By Brian Jerzak
To be an elite athlete – even in high school – athletes must make sacrifices. Some kids can get by on natural talent, but once they meet up with a similarly skilled athlete who has put in the time, the one trying to get by on natural talent will usually come out on the short end. I can’t think of a sport where this is more true than wrestling. Wrestlers – even most of the guys struggling to get through a season with a .500 record – sacrifice. Wrestlers know you can’t cheat the sport. You will only get out of wrestling what you put into wrestling.
Two of Minnesota’s top high school wrestlers – Watertown-Mayer’s Joel and Titan Friederichs – know about the sacrifice wrestling takes. They are banking on putting in more than they get out.
“Outside the wrestling room, my dad called it ‘The Bank.’ It is an imaginary bank, and every time you do something extra, it is like money you put in the bank,” Titan said. “Every time you do good at a tournament, you take out from that bank. It is an analogy we still use today. If we run a hill or go to extra practice – that is putting money in the bank. It made it easy to understand what you have to do to take that big deposit out and put it into your tournaments.”
With five state tournament appearances, four times on the podium, three trips to the finals, and two state titles between them – the juniors have made plenty of deposits into the bank and hope to make at least a few more big withdrawals over their final two years in high school.
