| Hi, my name is Jacob Norcross and I am a Senior at Bishop Gorman. I was first introduced to wrestling when my dad brought me to a practice at the Whizzer and Dawg wrestling club in Reno. I shook Coach Howe’s hand, put on some wrestling shoes, and stumbled onto the mat. After a couple of hard practices, it became clear; wrestling was not my sport. My five year old self hated all the bumps and bruises, the black eyes and the cuts. I cried every day to my dad until he finally let me quit—not exactly a glowing start to a wrestling career. |
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| Me quitting wrestling does not mean I stopped being an athlete, however. From football to baseball, and even swimming and cross country, I stayed busy with other sports before I decided it was time to try wrestling again. In 6th grade, one of my close friends convinced me to join the wrestling team because they needed a heavyweight. After some training, I toed the line for my first ever wrestling match— I got demolished. My 180 pound, chubby sixth grade self was many things, but an athlete was not one of them. I got demolished match after match, practice after practice, but I refused to quit. I trained and I trained, and I came back the next year and saw slight improvement going about .500 on the year. I finally made a big leap my 8th grade year. Not only had I finally grown into my body a little bit, but I actually understood how to wrestle now. Long gone was the timid little 6th grader, I was now the fearsome 8th grader with muscles and acne galore. This led to me going undefeated in my region that year and being set up to likely win an AAU State Championship, until Covid hit. |
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| Like many others, my life was rocked by Covid. I couldn’t even leave my house or go to school, but most importantly, I couldn’t wrestle anymore. I did not wrestle for another two years, instead focusing on football and school work. Finally, after a two year hiatus I knew it was time to come back. I walked through the House of Glory and right into the wrestling room. I found my home. I worked my butt off in there for three years, and the work paid off. I started my high school wrestling career getting head thrown—three matches in a row. I persevered that year, however, and I ended up taking 3rd place in 4A State. Not bad, but much room for improvement. In the next year, I grew so much. I gained 30+ pounds during football season and morphed into more of a man body, and it showed on the mat. I was suddenly much more competitive and had several high placings at big tournaments, such as La Costa Canyon. The year before I never would have dreamed of placing at a tournament outside of Nevada, but now it was expected. I was doing so good. I took all of this positive momentum and took it to State, only to get Second Place. I lost a match I believe I should’ve won. Whether it was lack of sleep due to my extremely difficult AP course load, lack of skill, or simply a lack of preparation, I fell short, and it destroyed me. |
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| I felt like the label of Runner-Up wouldn’t leave. From friends to teammates, everyone would make innocuous jokes that reminded me of the pain of my shortcomings. I made myself a promise then: this will never happen again. Even though, I played football year ‘round, I spent most mornings in the wrestling room. I spent Friday nights in the wrestling room. Occasionally, I even spent some weekends in the wrestling room. This hard work paid off. I improved leaps and bounds over the previous two years. I was now winning most Regional Tournaments with ease, and becoming a Finalist in every single tournament of the year. I was riding high, but it all came crashing down at the Chaparral Invitational. I was cruising through the bracket, not even watching my competition like I usually do and instead messing around with my teammates. This was a huge mistake. I strutted into the Finals match with an untouchable hubris. I couldn’t even imagine losing this match as I shook his hand and started around the circle. I lunged forward into a hard blast double. I felt him lurch backward towards the mat, and so I kept running. Yes! I thought. In my excitement, I lost discipline—running towards his shoulders for the pin. He took my momentum and flipped me straight to my back. I fought and I fought, but I could not overcome that initial deficit, I lost a close decision. Not only was I upset, my wrist was broken so badly I couldn’t even move it. How was I going to get through State now? |
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| There was only one thing to do: push full steam ahead. I worked twice as hard to overcome this disadvantage. I completely overhauled my game and reinvented myself in the span of a couple of weeks. After a strong showing at Regionals, I went into State with an uneasy confidence. Could I really beat the odds and avenge my loss at State the previous year. The answer turned out to be yes. I fought through every match and I ended up winning State without giving up a single point—finally. After years of off and on grinding, I was finally at the summit of all my hard work: a Champion. This journey taught me so much that I may never have known elsewhere. It taught me how to work hard, how to persevere, and, most importantly, how to win, no matter what. |
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