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.      

Achieving The Ultimate Goal--- An OHSAA STATE CHAMPIONSHIP!

Summer Wrestling For The Brunswick Blue Devils!

Getting Ready For A Big Transition...

We wrestled Nick more in the Summer to prepare him for high school wrestling. 

He attended the Wrestle for Autism tournament where he went 3-2, losing to a wrestler with the last name of Watson twice.  The first match he was pinned and the second match he wrestled much better losing by decision 4-3. 

At the two Baldwin Wallace Duals tournaments...they were scheduled on consecutive weekends...he went 9-1 with 7 of his wins coming by way of fall. His single loss was to Alec Benedetti, a scrappy Senior from N. Royalton.  He lost by decision 4-3.

One of the highlights of this Summer, in terms of wrestling, for him was taking a trip down to Florida with his Brunswick teammates to participate in the AAU Scholastic Duals, commonly known as the Disney Duals. It's a great National tournament that brings talent in from all over the U.S. Terrific opportunity to wrestle kids who have different styles and who you're not going to see during the regular season. He had a blast with his teammates and it's always a great trip for team bonding. 

Coach Koshar liked what he saw of Nicky, who won 7 out of 11 matches.  He was pinned 3 times, all by outgoing Seniors, young men who were headed to college. The other loss was a 10-5 decision. He wrestled good for an incoming Freshman however and 6 of the matches he won were from pins and the other was a 15-4 major decision.  Good stuff.

Here's a couple pics of Nick. It's very obvious by his frame and face that Nick was very much in that transition stage from young teenager to the mid-teen years. Knowing that he was going to continue to physically mature throughout the season, and for the remainder of his high school career, we were able to understand that the losses he suffered during the off season were mostly due to his opponents being more physically mature. He was growing fast, still strength training, and Brunswick coaching staff was predicting that he would be the starting 132 lber. in his freshman year. 

Knowing that Nick was coming into the light middle weight classes, I had tempered expectations on how he would fare in the beginning of his Freshman year. 

While I have always had major confidence in his wrestling ability and mindset, the fact that there were so many GREAT wrestlers in those weight classes who were Juniors and Seniors and...who came into high school at the lightweight buzz-saw weight classes where technical proficiency ruled...definitely created some apprehension in this dads mind. The Brunswick Coaches however recognized his potential and some of the other intangibles that other kids just simply didn't have...and that can't be taught.  They would prove to be correct.

This was also being forecasted by FloWrestling as they had Nick ranked 27th out of the top 50 wrestlers (Nationwide) coming into high school on the Freshman Class Big Board. As a side note...there were two of these freshmen who would go on to become NCAA National Champions in their true Freshman years in college. I always considered this peer group of Nick's as exceptionally talented. That proved to be the case.

That's pretty much all there is for this post. He only wrestled one other tournament...a local one held annually at Lutheran West.  It was a Round Robin format and he pinned all 7 opponents, including a tough kid out of Parma named Tyler Workman.

Next post will resume at the start of Nick's freshman school year and his freshman wrestling season.  Thanks for taking the time to read this!  Very much appreciated and I'll try my darnedest to have that post ready for next weekend.

Take care.  

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.   

My Son Nick Kiussis Accomplished A Major Goal In His Life!

My Son Nick Kiussis Won A High School Wrestling State Championship!

A Testimony To His Perseverance...

This past March, on March 11th to be exact, my oldest son Nick accomplished a major goal in his life.  He won an Ohio Wrestling State Championship (OHSAA Division 1) in the 160 lb. weight class as a Senior wrestling for Brunswick High School!

Of course I'm biased as I am his father, but I think most people who know the circumstances of this achievement view it as being somewhat special as well.  The next few posts are going to be, for the most part, the story of that journey.  I feel the need to document some of the important points of this experience before they fade with the passage of time. 

Nicky, as we affectionately call him in our family, started wrestling when he was in first grade at the age of 7.  He came home from school one October day excitedly waving a flyer around that was passed out at school that day. "Daddy! Daddy! They have wrestling! Can I join?"  "Of course you can buddy!" I replied.  That day set everything in motion.  A twelve year journey that now, when I look back at it, were among the most incredible years of our family's life.

See, what very few people know outside of my family is that when my wife Pam was pregnant with Nicky I use to tell her...and Nicky inside her belly...that he was my wrestler and that one day he would be a state champion!  This wasn't a once or twice occurrence mind you...I spent a LOT of time rubbing Pam's belly and telling Nicky how much I looked forward to his arrival and all the things I wanted to do with him.  So he heard this a great deal.

The days both my sons were born were by far the happiest days of my life.  Nothing compares.  Since Nicky was my first born it was definitely the more emotional of the two...being a first time father present at his son's birth was just absolutely overwhelming to me.  I remember looking at him...and crying.  Just crying, unabashedly, because the love I felt was so instantly deep that I knew I would never be the same man again.  And I never was.  My reason WHY arrived.  And when my incredible son Kevin arrived 3 and a half years later my reason WHY doubled.  Being a great father to them and teaching them how to be stand up men was my purpose.

God blessed Nicky with extraordinary athleticism.  I was very athletic when I was younger myself, but because of a troubled home life and bad relationship with my father I never had the opportunity to showcase it in the school arena.  I was bound and determined to give Nicky and Kevin every opportunity within my means to showcase their talents...whatever they may be and however unique they may be to each boy.  Nicky started walking and a day later was running on uneven ground! Exceptional balance.  The lady's at the day care that he was at who witnessed this remarked to my wife how amazed they were by this.

The first few years of a young boy's wrestling career can be tough. For the most part it's all about teaching the kids the basics of the sport.  Ant that's what he began to learn in the North Royalton Youth Wrestling Club.  What a good stance is and how to stay in one.  Learning how to move. How to sprawl.  How to change levels and penetrate so you can accomplish a takedown.  How to spin around an opponent and get behind so you can score. A basic breakdown, stand up escape, and a pinning combination or two round things out.  It's really about teaching them the basics and teaching them to work hard while making sure they're having fun doing so.  

As with all sports, kids have differing levels of ability with some being able to advance faster than others.  This was the case with Nicky.  Halfway through the season the coaches felt it was appropriate to move him to the other side of the room to practice with the more experienced boys.  Kids who had at least two years of experience.  The youth club was for kids in grades 1-6 so, for the most part, the average kid had about three years of experience.  Not every kid starts in first grade like Nicky.  Some start rolling around as young as 4 yrs. old, and some start their first year when they are in 4th, 5th, or 6th grades.  Nicky began to wrestle some of the kids who were a couple years older with a few more years experience...and he gave them all they could handle.  By the time he was 9 he was wrestling varsity for the club and competing against the other boys in his weight class from other clubs within our league, the Ohio Youth Wrestling Association.  Here's a picture when he was 7 yrs. old and in his first year of wrestling with the North Royalton Youth Wrestling Club.  All 55 lbs. of him! He's in the red and black shirt with his headgear on hitting the double bicep pose!

 Life is all about relationships.  Over the course of Nicky's first three seasons I met a lot of other dads who I became friendly with. Some of them had a few sons who were wrestling and who therefore were more experienced in what it took to develop a young wrestler at a high level.  I took notice.  I listened. I learned.  I saw that I had many of the right ideas concerning Nicky's development. And because of this I decided that some changes and additional effort on my part had to take place.

The coaches at the North Royalton Youth Wrestling club were decent enough fellows...but the program was a 90 day club that did not make a commitment outside of that time period towards making the kids better.  No camps to retain the skills they learned during the season...no tournaments that they would go to as a team where the boys could continue to learn how to compete.  I didn't agree with this philosophy.  I took note that other teams, the feeder teams of the successful high school programs in our area, were doing things much differently.

Another thing that made the decision to look for a different youth club for Nicky to wrestle out of rather easy was the fact that there was a personality conflict between the head coach and I.  It was nothing major...but I could tell that he didn't like me.  And well, the feeling was mutual.  I'm a pretty straight shooter.  I'm not everybody's cup of tea...nor do I try to be.  I was pretty aggressive about rooting on my boy (I've been told my voice carries) and I also wrestled Nicky at tournaments on the weekends when our club team wasn't competing at anything other than their league matches. While the other parents kids were getting one or two matches a week, Nicky was getting in four or five.  So in a nutshell, without going into a whole lot of details, I decided after Nicky's third youth season to enroll him into one of the more successful youth wrestling programs in the area.

Here's his win loss record for his first three seasons wrestling for the North Royalton Youth Club.

Season One: (23-10) Pins/Techs (20)
Season Two: (27-2)  Pins/Techs (19)
Season Three: (31-14) Pins/Techs (22) 

This wraps up the story of Nicky's 1st three years of his youth wrestling career.  The next entry will chronicle the following three years where he begins to emerge as a major youth contender in the State of Ohio.  Until then here's a few videos that you can check out!
   
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