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2016 ALL-AREA WRESTLING: Gryphons’ Smith rolls to honor after second straight state title

Posted On: Monday, April 11, 2016
By: Student Assistant
The 2015-16 Telegram All-Area Wrestler of the Year Wilson Smith, of Rocky Mount High School, poses for a portrait on Thursday, March 24, 2016 at Rocky Mount High School.

The 2015-16 Telegram All-Area Wrestler of the Year Wilson Smith, of Rocky Mount High School, poses for a portrait on Thursday, March 24, 2016 at Rocky Mount High School.

The 2015-16 Telegram All-Area Wrestler of the Year Wilson Smith, of Rocky Mount High School, poses for a portrait on Thursday, March 24, 2016 at Rocky Mount High School.

The 2015-16 Telegram All-Area Wrestler of the Year Wilson Smith, of Rocky Mount High School, poses for a portrait on Thursday, March 24, 2016 at Rocky Mount High School.

The 2015-16 Telegram All-Area Wrestler of the Year Wilson Smith, of Rocky Mount High School, poses for a portrait on Thursday, March 24, 2016 at Rocky Mount High School.

The 2015-16 Telegram All-Area Wrestler of the Year Wilson Smith, of Rocky Mount High School, poses for a portrait on Thursday, March 24, 2016 at Rocky Mount High School.

 

Wilson Smith sat down at a Greensboro T.G.I. Fridays on Feb. 20 and allowed himself to indulge in a feast: steak, lobster, mac and cheese, and his favorite drink, strawberry lemonade.

Smith, the Telegram’s 2016 All-Area Wrestler of the Year, was celebrating a second consecutive NCHSAA 3-A state wrestling championship in the 126-pound weight class, but neither the food nor the glow from earning another ring lasted long.

By the time most of Smith’s family and coaches were drifting off to sleep in their Greensboro hotel later that night, Smith, a bundle of sinewy muscle and frantic energy, was pacing around the hotel parking lot, thinking about a third championship ring that he had promised Gryphons coach Jermaine Jones one year prior.

“I had too much on my mind,” the effervescent Smith said last week. “Getting that second one was great and I enjoyed it. I really did. But at the same time, I was already figuring out what I could do to get another.”

After Smith won his first state championship as a sophomore in 2015, Jones, himself a state runner-up while wrestling for Rocky Mount High, had asked Smith if he could get him one more ring.

“Wilson, right away, said, ‘Coach, I’m going to get you two more,’” Jones recounted last week. “There wasn’t any hesitation at all.”

There’s not an ounce of runner-up in Smith’s lithe frame. The so-called curse lingering over Rocky Mount High – Jones, Elbert Thomas and, later, 145-pounder Alex Knight, had combined for six state second-place finishes during their respective careers – ended in 2015.

Even before Smith earned that first state championship, a target on his back had already started to form. Smith finished second nationally in his weight class in Greco-Roman style as a sophomore, thanks to an exceptionally strong upper body that just recently got a new addition: a tattoo with the Rocky Mount area code, 252, piped across his inner bicep.

Opposing coaches know that Smith can be dominant if he gets to use his upper body to force his counterparts’ hand, so they tell their wrestlers to make Smith use his lower body. Smith, in turn, focused on improving his shot to give his style more variety.

Jones, for his part, insists that he doesn’t do much coaching of Smith anymore.

“What am I gonna tell him that he doesn’t already know?” Jones said. “At this point, I’m his time management coach. I tell him when time is running low and that sort of thing, and I try to keep him focused. Other than that…I mean, this kid has got it handled.”

In other words: Jones doesn’t have to do much at all, because Smith is not one to spend much time on the mat. He spent less than a minute total on the mat to win the Big East crown, then cruised to his third straight 3-A Eastern Regional title, pinning each of his first three opponents in the first period in dominating fashion.

In the state semifinals, Smith got past Asheville Payne’s Justin Erwin in a 3-1 decision. Erwin was considered the state’s other top 126-pounder all season, and that proved true; Smith beat Enka’s JR Banks, 7-1, in the state championship match, a coronation for the kid who already is the most decorated wrestler in Rocky Mount High history.

So, how did Smith get from where this all began, as a seventh grader who still played nose guard in football (“You know this dude was tough, because ain’t nobody else his size playing nose guard,” Jones quipped) and had just discovered wrestling, to now?

It’s hidden inside Smith, under tufts of hair dyed gold, nearly the same color as the singlets Rocky Mount High wears in competition: his brain.

“I don’t know that I’d go as far as calling it photographic memory, but it’s close,” Smith said. “It’s more that I just pay close attention to what I do and what my opponents do, their strengths and weaknesses, and I store it away and remember every little detail. So I’m always thinking through every move when I’m out there.”

That mental fortitude is what has made Smith remarkably consistent over the last two seasons. Whenever he has lost, and the occasions have been rare — to Fayetteville Jack Britt’s Richard Tolston last season, for example — Smith has made a habit of coming back and beating those opponents, because he studied what went wrong. He said he’ll sometimes shake his mother awake, and when he does, the question isn’t, ’What do you want?’ Instead, it’s ’What match are you thinking about?’

Probably a loss — or perhaps another state championship bout.

Foster Lander can be reached at 407-9951 or flander@rmtelegram.com

FIRST TEAM

126 POUNDS — WILSON SMITH, JR., ROCKY MOUNT HIGH: Now a two-time state champion, Smith was dominant during his junior campaign en route to a Big East title and a third straight 3-A Eastern Regional championship.

106 — RAHSUN LAWRENCE, SO., ROCKY MOUNT HIGH: The Big East champion, Lawrence finished one win shy of the podium in Greensboro in what coach Jermaine Jones called one of the more surprising performance from his team.

113 — RAQUAVIOUS HOPKINS, SO., TARBORO; One of two Vikings’ wrestlers to qualify for the state tournament, Hopkins finished fourth in his weight class after battling an injury in the third-place match.

132 — KEYONTE WILLIAMS, SO., ROCKY MOUNT HIGH: Williams had to sweat off a few extra pounds before winning the Big East title, and came up just a win short of qualifying for Greensboro.

145 — QUADARRIUS HOPKINS, JR., TARBORO: It was a curious season for Hopkins, who lost the regional title on an illegal throw and finished third in the state after a frustrating semifinal.

160 — ALEX HENDERSON, SR., ROCKY MOUNT HIGH; The senior had a difficult bracket at the state championship, but Henderson won the Big East title and finished second at the regional tournament.

170 — SE’DRAK SHEPPARD, SR., ROCKY MOUNT HIGH: Sheppard won a match at the state tournament to cap off a senior season that included a third-place finish at the regional and a Big East championship.

220 — MYLES LANE, SR., NASH CENTRAL: Lane finished one win shy of qualifying for the state tournament, but he had a incredible season in which he only lost two matches.

285 — KENDRICK WATSON, SR., SOUTHERN NASH: A state qualifier, Watson wrestled back through the consolation brackets before being pinned just one win shy of the podium in Greensboro.

HONORABLE MENTION

Joshua Brice, Jr., Nash Central; Anthony Costanza, Jr., Tarboro; Michael Ellis, So., Tarboro; Tycen Hunter, Sr., Rocky Mount High; Dillon Joyner, Jr., Northern Nash; Daniel Medina, Fr., Southern Nash; Luis Rolon, Sr., Nash Central; Donte’ Wilkins, Sr., Rocky Mount High.

 

By Foster Lander
Sports Writer for Rocky Mount Telegram

Thursday, March 31, 2016

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