North Cedar wrestler Byron Boleyn takes aim at state

CLARENCE - North Cedar senior Byron Boleyn has a goal - make it to state and do well.

Last year, Boleyn was one match away from qualifying for state.

'If I can wrestle smart every match then I can beat almost everyone I will meet,” Boleyn said.

To be successful, Boleyn said he needs to stick to his training routine. Every Tuesday and Thursday, Boleyn and Miles McCullough, team captains, check the other wrestlers to make sure they are running hard to increase metabolism and to help maintain weight loss. They usually switch it up on Tuesdays by doing timed sprints and timed jogs. Other days they run timed sprints and run stairs.

'The crowd should be watching Byron because he's a senior, hard worker and district qualifier in the past,” assistant coach Scott Kasik said.

Hard work is one key to being a good wrestler. The other is family support.

'Dad would bring me to AAU wrestling practices,” Boleyn said. 'I started when I was in kindergarten. My dad did take me to basketball practices also, but I chose wrestling because I liked it better.”

Boleyn followed in his father's footstep. Jeremy Boleyn wrestled for Belvidere High School in Belvidere, Ill.

'Those tournaments,” said his mother, Kori Boleyn, 'taught him discipline and sportsmanship.”

'Byron still wears his T-shirt from the Muscatine tournament which he won when he was in 5th grade,” she added with a laugh.

'Mom also helps by purchasing nutritious foods or diet foods that help me maintain my weight,” Byron Boleyn said. 'My mom travels to all the tournaments because sometimes my dad can't go to the tournaments because he is working.”

When Boleyn was in junior high, he dominated and has stuck with the sport while many others have dropped out.

Boleyn's freshman and sophomore years, he had a combined win total of 18 wins. In his junior year, he had 26 wins and made it to districts. Boleyn was one match away from state, losing to Cayden Kilburgh of Lisbon.

Going into his senior year, Boleyn said weight loss was not hard for him because 'the previous three years had taught me a lot about what I can eat and when I can eat.”

This year, Boleyn had to cut 10 pounds.

'My fat test said I could cut weight down to 163, so I am wrestling at 170 pounds,” he said,

Boleyn is trying to take to heart some of the advice head coach Darrell Long has given the wrestlers - 'always get your points.”

Long uses the quote, along with several others from Dan Gable like 'if he shoots, you score. And of you shoot you score.”

At the beginning of practice, when the wrestlers drill, 'these quotes are Coach's way of stressing how our mind-set should be going into every match,” Boleyn said.

With discipline and family support, Boleyn should be able to wrestle smart and have a new memories of a successful season.