The Influence of Wrestling on My Life

By Christopher Lovell
Fermi Wrestling Team Alumni Class of 2004

My seven years of participation in wrestling, three years in middle school and four in high school, have sculpted me into the person I am today. I consider it one of the most influential factors in my life. Wrestling has instilled in me the values that I now take pride in possessing. It has helped me make lasting friendships and kept me out of the trouble that seems all too common in high school. Wrestling helped me reestablish myself socially when my father retired from the military and we moved just before high school. I really define myself as a wrestler; it's what I have and what I hold as one of the top achievements of my life up to this point.

Through the grueling practices, the long tournament days and weekends, and the mentally draining competition of the sport of wrestling, I've developed a strong sense of commitment and perseverance. The limits to and beyond which I've pushed myself have given me confidence in my everyday life. Wrestling in high school has also helped me foster a better understanding of leadership. I was captain of the team during my junior and senior years and through this experience I saw first hand the growth, or lack of it, in many of my teammates. I was able to experience the pressure put upon a leader to not only say the proper things at the proper times, but to display the ideal behavior at any given moment. It was difficult, but again, through the difficulties I was able to grow into a more mature and responsible person. Lastly, though I was captain, I was a teammate first. I suffered the same practices and experienced the same disappointments and successes throughout our season. From this I gained a great sense of teamwork, even in this sport of one-on-one competition.

Though wrestling doesn't exactly have the fan base of football or basketball it was a great way to get known and meet a lot of people throughout my four years in high school. I wasn't the most outgoing person in ninth grade but wrestling helped me get back into the mainstream of high school life. The strongest bonds however were definitely made with my teammates. Nearly all of my good friends are also wrestlers and I feel like I can always count on them. They have all experienced the same things I have and as my father and assistant coach always says, "There's a comradery through misery". The harder the practice, the closer we all got, and the practices were pretty bad. It was a great experience and my life wouldn't be anything like it is now had I not participated.

The last positive aspect of wrestling that I have to address is its ability to keep me out of trouble and teach me the academic skills necessary to excel in school. Since the beginning of this year alone my senior class has dwindled from about 330 to around 290. This is the result of varying circumstances but many of these students dropped out or fell behind in credits due to poor academic and social habits. Wrestling has not only kept me out of this sort of trouble, but it has allowed me to develop good time management skills and has brought me to the top ten percent of the class. During the wrestling season I really excelled and I attribute it to the coaches reinforcement of the importance of academics. The skills I acquired, in the last four years especially, I will hold on to forever. So as I said before, wrestling is one of the top achievements of my life, but not only that, it has also contributed to every other achievement in my life.