2013-14 Results and Media Coverage
Last Modified: Monday, January 27, 2014 11:41 AM
By Rhett Manuel / American Press
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The life of an amateur
wrestler is a strange one in a country that thrives off excess. Nothing
says different about wrestlers more than the disciplines they follow in
order to make weight before matches. The scene at St. Louis Catholic High School’s home wrestling meets is a shocking site to a person who isn’t indoctrinated into wrestling’s culture. There is a table of refreshments available to the athletes before and after the meet. But it’s far from typical fare for a high schooler. Finger foods like nachos are replaced by packages of mixed nuts and fresh fruits. The closest thing you’ll find to a hamburger available to the wrestlers are turkey sandwiches with hummus used in place of mayonnaise or mustard. Of course, these sandwiches are on whole wheat bread. Flatbread is available to the athlete watching his carbohydrate intake. More often than not, the wrestlers aren’t eating until after weigh-ins.
It’s an example of forgoing simple pleasures many people take for granted at athletic events. It shows that for amateur wrestlers at the high school level, the sacrifice is perhaps harder and more extreme. It’s a small part of what makes the rise of St. Louis’ wrestling program so incredible. |
Four years ago, wrestling didn’t exist on St. Louis’ campus. Now, the program boasts two defending state champions. Lehrue Stevens IV currently reigns at the top of Division III’s 152-pound weight class while Conway Lebleu is the defending champion at 170 pounds. The school had a third individual win a state title last year and finished fourth as a team in the state tournament.
The same man who helped start the program, wrestling coach Terry Gage, still coaches the Saints. Gage is from the old-school, bringing nearly five decades of wrestling knowledge to the program. He brought the team to a camp in Iowa last summer. But the students raised their own money, $146 a piece, and rode 30 hours one way on a Greyhound bus just to get to the camp.
Gage is still as energetic as a young man and fit as ever. He tells a story of taking years off from the sport then wrestling in a tournament and placing second. His knowledge and mentality have helped shape a stable of young champions.
“We decided that we didn’t want this to be a band-aid program,” Gage said. “We wanted this to be a legacy program that people would be proud of for years to come. That’s what we’ve done. We won championships against teams that have had wrestling programs for decades. The boys have worked phenomenally hard. “To have three state champions after three years is phenomenal in the wrestling community. The boys having no wre
stling experience outside of a couple in the (St. Louis) junior (wrestling) program. They have over-exceeded their boundaries.”
Lebleu is out until the state tournament with an injury, but Stevens is healthy and stacking up wins. In a recent 42-36 win over Sulphur, the Tors forfeited the weight class and the six points normally awarded for a pinfall.
Each individual match is scored, but meets are decided by the following format: a decision (winning a match by fewer than 8 points) is worth 3 points, a major decision (winning a match by 8 to 14 points) is worth 4 points, a technical fall (getting ahead of your opponent by 15 or more points) earns 5 points and a pinfall is worth 6 points.
Stevens and Lebleu’s journey into wrestling began with the junior program, where young athletes get an introduction into the sport in the eighth grade. They were brought into the sport by a mutual friend and teammate’s brother. That teammate is Andrew Pousson, who wrestles at 152 pounds as well. Both have not-so-fond memories of that first day of practice.
“We started with (Andrew’s) brother,” Stevens said. “At first, we thought wrestling was only with the slamming chairs and what not. It kind of took off from there and getting our butts kicked a bit during freshman year and growing in our skills.”
“It’s a lot of cardio,” Lebleu added.
With wrestling being more of a niche sport, there are only a few schools in Southwest Louisiana that have programs. Because of that, St. Louis travels to cities like New Orleans, Shreveport, Baton Rouge and Lafayette on weekends to wrestle tournaments. Holidays are hardly that either, with the sport demanding most of the team’s time from the beginning of October until the end of February.
But the young wrestlers find a way to stay sharp despite the lack of high-level area programs, their own practices.
“We have some great guys on our team that have helped us get better,” Stevens said. “Wrestling guys that are bigger, you get used to throwing around weight and getting in so many matches.”
“You’re looking at the guys who have done well in state over and over,” Lebleu explained. “You want to do as well as them and it drives you.”
Above the issues of staying sharp comes the biggest discipline and challenge of wrestling, making weight. It’s a balancing act that requires athletes to eat enough to have energy for the sport yet stay at a weight that isn’t too far off the number required to compete.
Both Stevens and Lebleu have had some battles with making weight in the past, but have methods and motivation to keep it off.
“I had to cut real hard at first,” Stevens said. “You don’t drink carbonated drinks, but you don’t drink too much water. There’s a lot of running with sweats and there’s no sugars of any kind, really. But these past few years have gotten easier.”
Lebleu’s motivation is toward a healthy lifestyle in the future.
“I think about the future and how I’d like to be healthy years from now,” he said. “It really drives me.”
All a part of the sacrifice of being a champion.
