Despite lone loss, Gar-Field’s Young ready for next challenge

By Brian Hunsicker

Published: February 22, 2008

Stephen Young walked off the mat on Saturday night, the emotion he brought to each match suddenly a different hue. He had expected to be the aggressor, but found himself giving ground; when it was over, he had surrendered five takedowns. He had wrestled differently, more timid, than he had in his previous 45 matches, all wins.

This one was different: a loss. The Gar-Field senior’s chance at a regional championship had passed, though he still had qualified for today’s Group AAA tournament. All was not lost because of a single loss.

“I do everything that I compete for with a lot of emotion. I was pretty emotional,“ Young said. “But after a couple of minutes, I realized I’ve still got another shot at him.“

To meet him—Fauquier standout Nick Cook, the man that beat Young in the regional finals—Young will need to win. And win. And win again, just like he has for most of the season.

The two are on opposite sides of the bracket; the earliest they could meet would be in the state finals. Getting there would likely require another feat that Young has accomplished this season: beat opponents that outweigh him.

Smaller wrestlers may have as little as five pounds between them and the next heaviest weight class. Heavyweight, however, is a vast range, allowing wrestlers weighing as little as 220 pounds and as much as 285 pounds.

A year ago, Young stood on the upper end of the range, like many heavyweights. But over the course of a workout-filled summer, he dropped weight in time to become a sculpted defensive end for the Indians, which helped get him a scholarship to play at Winston-Salem State. When fall turned to winter, Young was content with his weight.

“I don’t really feel like cutting down was my plan. It just came off,“ he said with a chuckle. “I had a tough offseason, over the summer, and lost weight from that. And then I just gradually lost weight during the football season, and as tough as practices are in wrestling season, it just fell off.

“I’m pretty confident in my abilities, wrestling [at] my weight. I can pick up and 285-pounder. There’s nothing about that. I can stand up with a 285-pounder. I’m quicker and athletic. I might not have the size, but I’m pretty pleased with the way I move around.“

He moved around well enough to pin his way through the Cardinal District tournament, which ended with a third-period pin of Hylton’s Matt Alvarado. In his first three matches at region-als, Young was tested only once: He never gave up the lead but never pulled away from Lib-erty’s Kory Gough, winning 7-5 in the quarterfinals. Young won his other matches by a first-period pin and a tech fall.

Then came the loss to Cook.

“That’s not the Steve Young that attacks me at practice. Unfortunately I’m the big guy in the room, so I’m the one that gets thrown around all the time,“ Gar-Field coach Rick Seipp said with a smile. “He’s not afraid to attack me. I think that fact that Cook won the Ultimate Challenge, ranked No. 1 in the state, Steve was a little timid. I think wres-tling him at regionals will help him if they wrestle at states.“

If they meet again, there will be no safety net. The winner will get the prize that both have worked for all season, and that will be it. The season, and the career of both wrestlers, will be com-plete.

“I wasn’t aggressive at all. I didn’t turn the heat on on him,“ Young said of the match in the regional tournament. “That’s gonna change. I was stunned after he took me down. I mean, I was undefeated.

“I can’t let that stuff get to me no more. I’m just gonna let it all out at states. It’s my last tournament.“