When you’re wrestling and you hear a pop of snap, you know it isn’t good. But you hear a crack, that’s when season dreams flow down the drain with your blood, sweat and tears.
And all of that could have been true for Towson’s Jesse Garrett, who found himself in the same situation at the beginning of last year with a broken leg in the first day of practice. However, Garrett’s will to improve and desire to get back on the mat overpowered his pain in a healing leg.
“It was tough,” admitted Garrett. “I was trying to get back in shape, get over the pain in my leg and shake the rust off, all while trying to catch up to the competition. They had been working hard all season, and I had to catch up to them.”
But the young Towson star did catch up, and soon enough, re-entering the season just weeks before the Baltimore County tournament and placing fourth.
Not only did he place at counties, but the once broken Garrett went on to take third in the region to qualify for the MPSSAA State Tournament.
“Jonn Grovogui, Jesse Garrett, Hussan James and Will Beckman, they are all great leaders,” Towson coach Philip Simmonds said. “They are tough, hardnosed kids and just give 100 percent all of the time.
Garrett was one of just six Generals to qualify for the state tournament, and their success led 18 of the team’s wrestlers to travel the more than 300-mle trip to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill’s wrestling camp, and four to attended a two-week intensive camp at the Ohio State University in preparing for the 2010-2011 season.
“It is exciting,” Garrett said about being just a junior and, for all purposes, entering his second full-season of wrestling. “I am going to fight hard this year and see what the season has form me.”
Starting the sport his freshman year, Garrett admittedly “got beat down” at counties, but said the sport and its wrestlers were just too much to walk away from.
“It is fun and one tough sport. As long as you go onto the practice room ready to work hard, you are going to get better,” he said. “Wrestlers are extremely tough people; people who work hard and are in terrific shape.”
As for the 2010-2011 season, Garrett wants to do well in counties and regions, but his real goal is to place at the state tournament.
“I want to place in states this year. That’s what I am shooting for,” Garrett said. “It is something to drive for. I know last year I took third and what it game me at states. It makes me want to fight and work harder in the season to place higher in region and get a better draw in states.”
