..Nick told me about it.  Nick took it in stride. Cool and calm is how he handled himself throughout his entire career. Super proud of him.