The Road To Nick's Youth State Championship---Part 2

Chasing Down A Youth State Championship---Part Two

The Stage Has Been Set

Enter Tom Roehlig.  After Nicky's last season with the N. Royalton program I decided to have Nick attend some Summer wrestling camps to further his technique.  I jumped on the internet and came across Tom Roehligs wrestling camp.  After exchanging some e-mails and lengthy phone conversations I decided that Tom was a solid individual...not just for what he could offer Nicky in terms of wrestling instruction...but in many other ways also.

Tom currently owns a Cross Fit gym in Massillon Ohio.  He's what I consider a man who not only talks the talk, but walks the walk. He was a high school multi-State Placer himself and a former Ohio State wrestler.  He started training youth wrestlers in the Massilon/Carrolton area and had great results with many of the boys down there.  Two of his former long time Roehlig Wrestling Club members, Tom Straughn and Ivan McClay, not only went on to become high school State Champions, but NCAA Division 2 National Champions at the Division 2 powerhouse program Notre Dame.

Tom taught Nick (and I) a lot about core strength training and so many other things I couldn't even begin to put them all down in this blog post.  Suffice it to say that Nicky and I developed a great friendship with Tom.  Nick attended his camps every Summer and was in his Fall Clubs as well.  Even in Nicky's high school years Tom proved to be a valuable resource that I could depend on for timely advice...whenever I called he made himself available and we took advantage of his Sports Performance training knowledge also. While I have a fairly deep knowledge of strength training myself, it would be fair to say that Tom more than filled in the gaps that I needed when training Nick at home.  And yes that's Olympian Harry Lester who was giving a clinic at one of Tom's camps. Nicky was so excited to meet him. 

So now the stage was set. The actors were in place.  It was just a matter of time we felt.  As long as Nicky kept working hard and kept a great attitude it was only a matter of time before he won a Youth State championship.  So that's what he did with us (Mom & Dad & coaches) all supporting him and trying to position him for  it to happen.  But still, not at the expense of having fun!  Here's a picture of one of Nicky, Kevin, & Alex after trick or treating one Halloween. What a haul huh?  I tried to tell them that a wrestling mat is not supposed to be used in such a way!

So Nicky had a terrific year in 4th grade.  He won a lot of tournaments and continued to make progress in his wrestling.  The year prior, when he was still wrestling for N. Royalton, he won his Sectionals wrestling at 67 lbs. but failed to get out of Districts losing to 6-4 to Kenston's Mason Daugherty and 4-1 to Cuyahoga Hts. wrestler Nick Orr.  This year he won Sectionals again by beating his former teammate Paul Petras 2-0.  Petras returned the favor the following week defeating Nicky 6-0 at Districts...but he qualified for the OYWA State Championships and we were very optimistic.

He wrestled tough at his first States at 73 lbs.!  Came out on fire and avenged his last years District loss to Mason Daughtry by defeating him 9-0! Hit him with two nasty twisters!  A close friend of mine, Gary Gottschalk, told me that Mason's dad said to him: "Who is that kid? He's got the best hips I ever seen!"  A year can make a big difference in wrestling. Unfortunately, due to a very controversial ref call, Nicky lost his next match to Massillon's Jake Donahue 2-0. Won his next match against Tuskeegee Valley's Leland Hostetler 11-4 but failed to place losing to Jackson Purple's Kelan McKenna.

Although he failed to place, we were very pleased by his performance and looked forward to his first OAC District tournament.  He ended up placing third there, losing to another boy that he wrestled several times, Jaret Williamson.  Jaret pinned him there and it was the first time I really saw Nicky upset about a match.  It was the only time Jaret had beat him and he didn't like it one bit.  Jaret was a solid wrestler though and a good kid...but that didn't matter to Nicky!

At OAC States he wrestled great again, but fell short.  After wining his first three matches he lost to Team Myron's Ryan Thomas who went on to become the eventual champion.  The next time Nick would see him would be in their senior year of high school.  Nicky lost his next match in overtime 2-0...to Westshore's Garrett Lambert...a future high school teammate...who was coached by our friend Mike Heil.  So that was it for his 4th grade season. 

Season Four Record: (54-13)  Pins/Techs: (28)

My next post will cover his 5th & 6th grade years as they were pivotal in that a few key figures entered into the scene and moves were made that I feel positioned Nick perfectly for success.  Hope you're enjoying reading this as much as dear old dad does writing it! Here's a few more general pictures of Nicky.

And of course a video of him in action...this is a match between him and the always tough and dangerous Cody Surratt out of Wadsworth. These two wrestled each other a lot growing up and a few times in high school. Cody is as tough as they come,,,and as tough as he...is he's even a greater kid. Well a young man now. Cody will be wrestling for the Air Force in the Big 12 next year.

Here's a picture of Cody and another of Nick's wrestling friends and training partner, 2X State Champ James Handwerk out of Lutheran West, meeting with the Congressman who endorsed them to be accepted into the Academy.  Two fine young men. They both are on the ends, Cody has his suit jacket on.

And here's that video of Nick and Cody wrestling each other in an OAC District tourney.
   

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.
    

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!
   
a

Today Was Just One Of Those Days

What To Do When You Get In A Funk

"Happiness depends upon ourselves."...Aristotle

Sometimes it's just like that. There are those days when your best just doesn't seem good enough.  When it rains it pours kind of days. They strike you out of the blue.  It's the complete randomness that makes it so potent.  A sale or two may be canceled. Your vehicle breaks down. You forgot your significant others birthday...or worse your anniversary. Yikes.

Still got to get through the day though.  

This morning I had a dream about my dear mom who departed this world a few years ago.  So real it was.  Made me miss her a great deal and that pretty much set the tone for how my morning was going to go.  And then I found out that a few sales I made last week weren't going to pan out. Great huh?

But...

That's okay. Nobody but a prozac patient is happy all the time. It's okay to own the negative feelings that we all have. I recognized them and eventually made my way through them. I tuned into a few good videos that I found on the IQ Morning Report...I don't always have the luxury to tune in to the IQ Morning Report in the morning!  It's a great pick me up any time of the day actually. That began to turn my day around. See I get that just because I start my day off crappy doesn't mean I have to end my day in a crappy manner. And that's my message for the day.  Short and sweet. Like my wife. Who always makes me happy.

Until next time...

#YouMatterTremendously

#GoldenRuleLifeStrategy

Today's video: Here's a fella who gets it. What a powerful life philosophy he adheres to. 

     

Persistence

Persistence Succeeds Where Nothing Else Can!

"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."...Calvin Coolidge

"Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success."...Napoleon Hill

Persistence succeeds where nothing else can. I'll swear by this statement. We all have seen it time and time again.  That little boy who was average at best when they began a sport...but who persisted until they were a force to be reckoned with. The little girl who was told she would never be good enough at singing who went on to become a platinum selling artist. The business person or inventor who was told their vision was "crazy" or unobtainable who summarily discounted those opinions to achieve enormous success. We're all very familiar with these types of stories.

I read a great meme the other day. It said: "Tired of starting over? Quit giving up." Man...how true is that? I know there are at least 500,000 things that I could have mastered had I stayed with them. Okay maybe 10...but you get the point.

And we all know this beyond a shadow of a doubt. All of us have at some time or another persisted in something till we got what we wanted or achieved a goal. And the payoff that comes with doing such is incredible.  The emotional payoff is what I'm talking about here. There's very little that compares to the feeling of taking on something that others say you can't or won't achieve...and then achieving it.  It's like BAM!  Perhaps we all need to remember those victories when we are encountered by the obstacles and setbacks that too often derail us. 

It's important to stay motivated.  Things go wrong.  Mistakes are going to be made.  We just can't let these things crush our souls. Every mistake IS truly a stepping stone for another opportunity. There is, undoubtedly, a lesson...a takeaway from every experience we go through in life. Some of the strongest and wisest people I've ever known or encountered went through unbelievable adversity. Some of their stories were heart wrenching. The types of things you couldn't image experiencing. But they came through demonstrating remarkable resiliency and persistence.

Persistence.  That's what it takes to achieve anything worthwhile. Here's the formula: Persistence + Persistence + Persistence + Persistence + Persistence + Persistence + Persistence + Persistence + Persistence + Persistence = SUCCESS! 

Until next time:

#YouMatterTremendously
#GoldenRuleLifeStrategy

Here's today's video: