So this story begins during my first year of high school, it’s just after my first day of football practice. “Hey Thrasher! Come over here. “ I heard my defensive line coach yell to me, “Whatcha need Coach Tut? “ I asked, “Well I was wondering… look, we are starting up a wrestling team at school and I wanted to know if you wanted to join it. ” Said Coach Tut with a small gleam in his eye.
Thinking it over in my head and remembering the many times as a child my father and I had gone to college wrestling tournaments I told my coach with a smile that I would definitely join. Little did I know at the time is that by answering yes to such a simple question would have quite the change on my outlook on life. Fast forward a couple of months to the first week of wrestling season.
Thinking that I was in the best shape I had been in quite a long time from the football season I had thought that wrestling would be a cakewalk, boy I had never been more wrong in my life. The first day of practice Coach Tut told us that wrestling is ninety percent heart and ten percent muscle, when I asked him what that meant he simply responded “If you are still on the team during your senior year then you will understand what I mean a little confused I just took what he said and continued on getting ready to go home.
There is no true way to explain the next morning than utter agony, I woke up to my muscles screaming in pain as if I had been hit by a truck. Barely able to get out of bed I slowly made my way to the kitchen to get my breakfast ready. I was greeted by my mother who looked up from the stove as she heard my bedroom door open “Good morning she said while stirring some corned beef hash in the pan “Good morning I sleepily replied.
“So how are you feeling this morning’she asked “I feel like I’ve been to hell and back and back to hell and back again I grumbled disdainfully “Well at least you are young enough to recover fast, you should be fine by lunch she said cheerfully while serving me some hash and eggs “I hope so I mumbled back as I took in my first bite of breakfast. This was to be routine for me during the rest of the year, sadly my career during my freshman year was quite bad with a 2-12 record for the year.
During my sophomore and junior years I had continued with wrestling and football and slowly but surely I had lost more and more weight and had gotten in better shape, all the while improving my record for my wrestling matches. While I had be quite proud of myself during these times I hadn’t really kept up with my schooling as much as I should have and because of this I was approached by my coach.
“Well Andrew we have a small problem with your grades he said to me as he handed me some papers “What are these? I asked looking at the small pile of papers “These are the tests that I have gotten from your other teachers and if you look the grades aren’t too great he said pointing to some of the grade that I had gotten as I flipped through them. I kept looking at the papers as Coach Tut gave me the time to take in what he was talking about, “Well I get that I need to start studying more I said handing the copies back to him “It’s not just that you need to it’s that you need to and need to keep up with it or you won’t be on the team anymore he said putting a hand on my shoulder.
At that moment was when I realized that I needed to not only focus on wrestling and football but I had to find a way to balance and keep up with school and keep my grades at an acceptable level. My senior year had come along and I was in the best shape of my life, I had dropped playing football and focused on just wrestling and school. It was during this time that I was winning match after match and it seemed like I was on top of the world.
I was still having trouble with some subjects in school but had just kept my head low and kept on with the grind that seemed to be the never ending school work. While my grades were just about average my wrestling matches were going better than I had ever thought I could achieve, by ¾ of the season being over I was 24-0 and it was looking like it would only keep going up. And that it did by my final week of wrestling I had finished on the top of the team with both wins and wins by pinning the opponent, I finished my high school record with a total of 36-0.
I couldn’t have been more proud, my parents and my coach the same, congratulating me for my achievements as I had already finished with enough credits to graduate. It was just before graduation that I had finally understood what my coach had told me on my first day of wrestling practice. It was that no matter how hard the task if you are able to keep your mind on the goal and kept determined to succeed through the process you would eventually succeed in whatever you put your heart into.
When I had went back to Coach Tut to tell him what I thought of his words he simply responded with “That may be true but there is a second part to what I meant I looked at him asked “What do you mean? he laughed before saying “Once you’ve wrestled everything else in life is easy. To this day I keep what my coach told me close to heart and try my hardest through times that I know will be tough and keep on going because I know that “Once you’ve wrestled everything else in life will be easy.
