The path to winning the 2011 Clash National High School Duals title got considerably tougher with today’s announcement that Brandon (Brandon, FL) will be joining next season’s field of thirty-two teams.

Brandon, led by Head Coach Russ Cozart, finished the 2009-10 season as the #4 ranked team in the nation.

Brandon has won twenty-one Florida state championships since 1977, including the last ten in a row. They hold the longest winning streak in the history of high school sports – 459 victories from 1973-2008. In 2005 Brandon had the distinction of having the most nationally ranked wrestlers on one team in the nation. The Brandon program has produced seventy-seven individual state champions and 173 individual state placewinners. The Brandon wrestling program was featured in the 2008 ESPN documentary “The Streak”.

Recent high-profile Brandon wrestlers include Franklin Gomez, Josh Lambrecht, David Craig, Rocky Cozart, Joe Cozart, Cesar Grajales, and Eric Grajales.

“Brandon has lost just one dual meet in the last 37 years. Their travel still needs to be approved by their local school board, but we’re thrilled and honored to to have a chance to showcase this national powerhouse,” stated Clash Tournament Director Steve Patton.

According to Patton, the credit for landing this nationally recognized team goes to Randy Cirksena, Steve Elwood, Ryan Thomas, and Kent Harfmann who make up the Clash recruiting team.

With only half of the tournament’s teams determined so far, Brandon joins an increasingly tough field of teams for next year’s Clash Duals, including (2010 Rankings) #1 Apple Valley (MN), #12 Simley (MN), #13 Montini Catholic (IL), #14 Wisconsin Rapids (WI), #17 Waverly-Shell Rock (IA), #23 Roseburg (OR), and #27 Grand Island (NE).

The 9th Annual Clash National Wrestling Duals will be on January 7th-8th, 2011 at the University Center Rochester Field House in Rochester, MN.

The 2010 Dapper Dan Wrestling Classic Team USA Roster has been released.   Michigan leads the way with three roster spots followed closely by Ohio with two.

2010 USA Dapper Dan Roster

112: Ryak Finch: 155-2, 2x AZ State Champion (Iowa State)
119: BJ Suitor: 181-2, 3x MI State Champion (Boston)
125: Logan Stieber: 129-1, 3x OH State Champion (Ohio State)
130: Jamie Clark: 112-6, 2x OH State Champion (Illinois)
135: Ryan Nieman: 170-6, 2x MI State Champion (Indiana)
140: Chris Villalonga: 103-3, 3x National Prep Champion (Cornell)
145: Joe Cozart: 166-3, 3x FL State Champion (Iowa State)
152: Jackson Morse: 137-8, 2x MI State Champion (Illinois)
160: Nick Sulzer: 106-17 (Virginia)
171: Nick Viscaro: 112-14, 1x NJ State Champion (Rutgers)
189: Mike Evans: 113-8 (Iowa)
215: Trevor Rupp: 74-6, 1x ID State Champion
285: Bobby Telford: 74-39, 1x DE State Champion (Iowa)

2009 Dapper Dan Results

125 Evan Yenolevich Northwestern Lehigh dec Ryan Mango MO 7-6
152 R J Pena OR dec Corey Lear Benton 10-5
285 Eloheim Palma NC dec Sean Owen Clearfield 5-3
145 Joey Napoli Cumberland Valley dec Kendrick Sanders FL 7-0
135 David Taylor OH pin Joey Walters Latrobe 3:28
215 Brandon Palik Saucon Valley pin Orlando Scales OH 3:59
140 Eric Grajales FL pin Dane Johnson Shady Side Academy 4:42
171 Caleb Kolb Grove City dec Alec Ortiz OR 8-3
119 Shane Young Penn Trafford dec Tyler Cox WY 8-3
130 Tony Ramos IL dec Joe Waltko North Allegheny 6-2
112 Anthony Zanetta Keystone Oaks Inj-def Robert Dyar AL 2:05
189 Jon Fausey Line Mountain dec Chris Perry OK 4-3
160 Jake Kemerer Hempfield Area dec Dallas Bailey OK 5-2

Eric Grajales, at the
ripe old age of 19, is having a mid-life crisis.In just a few months the nation’s best wrestler will no
longer wrestle for Brandon High School. At 7 pm on February 21, 2009, Grajales will don the white Brandon Wrestling
singlet for the last time.He
won’t cry, but for a moment he will be at his introspective best.His entire life, all he has ever wanted
to do was wrestle for Russ Cozart and the Brandon Eagles.
“What am I going to do when I don’t wrestle for Brandon
anymore,” he thinks.“While some
of my classmates wanted to be veterinarians, or whatever, all I ever wanted to
do was wrestle for Brandon.”
The nations’ best high school wrestler is also a member of
the nation’s most historic team.A
documentary was filmed a year ago about the team’s season.It has a Hall of Fame Coach, in Russ
Cozart.The Brandon High School
Wrestling Eagles own the world’s longest winning streak in any sport at any
level, after winning 459 straight dual matches.This team, it’s all he’s ever known, all he’s ever
wanted.
Imagine having everything you ever dreamed and wished for,
and having to leave it behind.Now
you know how Eric Grajales feels.
Eric Grajales’ story as a Brandon Wrestler doesn’t start in
a sweaty, musk gym.It doesn’t begin
by watching the WWE on television and a chance meeting with a neon-colored
flyer.   His initiation began
exactly 28 years ago when Cesar Grajales, a wrestler at Pinellas Park fell head
over heels in love with Leslie Baker.Ironically, their first meeting was at a football game.
“It was very uneventful,” Leslie recalls.“We just knew from the start that we
belonged together.”
The longest the two have been away from each other was
during the summer months following Leslie’s sophomore year of high school.Young Cesar had to travel north to work
in his uncle’s auto shop to save money so that, during the wrestling season, he
didn’t have to.After that, the
two traveled north together whenever Cesar had to go.
“We’ve been living together, basically, since I was 17,”
Leslie says.“All we had was each
other.We knew we wanted to give
our kids everything and give them the opportunities we didn’t have.” The two love birds moved north permanently after Leslie’s graduation.However, Leslie became home-sick, as
living in New Jersey, she knew no one except Cesar.She returned home to Florida in late November.Predictably, the relationship hit a
rough patch, as the two had to decide whether to continue the relationship or
possibly, break up.The decision
was made for them on a chilly night on Christmas Eve.
Leslie’s mother, tragically, passed away after being
involved in a car accident.There
was never another discussion about breaking up.Cesar stayed in Florida to console Leslie, and never left her
side.
The two eventually had children, three in all, in Anthony,
the oldest, Melissa and finally Eric.
Cesar and Leslie eventually started their own business,
Rubber City, Inc., an auto shop in St. Petersburg.A highlight of their dedication is the hour drive to work
that the Grajales’ brave every day.The burgeoning business afforded them the ability to dote on their three
highly successful children.
Anthony, known in wrestling circles as Cesar, was a
top-ranked recruit himself and is enrolled at Penn.Melissa is a future law student, attending the University of
Florida. Eric is the youngest and you can see that his personality is an amalgamation of
his siblings and parents.Eric has
the compassion of his mother, the work ethic and leadership of his brother, the
mental toughness of his highly independent sister, and the sense of humor and
vision of his father.Eric is the
kid that lights up the room, is always ready with an intelligent quip and the
one who leads by example.
Big Cesar, is the architect behind the success of both of
his boys.After transferring to
Brandon his senior year, he always knew he wanted his boy or boys to wrestle
for Cozart.He knew Cozart would
push his kids the same way he pushed every one of his other wrestlers.Through wrestling, his boys would have
the opportunities he never did – namely, go to college.
After Anthony turned 5, the Grajales traveled twice a week,
an hour away to practices in Brandon for the elementary-aged kids. “Our lives changed forever,”
Leslie says. What followed was Cesar doing everything possible one father could do to ensure
the success of his children.His
boys and other future Brandon wrestlers traveled the country, looking for the
best matches and the best competition - all in an effort to become the best
wrestlers possible. “The goal was never to be good in Florida,” Cesar says.“It was to be good on a national
level.” Tulsa Nationals was one of the largest national tournaments the boys went to.Anthony and Eric both came within a match
or two of placing their first time competing.After that, Big Cesar decided that the boys would focus only
on wrestling.No more peewee
football or baseball. “They [Eric and Anthony] were not happy about it,” Cesar says. Showcasing his strength and determination, Eric made a deal with his dad.He told him he would wrestle at Tulsa
Nationals and win, and that the next year he was playing football. “I said deal,” Cesar says.“The
next year, just like he said, he won it.”
Early on Cesar decided that he would lead by example.When they would work out, Big Cesar
would lift alongside his boys.Father and sons would go on 5k runs.He would take them to wrestling camps and take notes.He made sure they saw that he was
willing to do the same things he expected them to. “The desire to win is important,” Cesar says.“But the desire to want to train hard is much more important.”
And so, Eric’s life has always been co-driven.As father and coach, Big Cesar played
the role with delicate aplomb. “Every now and then it gets kind of annoying,” Eric says.“Especially when you’re cutting
weight.But we try to be honest
with each other 100% of the time.We each understand the other one’s position.”
Eric started wrestling sometime after he turned 3.From the beginning, working out with
the Brandon Wrestling Club and Coach Cozart, he has been a phenom. “I thought he was a little ball of fire,” Cozart remembers.“He was all muscle, really aggressive
and a really good wrestler, even then.” His talent apparent, Eric admits that Cozart was the right coach for him.
Because Eric Grajales is no saint.
“I wasn’t a bad kid,” Eric says.“But I like to push people to their limits.He [Cozart] always put me in my place.”
On a day that Eric states was probably a bad one for Coach
Cozart, he added fuel to the fire.While warming up, jogging around the mats, Eric and workout partner
Austin Figari decided that pushing the other wrestlers would be a better warm
up.Coach Cozart didn’t
agree.He sent the two deviants to
do push-ups in the corner.
“At first, we were making jokes, laughing,” Eric
remembers.“After about 20, 30
minutes it got old, and after 45 minutes we’d do about 3 or 4 pushups every 5
minutes or so.”
The two did pushups the entire practice… all ninety minutes
of it, and Eric got the point.Not
that he didn’t continue to push the boundaries, but he knew when to back
off.He realized Coach Cozart
would help him become the wrestler he so desperately wanted to be, but he
realized it would be by Cozart’s rules. Russ Cozart fostered and developed Eric’s ability the only way he knew how. It was the only way he coached and it
was the same way he coached his own two sons – hard work.The Brandon Wrestling Club opens the
door for wrestling every day. Russ Cozart is wrestling, 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week.Much in the same way he
busts his own tail on a daily basis, he expects nothing less from his
wrestlers. Eric picked up on that.His
earliest memories are of a bearded Cozart, wrestling in open tournaments right
along side his own sons, Rocky and Joey. Saturday’s were a family day, with the Grajales’ and whomever
else from the Brandon Wrestling Club decided to travel.Through trips to cities such as Las Vegas,
Atlanta, Chicago and Oklahoma City, Eric has seen much of the country’s sports
arenas.He loved every minute of
it, and it didn’t hurt to have teammates of similar mind.
Every wrestler who joins the Brandon Wrestling Club dreams
of one day having their name placed on The Wall.It is the place where all of Brandon’s 70 State Champions
have their name marked under their weight class and year.While it is common for athletes to
dream big, it is unholy common to have athletes, plural, work big.Every week
of Eric’s life at least 2 times a week, he trained with the Brandon Wrestling Club.And every week, at least 4 times a
week, the club was filled to the brim with other kids with the same dream and
the same work ethic.
Coach Cozart’s greatest accomplishment isn’t the 459 dual-match
winning streak, it isn’t the 19 Team State Titles he’s won, and isn’t the 139
All-Americans he’s coached.It’s
the culture he has created, where coming to practice year-round and doing so with
your fullest effort isn’t enough.
At Brandon, you’re expected to come to every practice.You’re expected to work hard in
practice, every day.You’re
expected to wrestle tournaments every Saturday.You’re expected to win a State Title.You’re expected to be an
All-American.And while at most
programs you have 2 or 3 guys who are willing to pay the price, the Brandon
Eagles average 20 – 30 wrestlers at every practice.If Coach Cozart says there is 5 am run
on Christmas morning, you can bet that everyone will show up. This atmosphere, this camaraderie is what Eric craves.He eats it up, he lives it, and he
basks in it.It’s a lot easier to
go through practice with 20 other guys suffering with you.
Monday through Friday it was intense training with constant repetitions.On Saturdays it was time to compete,
and win.Coach Cozart is a
realist. While he understands and coaches his kids to enjoy the work and
practice necessary, deep down, it’s about winning.It’s about winning wrestling matches week in and week out
because your opposition is not training as intense, or as often, as you are.
It is no coincidence, then, that Eric Grajales will continue
the next chapter of his illustrious career at the Division I school of his
choice.
That next chapter will start in Ann Arbor, Michigan.On October 14, he committed to Coach
Joe McFarland and the Wolverines. That the Number 1 ranked recruit in the nation got away from the likes of Iowa,
Iowa State, Oklahoma State and Minnesota isn’t that much of a surprise.It happens a lot more in collegiate
wrestling, than say, NCAA Division I football, where powerhouses like USC and
Florida build a veritable storehouse of talent.Thanks to a scholarship limit of 9.9, there is a lot more
competition for the best recruits.Still, for a wrestler not even to consider the supposed “top” schools is
an anomaly.
“I wanted a balance between academics and athletics,” he
says.“Not to say they aren’t good
schools, but Iowa, Iowa State, it doesn’t add up.”
Consider, Eric Grajales is one of those kids.Beyond
Michigan, he considered and visited Cornell, Penn and Columbia.That’s Ivy, Ivy, Ivy and then one of
the nation’s best public schools.When it comes to academia, Grajales is Einstein with a suplex.
“I have a 4.78 GPA,” he says. “I guess I have good genes,
because I never study.”He says
this with a shadow of arrogance and a lot of gratitude.
Remember that kid?The one who rarely does homework, rarely studies, rarely stays awake in
class and still manages to pull a 97 on every test?That’s Eric Grajales.He remembers everything, the first time.Absolutely nauseating to the rest of common society, he
admits, that, if anything, his grades should be better.But he doesn’t try, and he doesn’t have
to.Because even when he doesn’t
try, he’s still better than average.
Brandon High offers AP Calculus to those few daring and
intelligent individuals looking for a challenge in the discourse of math.At 7:25 in the morning, Eric Grajales
saunters into the classroom, sits in his desk, and goes to sleep.
A certain recipe for failure for the other 95% of the
population, Grajales sleeps his way to two C’s.His mother received a phone call at least twice a week from
his Calculus teacher, expressing concern that Eric was sleeping in class, and
that he was not reaching his full potential.
“His teacher would literally have him stand next to his
desk,” Leslie recalls.
“It didn’t seem to have a point,” Eric says with disgust.
Couple that with the daily three-hour grind sessions that
Coach Cozart’s practices are known for and the extra 3 or 4 mile run at 8
o’clock every night and you have one really disinterested Calculus
student.That he pulled a C is a
testament to his intelligence.Even without caring, without being even marginally interested or
involved Eric Grajales passed a class a majority of Americans have never even
seen the book cover for.
His achievements in Honors and AP classes in addition to his
first-try score of 1240 on the SAT afforded him opportunities most secondary
students only dream of.But he
always knew he’d go to a good school.He expected it.His parents
expected it, and it was never in doubt.Now he simply had to make the first real big decision of his life.He made a check list.
Great Academics
Great Wrestling Teammates who share same goals Coach I can Trust to push me
The weather was the only thing that did not play a part in
his decision.Living in the
Sunshine State, Eric knew wherever he went, it would be cold.
“Whether its -10 degrees or 0, it’s still cold,” he says.
New York (Columbia) and Philadelphia (Penn) were just too
big, and Ithaca (Cornell) was too small. “I couldn’t see myself in a big city like New York or Philadelphia,” he says.
“I know it would be too much of a distraction.At the same time, I didn’t want to be in the sticks.”
And there was something that itched him the wrong way when
he took his visit to the Ivy Schools.
“A lot of the guys had different intentions.They wanted to get amazing degrees and
wrestle along the way,” he says.“I want to win an NCAA title and have great academics.”
Predictably, Grajales had a great time when he took his
official visit to Michigan.
“They’re supposed to show you a good time,” he says without a hint of
naiveté.“But even when we weren’t
out doing something, I could, just, you know, hang.All of the wrestlers, were just, wrestlers.”
The wrestlers talked about bringing home the school’s first NCAA
Team Championship.They talked
about working hard and pushing each other in practice every day.The more they talked, the more Grajales
respected these guys.He felt the
same camaraderie that he felt when he talked with his Brandon teammates back
home.
Grajales respects wrestlers like you respect a NAVY
SEAL.“People don’t understand
what wrestlers go through,” he says with a bit of anger seeping out.“If you’ve never done it, you don’t
know anything in my book.”
Grajales isn’t talking about wrestling for four years as a
high school wrestler.
He’s talking about logging over 10,000 miles in extra
running, just to make weight.He’s
talking about giving up every single Spring Break to train at the Olympic
Training Center, sometimes three times a day.He’s talking about wrestling year round and traveling
annually to Vegas and Fargo, ND.He’s talking about training 4 -5 days a week in the so-called
off-season.He’s talking about
sacrificing meals, plural.He’s
talking about not going to the movies with friends.He’s talking about not hanging out with a girlfriend who
worships at your feet.He’s
talking about not being at home for months on end to train in a sport where you
are thrown on your head in practice.
He’s talking about sacrifice.Grajales, like every other elite athlete, is married to his
craft.For better or worse, in
success and defeat, sacrifice is the unforgiving bitch of a wife who needs your
attention like an unborn child needs an umbilical chord.The training that is necessary to
compete for wrestling is far more taxing than anything a boxer or an MMA
fighter experiences.Imagine
training for the biggest fight of your life, every week for 11 months.While boxers and MMA athletes train
with similar intensity, they do not train at a similar length.An elite boxer and/or MMA athlete train
for, max, 2 or 3 fights a year.
But Eric can’t help himself.As much as he’d like to spend more time with friends or eat
that second helping of his Mom’s Cajun Chicken Alfredo, he can’t.He loves to win.He loves to have his hand raised, while
his opponent’s head nods in defeat.Much in the same way a symphony was meant to be appreciated by an
audience, Eric Grajales loves to put on a show for any and everyone watching
him.The bigger the crowd, the
better.
“I want to get my hand raised in front of hundreds,
thousands of people,” he says.“I
love that pressure.” Due to his incessant
quest for training, it has only been on rare occasions that Eric has not had
his hand raised.He has never lost
a Greco-Roman match at the nation’s most prestigious junior/high school
tournament – code name Fargo. The Asics Cadet and Junior National Championships,
held annually in Fargo, ND, is, ‘where
State Champs go to die.’
It is the world’s largest tournament and it is also the
single most important tournament in a sport where scholarships at the Division
I level are scarce.Place top
eight in this tournament, where it is not uncommon to have more than 70
competitors in a single weight class, and you can pretty much punch your ticket
to a Division I school.
Or, you can just beat Eric Grajales.
Like adding seasoning salt and pepper to any dish, wrestling
is Eric Grajales spiced up.As if
wrestling wasn’t easy enough, he wants to do it, thrives on it.Nothing
inspires him like stepping on the mat.He feels at his best, most complete and happiest inside that circle.He wants to destroy every opponent he
faces.  
Eric Grajales wants your mother to scream in terror and for
your girlfriend to be embarrassed of you.He wants to feel the moment that your mind tells your body that it’s not
worth it to fight back - give up. If
at all possible, he would not feel in the least bit guilty if some poor soul
quit the sport after a thrashing.It would be a compliment.Step on the mat with a bear, and prepare to be mauled.
There is nothing cautious about Eric’s wrestling.There are those wrestlers who approach
a match like playing chess with your great aunt and her arthritic wrists.Slow and methodical is not the
preferred pace.
Ike Anderson’s official title is Greco-Roman Developmental
Coach.He’s the guy responsible
for finding and honing the abilities of the next crop of American Greco-Roman
wrestlers.A style where attacks
below the waist are forbidden, Americans, have been, historically, deficient at
the World and Olympic Level.
Greco, does not in any way resemble, Folkstyle, the style employed
by American High Schools and College.Folkstyle wrestling much more closely resembles Freestyle, a style
associated with names like Dan Gable, John Smith and Cael Sanderson.It’s no wonder then that, as the
nation’s #1 high school wrestler, Eric will stake his claim as a force to be
reckoned with as a Freestyle competitor during the next Olympic Cycle.
Nope.
“Eric hates freestyle,” Anderson says with delight.“I’ve never met a kid like him.He’ll do Folkstyle, then in March,
Greco.He’ll wrestle Freestyle for
Team Florida at national tournaments, but that’s it.”
Even at a young age, Eric has always been great at
Greco.
His American age-group opponents were mastering the gut
wrench.This move starts as your
opponent is lying prostrate on the mat and your hands are locked on or above
the waist, heads facing in the same direction.Driving your feet like a sprinter off the blocks, and
keeping your hands locked, in one continuous motion, you roll and arch your
back, ultimately finishing in the same position you started.
Meanwhile, Eric had mastered the crowd-pleasing,
mother-hating Reverse Lift.The
move that made 3-time Olympic Champion Alexander Karelin the most feared
wrestler ever, is, and has always been Eric’s favorite move.Opponent prostrate on the mat, Eric
positions himself atop and to the side of his opponent, forming a T.While facing his opponent’s feet he reaches
over his opponent’s waist with one hand, the other scooping underneath. Eric
locks his hands, stands straight up and arches his back, lifting his, now
defenseless, opponent chest high, arms and legs flailing.As Eric’s back arches in a backwards
crescent motion, his arms drive his opponent into the mat at a 90-degree angle.
The top of the cranium is often the first body part to feel the mat. It is the most vicious move possible, in the world’s most vicious sport.
Cozart remembers that during Eric’s first year of wrestling,
the Brandon Wrestling Club made the reverse lift a part of its daily practice
regimen. “I remember watching some little kids at a tournament doing it,” Cozart
says.“I thought, hey, if they can
do it, why can’t we?” Cozart warns that the move is not as simple as it looks, nor as spontaneous as
it may seem.It takes hours upon
hours of practice and years of experience to be able to hit it consistently on
good wrestlers.You love Thanksgiving,
Eric loves reverse lifting.He’s
added his own personal touches, and over the years has learned to make adjustments,
on the fly, depending on how his opponent reacts. Try to “dead-weight” yourself and he’ll load you up on his
knee.Try to circle behind his
legs, and he’ll pivot his heel and spin accordingly. Try to run him over and he’ll straighten his back, his hips
exploding with such force that his back and knees force his body into a perfect
‘I.’ If Eric Grajales gets his hands locked in the reverse lift position –
enjoy the ride.
Anderson first saw Eric wrestle at the FILA Cadet Nationals
in Chicago.  He watched him
repeatedly reverse lift every opponent he wrestled.He was just 14.
“You’re talking about a move that, at that age is not
common,” Anderson says.“It is
common for the Europeans, who don’t even know what Folkstyle or Freestyle
is.At an early age he was hitting
moves that guys on the University and Senior level do.He was like a European.”
That Anderson compares Eric to a European may be the highest
compliment possible.Our friends
across the ocean focus on one style their entire lives, and at a young age, are
taught with the same system that creates World and Olympic Champions.In Russia, you must have at least a
master’s degree in physical education to become a coach.Imagine having a John Smith or Dan
Gable at every high school in the nation, and the effect it would have on the
development of our athletes.Eric
was wrestling like them.
There were no holes in
his Greco, nothing he was not athletic enough to do, no move he didn’t pick up
the first time.He’s so good he
can see a move once, and five minutes later, try it in a match, and hit it
perfectly.He would try to score
at every opportunity, with no regard for the score, no regard for
position.Anderson watched this
phenom and knew that if he didn’t get Eric to understand that defense wins
championships he wouldn’t reach his full potential. “I told Eric, if you score 12 points on a guy and he scores 13, you’ll lose,”
Anderson recalls.“He didn’t think
it was important and that was the thing I worked on the most with him.”
Ike Anderson is responsible for the Eric Grajales that now
inhabits the Greco Circuit.Whenever Eric would venture to the Olympic Training Center the two would
work on Eric controlling himself, staying in positions that would keep his
opponent from scoring on him.At
the top of the to-do list was Eric’s gut-wrench defense, of which, Eric had
none.The endless drilling,
learning how to fight the gut wrench properly using your hips as a weapon,
completed him. Ironically, it also gave him a gut wrench that he can hit on almost
anybody.Slowly, Eric decided that defense was important.
“I’m always worried about my attacks,” he says.“Ike didn’t necessarily want to slow me
down, but he wanted me to be more meticulous.He wanted me to keep my elbows in and not take all the
chances.”
He finally put it all together last March at a tournament in
Bulgaria.
“I finally saw that he was getting it,” Anderson says with
satisfaction.“He finally grasped
the concept.”
In addition to his vast array of offensive weapons, Eric had
made himself near-impossible to score on.After placing third, Anderson knew his star pupil was ready to wrestle
at the Senior Level.
Eric called Anderson for advice some weeks after that
tournament.He was thinking about
wrestling at the US Senior Open.He wanted Anderson’s honest opinion on whether or not he should even try
it.Anderson assured Eric he was
ready. Anderson was so certain that he fought for Eric to get seeded.Eric wasn’t a trailblazer, as wrestlers
in high school had wrestled in and done well prior on the Senior Level.That he was considered to be seeded in
the top 8 was, however, noticeable.He had never competed at the Senior Level, although he had practiced
with some of the guys who did.The
first question at the coaches meeting that would determine the seedings, was, why?Why did Eric deserve it over guys who had, at the least,
wrestled in the Senior Division?
Anderson, armed with the knowledge that he personally knew Eric was ready not only to compete,
but win, rattled off his list of accomplishments.Former Greco Athlete of the Year, 2-time Junior World Team
member (losing only to the champion and third-placers) and 3-time Fargo Greco
Winner.A few of the other coaches
in the room, including Steve Fraser, The National Greco-Roman Head Coach, had
seen Eric wrestle and they all agreed he deserved a seed.
Seeded seventh, Eric, in short, wrestled the tournament of
his life.
“It was crazy, he hadn’t even trained that much [Greco]
prior to it,” his father says.“It
was great timing with the fact that he had peaked for the State
Tournament.So he was in great
shape and shortly after State there were a ton of guys in the room training
with him. He wrestled the best I have ever seen.”
When the tournament was over, Eric was not the National
Champion, but he had wrestled above his seed.He finished fifth, again losing only to the eventual
champion and third-placer.Along
the way, he scored the most points in the tournament, scoring a technical fall
in every one of his wins.To score
a technical fall Eric had to outpoint his opponents by at least 6 points in two
separate periods or score a 5-point throw (think, reverse lift). His talent, his drive, his work ethic, his ability, his potential, was on display
at the best time possible.He had
qualified for the Olympic Trials as just a high school junior.Although he wouldn’t make the Olympic Team,
or place, Eric had cemented himself as the possible future of Greco Wrestling. At about 8:25 on February 21, 2009 Eric Grajales will complete his career as
Florida’s second 4-time undefeated State Champ.He will etch his name into the conversation as possibly
Florida’s greatest wrestler ever.
He will be at his introspective best.
Damn, what do I do
now?