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 4

An OAC Jr. High State Championship Is Won By Nick Kiussis

An Epic Battle Takes Place At 120 lbs.

When Nick was in Eighth Grade the toughest OAC District to place in was undoubtedly the Brecksville District. So when it was time for the district tournament, and especially since we lived within a half hour of Brecksville High School where it was located, that is where we decided to compete. Some of the wrestling dads that I know use to wrestle their sons at the other districts where they felt their sons had a better chance of winning or placing higher to secure a higher seeding in the state tournament. I did not feel the need to strategize in that way.

My feelings were correct as Nick went 5-0 to become the District Champion in a 32 man bracket. He pinned opponents Nathan Beaver, Luis Roman, & Brad Holmgren all rather quickly. He then went on to techfall Wadsworths Connor Clark 15-0 in the Semi-Finals to advance to face Joseph Koontz from Akron Wrestling Club in the Finals.

Heading into the match against Koontz we felt pretty confident that if Nicky was focused and kept his mistakes to a minimum he wouldn't be in any real danger as we faced Koontz a few times before and thus were pretty familiar with him.  That proved to be the case as Nick won by decision 5-1.  Koontz was game, a tough kid, but Nick looked sharp and controlled the match in all positions from start to finish.

Here's a picture of Nick posing with his buddy and future Walsh Jesuit State Champion and 3X State Placer Matt Fields, who also placed at the very competitive Brecksville Tournament.

Here's Nick with 108 lb. District Champion Antwon Pugh.

And a shot of Nick up on the podium and at home. Notice the banner concerning Saving Olympic Wrestling. Very proud of how the wrestling community throughout the country protested the decision of the Olympic Committee to drop the oldest Olympic sport from the games.  I'll never understand how they could even be considering that!

On March 9th 2013 the OAC Jr. High State Tournament began at the Covelli Center in Youngstown Ohio. Nick felt great going into the tournament and so did I and his corner coach Mike Heil. Nick was officially wrestling under the Brecksville Wrestling Club but since we were going to Brunswick High and considering the facts that 1) Mike Heil was assistant head coach at Brunswick, and more importantly 2) Mike knew Nick's wrestling better than anyone! At the most important tournament to this point of his life, we definitely felt it was in Nick's best interest to have Mike there.

Nick wrestled GREAT! Came out strong and, like the District tournament, pinned his first 3 opponents: Justin Mason, Tyler Speelman, and Alex Neuberger. Mike Heil was running late and the Quarter Finals match was early in the morning.  Nick got a little sloppy against Neuberger and went down in points 4-0 but, both of us (I was corner coaching him in Mike's absence) remained calm and knew he could turn things around quickly. Which he did.

This led to a Semi-Finals match the next day against his Brecksville Club teammate Trey Crockett. To be honest we felt that Chandler Golic, who Nick lost to in the beginning of the season at the Claymont Invitational, would be there, but Trey pulled off the upset. Although Trey and Nick were club teammates and friends, Nick focused and took care of business defeating Trey by major decision 12-4.

Of course Cory Shie, the future stud for LaSalle High, came out of the other side of the bracket.  They hadn't met up since Corey handed Nicky a lost at the Super 32.  If you don't remember from a previous post, Corey defeated Nick by a score of 3-2 in double overtime.  That first match was great and we absolutely knew that to win this Jr. High State Championship it was going to be an all out war!  Shie was well traveled and as battle tested as they come with a great support system behind him as well as a terrific club team to which he belonged. 

As a side note this would be the last time Corey and Nick would wrestle each other as they went into different weight classes. Corey had a stellar high school career, being a perennial State Placer, Fargo All American in both Greco and Freestyle, and Champion of many tough tournaments. If I recall correctly he is the only wrestler to win the tough Top Gun tournament 4 years in a row. Corey's a great young man who is attending and wrestling for West Point now.

They had a great, very exciting match!  They put on a real show and the match was broadcast live on the internet by FloWrestling.  Just goes to show Ohio wrestling is no joke! Even in Jr. High! They had a back and forth barnyard brawl with tons of scrambling that prompted the commentator to say that they "look like two T-shirts in a dryer!" 

The match, like their first one, went into overtime. Shie locked up a cradle but Nicky avoided being turned and there wasn't enough control for it to be considered a take down.  It would be something that came to be a hallmark move for Nick throughout his high school wrestling career. As they were wrestling for the take down Nick was able to gain enough position to throw a leg in and the refs awarded Nick the two points for the take down and with that he won a Jr. High State Championship! That match will always be a very memorable one for me as I knew that with a victory over such a great wrestler as Shie, Nick was bound to take a renewed sense of confidence with him into high school.

Here's the video of the match:

I cannot express how proud we were of Nick. He put in a lot of work and determination to get to this point and he deserved to be on the top of that podium. Here's a few pictures immediately following the tournament:

Podium shots: One is with Mike Heil awarding the State Placers with their medals around their necks and one is of his son Dean walking the medals to his dad. Dean Heil was fresh off his Senior year of wrestling for St. Ed's and securing his 4th high school State Championship.  He then went on to have an illustrious career at Oklahoma State wrestling for the great John Smith and winning two National Championships and becoming a 3X All American!

Here's a couple with Coach, dad and Mom (his biggest fan) Dean, his friends Stan Bleich and Antwon Pugh, who won the 108 lb. State Championship a few matches before.

All in all Jr. High was quite the experience for our family. Nick was heading in the right direction and Pam, Kevin and I were all excited to support him as he went into high school.  We would soon be wrestling for Head Coach Mike Koshar and the Brunswick Blue Devils.  Many adventures lied ahead! Thanks for taking the time to read this. Sorry it took so long to get back to this. Many times as we know life gets away from us a bit.  I'll definitely try to put out a few installments..hopefully conclude his high school career much sooner!  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.   

Nick Captures A Jr. High State Championship---Part 2

The Talent In Ohio Wrestling Runs Deep

The Preseason Arrives...Along With A Few New Adversaries

The talent in Ohio wrestling runs deep. Very deep. Every year kids change weight classes due to the fact that they're growing up, and with the changes in weight classes come new opponents to face and compete against. We would encounter another great Ohio wrestler on a preseason trip down to the Super 32. 

Nick (we'll be calling him Nick from this point on) was looking very strong down on his trips to Tom Roehlig's. He was training regulary with a solid high school kid named Hunter Pizzone (who now wrestles for Heidelberg University) and looked very good. Definitely could easily mistake him for a high school wrestler. I remember quite vividly one time seeing a look of surprise come over Ivan McClay's face when they were wrestling and when I spoke with Ivan he said that Nick "got a lot better...was a lot tougher...and wasn't falling for the things he used to." This was just a few weeks before our trip to the Super 32.

The Super 32 is the premier national folkstyle wrestling event for high school. It's an absolute meat grinder for the high school division and a great way to see the up and coming talent in the junior high division. It takes place in the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center in Greensboro North Carolina, and wrestlers come from all over the country.

Nick opened up the tournament on fire with a pin and then a 16-0 tech fall over North Allegheny wrestler Jake Woodley. Jake would go on to become a 2X PA State Champ in high school. In the Quarter Finals he met up with another talented and accomplished Ohio wrestler, Corey Shie from the Cincinnati area who was wrestling out of the Golden Cross Wrestling Club. 

You can put Corey right up there with all the other great Ohio youth wrestlers that I discussed while covering Nick's youth career. From 2007-2011 he was a perennial state placer...a three time State Finalist...and a two time State Champion. They had a great match, but Nick came up short losing a decision in double overtime 3-2. Here's that match.   

In the first round of the consi's Nick lost 1-0 to Louie Deprez from Hilton New York. Deprez would go on to become a 3 time New York State Champ. To give you more of an idea of just how competitive and tough a tournament the Super 32 is, by the time these guys were seniors Woodley was ranked 3rd in his weight class (195), Deprez was ranked 1st (182), Shie was ranked 15th (138), and Nick was ranked number 10 (160)...nationally...by InterMat. Here's Nick's match against Deprez. Definitely a winnable match against a tough kid. 





The regular season was a blast for Nick. For the most part he was with the Brecksville Club, but practiced out of Brunswick's room. The main reason for this was that in the very beginning of the season, when they were wrestling live together at Brecksville, Luke Strnad broke his finger. It was a bad break that eventually required a surgery because it didn't run across the bone, but rather ran vertical along the bone. 

We didn't know it at the time but it would cost him the entire season. It's too bad because Luke would have more than likely been in the Finals against Kaleb Romero. Kaleb was an extraordinary youth and junior high wrestler who had never lost a State Finals match in youth or even 7th grade. He would end up being a 4 time high school State Champion for Mechanicsburg and signed with the Ohio State Buckeyes. A Luke and Kaleb's match would have been fun to watch.

My friend Todd Assad boys, Aaron and Austin, would sometimes be in the Brecksville room and would wrestle with Nicky, but not nearly enough to warrant going there all the time, and to be honest there wasn't anybody Nick'y age who was really on the same level as him. Heck once Nick was wrestling with one of the Brecksville Club coaches, Ryan Marks, and hit a nasty Twister on him...putting him to his back!  Believe me...Ryan Marks was trying too. Did it right in front of where I was sitting. Looked up at me and winked. I liked that. 

Brecksville Club had an aggressive tournament schedule and I knew that I could fill in the gaps for tournaments when they didn't have anything to attend. So that's what we did. And of course Nick would travel with the TWC boys to the good tournaments that Mike Heil would be coaching at. Coach Heil always liked those tough PA tournament. 

Nick opened up the season with Brecksville Club at the Claymont Invitational. Claymont is a Division 2 high school and they always do a great job of developing their boys. They have a kick ass atmosphere to wrestle in also. Nick pinned his first opponent in the way that most opponents fared against him at this point...unless they were really good.  
   



Nick then wrestled Claymont's Chandler Golic. Nick lost 8-7 in what I can only express as a total homer ref called match. Sorry I can't show the video.  It was all over the damn place and I was yelling too damn much! We looked forward to possibly meeting up with Chandler at some point in a more neutral environment lol! But now Chandler was on our radar as well. We knew Chandler from before...he was one weight class heavier than Nick before and placed 2nd in the 100 lb. weight class at OYWA states. 

The rest of the tournament went as expected.  Nick placed third. Pinned everyone there except Chandler. Here's another short match: 




Nick then went on a nice little run through some very good tournaments. He traveled up to the Border Wars Duals in Battle Creek Michigan and pinned all his opponents. One from Indiana, one from Michigan, one from Illinois, and two from Ohio. Because of this outstanding performance he won the Outstanding Wrestler award and a nice plaque to add to his already impressive bling collection.  

He then attended the Cleveland State Duals and pinned his way through.  Here's his Semi-Finals match against a Burnett Trained wrestler:
  



And here he is in the Finals match against a Massillon Perry Club opponent:





Next was to Nick's soon to be high school!  Had to show off in front of his soon to be high school coach Mike Koshar.  He just made short work outta kids here in the first couple rounds with his Twister. He loved that in Jr. High school. The last State Champ from Brunswick was also in the crowd watching Nick...Richie Spicel:








And here's his Finals match...Blue Devils baby! Go Big Blue! You can hear Coach Koshar coaching him in the match. Just the beginning between these two.




I'm going to have to wrap this post up right here. Nick wrestled a lot his 8th grade year so I'm going to have to break it up a bit. I'll cover the other regular season tournaments in my next installment. Eighth grade was a lot of fun. Top of the food chain again and it was always exciting going to a tournament and wondering if a top notch wrestler would be there so we could watch Nicky wrestle in a really tough, competitive match. There are a few tournaments coming where Nick would definitely run into some hammers. I'll be happy to share those with you in the next post. Until then...take care.  

Nick Captures A Jr. High State Championship---Part 1

Necessary Changes Take Place

Getting Ready For Eighth Grade States

Eighth grade was a year where we had some significant changes in the off season. It was also a big year of change for our family in many ways. One of those changes was that we moved from North Royalton to Brunswick.

To say that Nicky's wrestling didn't factor into our decision would be a lie. We wanted to put Nicky into a school system that had a solid wrestling program for him to take part in. We were torn between Brecksville and Brunswick. 

In the end, and for many other reasons, we decided that Brunswick would be the best fit for Nick. This was not an easy decision as we had a long standing relationship with the Brecksville people...and they had built their program up to be a public school powerhouse under the guidance of head coach Todd Haverdill.

One reason that played a big role was that Mike Heil recently moved to Brunswick and was going to be an assistant coach at Brunswick High School. His son Josh was going to be attending Brunswick High, going a different route than his older brother Dean did who was attending St. Edwards. Josh was a tough, hard working kid, and I knew that Nick and him would make great drill partners. 

While Mike & Josh were the main draw at that time, I was also getting to know...and be impressed by...long time head coach Mike Koshar. Mike struck me as a straight forward fella.  Intelligent and easy to speak to, I could tell he was excited about the resurgance of his wrestling program because of the talent that was already there, and soon to be arriving.

Coach Koshar invited Nicky to wrestle with the high school team at a couple of the Summer duals hosted by area colleges. So Nick wrestled the 113 120 weight classes at the Kent State Duals and the Mount Union Duals. Nick had a 3 month break after States so he was fresh and ready to go. He would be able to get a lot of matches in between these two tournaments and they would be against high school kids. 

Here's a picture of Nicky posing with Coach Koshar and the high school team after the Kent State Duals. He's in the second row with no shirt on. The one who looks like a seventh grader! Josh Heil was in that row also. He was only in eighth grade. In the top row, second from the left with no shirt on is Tyler Hughes. Three future Brunswick State Placers.

I remember thinking to myself that if Nicky won 50 percent of his matches I would be happy. After all, these are high school kids! Wow did I seriously underestimate him. At the Kent State Duals he went undefeated...pinning 10 of his 14 opponents, and majoring 3 by scores of 9-0, 12-0, and 18-4! The last wrestler he decisioned 6-2.  

The very next weekend, on 6-29-12 and 6-30-12 he went undefeated at the Mount Union Duals, winning three matches by fall, another by tech fall 15-0, and winning three by decisions. The decision scores were 4-0, 10-4, and 3-1. From what I was told...I did not attend the Mount Union Duals...the opponent he beat 3-1 was a state qualifier.

To be honest even I was kind of shocked. I knew where he stood among his own age group, but to see that he could run through 21 straight high school opponents, pinning 13 of them no less, was pleasantly surprising. I knew that it absolutely had to help his confidence. 

So he wrestled in those duals and then the following weekend I entered him in the Lutheran West Open, which he won by pinning his next 5 opponents. That was another change. Definitely more Summer wrestling than ever before. and of course we were still going down to Tom Roehlig's camps and keeping that going. Here's a few pictures of Nick with Ivan McClay and learning leg riding from 2 time State Champion, Massillon Perry's David Bavery. 

Another change was that I began introducing barbell strength training to Nick. Up until this point I had Nicky doing bodyweight training only...progressive calisthenics, playground workouts at the school that was behind our house in N. Royalton, plank workouts, and bodyweight complexes that I got from Tom Roehlig. 

Other than weighted pullups and partner carries in the practice room, there was no lifting weights. You could tell that he was plenty muscular from that type of training...in addition to all the strength he had built up from the sport of wrestling since he was seven yrs. old...but it was time to begin building strength through well structured and well supervised weight training. Here's what Nicky looked like before he began lifting in eighth grade.

    
It was time to develop some serious horse power in his legs, hips, back, (the posterior chain) and upper body pressing structure. I knew that if we started right now he would be in excellent shape by the time he began high school. We would not be abandoning bodyweight exercises completely, but instead would take a hybrid approach. I was actually pretty excited to tap into my own weight lifting days and pass on more of what I know to my son.

Our next post will tell how Nick ran into a preseason buzz saw at the Super 32 that he would have to overcome in order to become an Ohio Junior High State Champion, and how he fared in some pretty prestigious jr. high tournaments. Stay tuned and, until the next installment, take care.

Nick Sets His Eyes On A Jr. High State Championship

Two Years To Prepare For High School Wrestling

Junior High Can Be Quite The Challenge

My oldest son Nick began Summer session at West Virginia University a couple weeks ago. He earned an athletic scholarship to attend and represent WVU after an outstanding high school career in which he became only the second wrestler in Brunswick High School history to place at the OSHAA State Championships Tournament 4 times. 

This blog, if you've found it for the very first time, is chronicling Nick's journey from his youth wrestling days to his last high school match. At this point in my blog Nick is just entering Jr. High school as a 7th grader...after winning a youth state championship in 6th grade.

But life isn't all about wrestling, and Nicky (as we call him in our house since my name is Nick also) always had a well rounded life. In 7th grade he attended N. Royalton Middle School, had many friends, and enjoyed life off the mat as well. Here are a few pics of Nicky with his younger brother Kevin waiting for the school bus on his first day of 7th grade and Kevin's first day of 4th grade. 

One thing about Nick that I noticed as he was growing up was that it was rather easy for him to leave wrestling alone. What I mean by that is when he wasn't at practice or somewhere competing, he had no problem finding things to do or friends to do them with. He had many friends who didn't wrestle, and he enjoyed their friendship as much as he did his wrestling friends.

Kevin and Nicky had/have the typical big brother little brother relationship that most brothers experience. Kevin went out for wrestling in 2nd and 3rd grade...but didn't take to it even though he showed the same potential Nick did when he first started. He didn't wrestle at all his 4th grade year, and I pretty much resigned myself to the fact that it wasn't for him. 

Here's Kevin's very first wrestling match when he was just 8 yrs. old. It's one of my all time favorite wrestling videos because of how Nicky is rooting his brother on and because of the little celebration Kevin has when he wins. Too damn cute.


   
He began wrestling in 5th grade when a few of his friends decided to wrestle and has stayed with it ever since. Wrestling is definitely not the type of sport you can force on your kid, and I know many wrestling dads who have multiple sons, some who don't wrestle at all. So I'm very grateful that Kevin chose the toughest of all sports to participate in given the fact that he could have easily picked another sport to take part in and have our full support.

In my opinion (this blog is, after all, titled The World According To Nick) it's important to recognize the attributes of each of your kids, the unique characteristics that make them who they are, and to develop a deep appreciation for these attributes lest they go unnoticed...or worse yet by far...neglected. How can one foster a loving, caring, life long relationship with ALL their children without making the effort to do so based on their childs interests? 

As Kevin was growing up we saw that although he is himself very athletic, he doesn't seem to have the same competitive drive to push himself in sports to the degree that his older brother does. Simply doesn't seem to be as important to him. By no means do I consider it a character flaw. I am absolutely convinced, knowing him as only a father can know a son, that Kevin is going to excel in life and already is doing so academically and socially. That's not to say that his competitive drive won't manifest itself more as he makes his way through high school...it's just saying that he's his own person and doesn't have to have his brothers success to get a lot out of the wrestling. The vast majority of wrestlers never experience the type of success that Nicky experienced...yet I'm sure every single one of them would say they grew as a person because of the life lessons developed both in competition as well as the practice room.  

He enjoys being fit, reading, drawing, playing his video games, conversing about varied subject matters and has inherited the quick wit and humour that runs in our family. He's loving and caring and even though much of our family's time and energy has been devoted to Nick's wrestling, we have always taken great care to make sure Kevin feels just as valued as Nick every single day of his life. Here's a few more pictures of my boys just having fun throughout the year. Heck I even consider Alex my son! He was always around as he was growing up.  Lot's of great memories with these three.

In preparation for Nick's 7th grade season we continued to do the things that led us to having the success that he experienced thus far. A couple Summer camps at Tom Roehligs, working out 3 times per week (all bodyweight training still at this point...no weights other than weighted pull-ups), and one Summer tournament just for a little competition. We also continued Tom's Fall Club.  I knew at this point that Nick was a gamer, and I wasn't worried about all the other guys who were criss crossing the country trying to win every national tournament there was instead of letting their kid enjoy their childhoods. 

After OAC States on 3-20-11 Nick didn't compete for nearly 4 months! The Summer tournament I entered him in was the annual Lutheran West tournament on 7-15-11. The next tournament he wrestled in was nearly 3 months later at the Green Bulldog Round Robin on 10-6-11. So in 7 months he only competed once! I wasn't paranoid about Nicky losing ground. I felt it was the healthiest thing I could have done for him...both physically and psychologically. I wanted him chomping at the bit to compete when the season rolled around. 

As Nick was growing in size Tom Roehlig could wrestle with him more and course correct him when necessary. Another huge advantage of going to Tom's regularly was that Nick could wrestle with Ivan McClay on a regular basis. In 2011 Ivan placed 3rd at States (Division 1) as a Sophmore at 112 lbs. 

Ivan was great with Nicky and worked with him regularly as they built a friendship. They actually knew each other for  few years prior to this, as both were long time Roehlig Wrestling campers, but Nicky was too small to really wrestle with Ivan until now. 

Ivan went on to become 3 time OHSAA State Placer, winning a State Championship in 2013 at 126 lbs. He then went to wrestle for NCAA D2 powerhouse program Notre Dame where he became an All-American his freshman year and won a National Championship at 125 lbs. his sophmore year. He was as nice a kid as he was/is skilled. Here's a picture of Ivan when he was in high school helping some of Tom's younger campers. 
 

Back to Nicky's journey. We found ourselves, in Nicky's 7th grade year, wrestling out of 3 practice rooms again. The reason for this was that the Jr. High School programs have an influx of new wrestlers who did not wrestle when they were in elementary school. The competition just isn't there for a kid whose wrestled since they were in first grade and was as good as Nicky and his many youth peers were. So we wrestled out of Brecksville Club, Brunswick with Mike Heil, and St. Peter Chanel. As noted before these were always our "go to" rooms.

I corner coached Nick for most of this years tournaments before States. Except for the McDowell Open in PA. and the Virginia Duals. Heil coached Nick at McDowell and one of the Brecksville Club guys coached Nick at the Virginia Duals. I cornered Nicky through a few hundred matches since he began wrestling and know him inside and out and so I was always comfortable doing this. It didn't hurt that Nicky wants to win bad and always put forth his very best effort. We did pretty good. The only matches he lost we're before the OAC District Tournament were to two PA. 8th grade wrestlers. He lost to Terry Victor 4-0 at the Green Bulldog Round Robin his first tournament of the year and then at the Battle At The Bay he lost a close one to a real stud, Gage Curry, 2-0. 

Here's the Victor match. This is why Jr. High can be a real challenge.  An 8th grader has a big advantage over the average 7th grader in terms of physical maturity. He was just a little behind in horse power.    

   

The only organization that has a Jr. High State Tournament is the OAC.  The public schools systems hold Conference tournaments, but as I noted earlier the competition simply isn't at the same level as the kids who will participate in the OAC District and State events.

The toughest OAC District at the time when Nicky was in 7th and 8th grade was the Brecksville District.  In order to qualify for the District Tournament, a wrestler must place 1st through 6th place. Wrestlers who place 7th and 8th are State Alternates. We felt confident that Nick would qualify...and possibly win.

Nick wrestled the tournament in the 108 lb. weight class.  If memory serves me correct he had to cut 4 lbs. No big deal. It was a 23 man bracket. He opened up by pinning Nathan Zurzdo. He followed that up by pinning his next opponent, Trevor Garner from Woodridge. His Quarter Finals match he dominated, Tech Falling Jake Little from Massillon Perry 19-2.

In the Semi-Finals Match he met up with Alex Mackall. We heard that Alex was favored to win States this year but had never seen him wrestle. Alex was in 8th grade and definitely had the physical maturity advantage. He was a short, muscular fireplug of a kid and he moved great. Todd Assad, who was sitting with me in Nick's corner told me "this kid's really good" before the match began. Alex, who was wrestling out of the North Akron Club, majored Nicky 9-0.  Obviously a super tough kid. Nice kid too. I had a chance to speak with him and his dad Bob after our boys wrestled. Good people. Told him hopefully we'd see them at the Finals at States. Always thinking optimistically I am. It's hard not to with a kid like Nicky.

Nicky bounced right back and wrestled to 3rd place. He won by decision 6-4 over Lake's Tyler Whitmeyer, and pinned Lake Catholic's Joe Boley. A very solid District performance.

On 3-10-2012 it was time for the Ohio OAC Jr. High State Tournament. It was a 48 man bracket. Nicky began the tournament by pinning Matt Shaney of Massillon Perry.






He then majored Brendan O'brien of Team Foxfire 11-0. He was wrestling very well. Here's that match.

In the 3rd Championship Round, one round before the Quarter Finals, Nick faced a Team Jordan wrestler. a boy named Mario Kastl. He wrestled tough but got off to a slow start and made a few mistakes, and those two things were the difference in the match. He lost by decision 8-6. Coach Heil said, correctly so in my opinion, that the mistakes that he made were rooted more in the mental aspect of the sport and that in jr. high and high school the mental aspect becomes a much more critical component of wrestling. Here's the Kastl match. Mario would make it to the Finals before losing to Alex Mackall 4-2.





I've always maintained, unless you're a wrestler in the lighter weight classes, the OAC Jr. High State Tournament is largely an 8th grade tournament. In the lightweight classes you'll see the occasional stud 6th grader place high and even win. You just don't see that in the middleweight classes. If you do you'd better follow that kid throughout high school because chances are he is going to be something very special!

Nick wrestled 8th graders throughout the tournament thus far and the next morning in the Consolation Rounds that picked up again. He faced Tyler Whitmyer from Lake and decisioned him 6-0.

  



Nick's next match was against Tyler Wiedaholt, a very solid and tough opponent. He dropped the match and lost by decision 4-0. And that was the end of States. We felt strongly that Nicky was going to be much more confident and competitive one short year from now when he was an eight grader. In hindsight, knowing who turned out to be who in high school, this was a very tough bracket with a lot of big names. Mackall, Wiedaholt, Hobbs, Lawson, Georgio Poullas, Ben Darmstadt, Koontz, Stower and more. Very competitive kids. Here's his match against Wiedaholt.


All in all a very productive learning year in which Nicky showed, once again, that he was heading in the right direction and was going to be a force to be reckoned with for years to come. The stars were aligning. We'll pick up Nick's journey in the next post as he moves to the top of the food chain...eighth grades has it's rewards. Until then, take care.