“Failure is Instructive”
The toughest DI wrestler you never heard of is Josh Ellis. Our relationship started with an email I received so mIf you want to unsubscribe to this newsletter the link is at the bottom of the message.
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any times before, which started, “I’m a student here, and I would like to try out for the wrestling team…” My reply was standard as well, “Sure, let’s meet.”
I had a general rule of taking anyone who wanted to join the team. My thought was that if they could endure a few Division I practices, they have something wrong in their head, so they would fit right in with a college wrestling team, especially if they didn’t have the standard accolades of a division I wrestler.
I also had a soft spot for walk-ons.
Josh sat across from me and I asked, “So what’s your experience in wrestling?”
Josh’s response was quite alarming, “Well coach, that’s the interesting thing, I have never participated scholastic wrestling. I actually played tennis in high school, but I dabbled in karate.” (I know it’s a shocker that a kid that was admitted to Princeton was a tennis player.)
At this point I’m thinking this kid has no clue what he is getting into.
I probed a little deeper, “why are you here then, wanting to wrestle for a top level college wrestling program?”
Josh went into a long story about how he did a gap year in India and while he was there he got into Khusti, which is a type of wrestling done on dirt. It was a far cry from the wrestling experience he needed to survive our room, but at least it was something.
I spent the next 20 or so minutes trying to scare him off. I explained in great detail how the wrestlers on the team were trained machines, and that he would get mauled in the room. I also told him that I was concerned for his safety. During this time I figured he would just get the hint and maybe take his chances at walking on the tennis team.
Just the opposite happened. The more I talked about how hard it would be for him, the more his eyes widened, the more he leaned in, the more he smiled. He was getting unsettlingly excited about the opportunity.
By the end of the conversation I’m thinking Josh is crazy-just the type that might have a chance to make it- and I gave him a shot. Fortunately for Josh, two other walk-ons joined the team in the same year, so as the more seasoned wrestlers were training hard in the pre-season, the other two walk-on’s would work to help Josh get up to speed.
I didn’t think Josh would make it past day 1, but day after day, and week after week, month after month, he kept showing up, taking some epic beatings from the guys on the team, but working hard to learn the sport.
Incredibly, after years of this, Josh was WINNING matches against DI opponents. This blew my mind. The kid who NEVER wrestled before college, could compete with other wrestlers who were training in the sport their whole life, and were considered the BEST at their craft. The amount of toughness and grit required for a seasoned wrestler to get through a DI season is immense, but for Josh to come in with no experience and make it to where he did, puts his toughness at another level.
I found it interesting that Josh had one quote in his locker all four years that simply read:
“Failure is instructive.”
With a 30-13 loss to Virginia Tech we had some opportunities to learn. While the score was quite lopsided, the dual was exciting. It was a 3-6 split in relation to individual matches and two of the six Stanford losses went to overtime, Knox (133) and Miranda (141). Those two matches provided the most insight to where we could be better.
Generally, we have a team that can scramble well in neutral. When opponents are in on shots we are able to “extend” the position by means of scrambling, often turning the position into our offense, but this can’t be at the expense of our baseline defense. Everything starts with not letting our opponents touch our legs, and if they do touch the legs, we need to sprawl and feed our hips. From there we can choose to scramble if necessary. A few guys need to focus here and if they are able to make some adjustments they will make big gains in the postseason.
Similarly, we need to “roll around” less in the bottom position. We need to stick to basics, remain composed, and just get the escape point.
Monteiro and Ming were caught in upper body techniques that resulted in a 7 point score and a fall. We have to make some pretty easy positional adjustments to be sure that does not happen again.
In relation to what we did well, Nick Stemmet picked up a “signature” win against a top 10 opponent who he lost to last year at the NCAA’s. This was the best match I have seen Nick wrestle since my arrival to Stanford. His focus and energy was very high, and he executed solidly. While there was only one takedown, there was a lot of action, but Nick controlled the match and was able to dictate the outcome.
In several of our duals, Nick performed well, but was overshadowed by a teammate’s outstanding performance. The “Wrestler of the Match” has eluded him for much of the season…until now! Nick certainly earned this week’s “Wrestler of the Match” award.
Hunter Garvin is really starting to find his rhythm and wrestled a solid match, picking up some much needed bonus points. He looks like he is having fun out there and that is when he is the most dangerous. His timing is perfect as we close in on the post-season.
Grigor Cholakyan allowed us to finish on a high note with a beautiful fall at 157. Grigor was an attacking machine and missed a few takedowns early on, but with his relentless pursuit he opened up his opponent which allowed him to hit one of his patented high flying techniques. A great win for a freshman in a tough dual meet setting.
Overall, we wrestled tough, but they wrestled a bit more ‘solid’ than us, which resulted in the loss. It was great to see a top 10 team this late in the season, as all the matches were similar to ones we will see at the NCAA’s, which will allow us to make some minor adjustments as we move toward the NCAA tournament.
No. 10 Virginia Tech 30, No. 17 Stanford 13
125: #5 Eddie Ventresca (VT) won by forfeit
133: #19 Connor McGonagle (VT) dec. #6 Tyler Knox (STAN), 3-0 (SV)
141: #10 Sam Latona (VT) dec. #21 Jason Miranda (STAN), 9-6 (SV)
149: #1 Caleb Henson (VT) tech. fall #9 Jaden Abas (STAN), 17-1 (6:33)
157: #28 Grigor Cholakyan (STAN) fall Frank DiBella (VT), F3:48
165: #14 Hunter Garvin (STAN) maj. dec. #30 Mac Church (VT), 11-3
174: #26 Lennox Wolak (VT) dec. Collin Guffey (STAN), 8-2
184: #23 Thomas Stewart (VT) maj. dec. Tye Monteiro (STAN), 14-3
197: #22 Nick Stemmet (STAN) dec. #8 Andy Smith (VT), 4-2
285: #14 Jimmy Mullen (VT) fall #31 Peter Ming (STAN), F2:33
Up Next:
@ Princeton, Thursday, 2/13/25, 7:30pm
@ NC State, Friday, 2/14/25, 7:00pm
@ Duke, Sunday, 2/16/25, 11:00am
Chris Ayres
Matt Gentry Head Coach of Wrestling
Twitter: @CoachOfTrees
Insta: @ayres157
