Scottie Stockman
The ocean of sweat I’ve given for the sport of wrestling has led me to where I am today.
When I left the fog, the green mats and the cramped halls of Sweet Home High, my life transformed. I left a town I loved but felt misunderstood in. I also left my dad and his similar accomplishments with boxing – like wrestling, a sport in which weight management is essential. I never took our unique relationship for granted, whereas I used to be his biggest fan, and now he is mine. I thank him for my skills, and the hundreds of hours he and I spent together shaping my craft.
I will never forget the day I decided to become a teacher (and coach). It was 5:30 a.m. and we were running – hard, I might add. I was probably weighing somewhere around 115 pounds, with a goal of competing in the 103-pound weight class. The pressure of losing weight and being that small at the same time is beyond others’ comprehension.
On top of that, I lacked proper knowledge of how to cut weight the right way; or maybe I was just too naïve to realize I was doing it incorrectly. Around probably the 30th or 40th time I had ran my circuit around the gym hallways, I noticed Coach over there, directing us in an extreme fashion; there he was with an earned coffee in his hand as he sat on top of a mountain of success – the legacy of hundreds of state placewinners, vast numbers of state champions, and various self-gained accomplishments.
“I want that guy’s job” I thought to myself.
Four years later I’m majoring in education, with a concentration on English, hand and hand with a minor in writing (fictional/imaginative) at Southern Oregon University.
In addition, I am also sitting on over 100 hours of community service with the Sweet Home and Phoenix Mat Clubs.
It’s all one big result of wrestling – 100 percent. The sport and my teachers of the sport are the reason I went from being an academically inefficient kid to the writer, author, and future educator I am today.
I have overcome quite a bit of adversity and have acquired a passion for writing, researching, and above all, learning. I never would have achieved any level of sophistication without grappling.
Last term I published a short story with the help of my favorite professor, Craig Wright. I credit the majority of my success on and off the mat to the sport of wrestling and the program at Sweet Home High School, created and massively invested into by Steve Thorpe, and Norm Davis.
Thanks to the program, I was in the sports highlights instead of being listed in the police reports of the Sweet Home newspaper.
Scottie Stockman is a former Sweet Home wrestler who now competes for Southern Oregon University.