When Jason Shuey and Hector De Dios take the mat in Saturday’s Jasper Semistate, they’ll be making their first appearance at that level of the state wrestling tournament.
But both of the Columbus North wrestlers say they’re well prepared for the toughest high school competition of their careers to date — thanks to a rigorous daily training routine in the Bull Dogs’ wrestling room.
“From the beginning of the year until now, I’ve improved a ton with just how the room up here is run,” said Shuey, a freshman 120-pounder. “We do nothing but compete up here. It’s really competitive up here, and it grows you throughout the season.”
De Dios, a junior 160-pounder, echoed those sentiments.
“It’s going to be a tough time over there, but we’re going to fight through as we fight here every day,” De Dios said. “We make each other tougher every day. It just becomes a bond and a family up here.”
That bond has carried on even though the team was apart for most of last spring and summer because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The wrestlers and coaches stayed connected through Zoom meetings until they were cleared for contact in September.
“We would do our warmup or little basic things to get our heart going, like stance in motion, a lot of sprawls, shots and down blocks — everything that we usually do, just fundamental work, so we could stay in shape and still have our timing correct,” De Dios said.
Shuey wrestled in third grade, but then gave up the sport for a few years before returning in middle school. De Dios didn’t start wrestling until his freshman year.
“As a freshman, I was playing football, and (wrestling) coach (Matt) Joyce came down to the weight room where we were training, and he just convinced us to come up here,” De Dios said. “He just showed us a bit of what the room was going to be like, how the family grows together and how the bond comes in. It just sounded really appealing to me.”
Shuey earned his spot in the semistate with a second-place finish in Saturday’s Jeffersonville Regional. He also had finished second in the Jennings County Sectional.
“Getting to semistate was definitely the goal,” Shuey said. “Then getting in here and putting in the work, that goal got further and further into placing this year. Going next year, it’s definitely going to be a lot more comfortable getting used to the competition that’s there. It’s not going to be something that’s completely new.”
A regional qualifier last year, De Dios qualified for semistate with a third-place regional finish.
“When I won the first-round match (at regional), it felt like my goal from this summer came true,” De Dios said. “Coach is helping me out, the team is helping me out, trying to get me to work harder every day so I can place in the state.”
The goal for both will be to win at least their first two matches, which would guarantee them a spot in the top four in their weight classes and a trip to next weekend’s state finals. Both likely will have to beat a pair of ranked wrestlers to accomplish that feat.
Shuey (14-9) will open against Floyd Central’s Lou Knable (18-6), who is ranked No. 18 at 120. A win likely would set up a match against No. 15 Braden Haines (14-7) of Brownsburg in the quarterfinals, known as the “ticket round.”
“It will definitely be a fight every match,” Shuey said. “It’s definitely going to be tough, but I feel like the family up here in the room is getting everybody prepared, even for next year.”
De Dios (16-6) will first face Gibson Southern’s Owen Bryant (25-3), who is ranked No. 19 at 160. A win would put him in the ticket round, likely against No. 13 Mark Everman (24-4) of Decatur Central.
“I feel like it’s all up to me and how much I put in the effort and work and, ‘Do I really want to go to the state championship, or do I just want to be happy at the semistate?'” De Dios said. “If I make it up there (to state) next year, it will make me feel a lot more prepared and more comfortable than I would if I didn’t.”
Joyce is glad Shuey and De Dios will have at least one more chance to make it to state if they don’t this year.
“I tell kids all the time, ‘Go as many times as you can,’ and the same thing with state — ‘Try to get to state as many times as you can. Don’t wait until your senior year to want to get there because each year, those draws can be brutal, especially coming through our semistate,'” Joyce said. “Sometimes, it’s the luck of the draw.”
Joyce said he isn’t surprised that Shuey and De Dios have made it this far.
“Hector and Jason have been top performers on the team all year,” Joyce said. “Realistically, they’re the hardest workers in our room. It’s nice when that happens for those guys, so it’s not a surprise they’re in the position they’re in. We talk about all season doing what we do best and being able to wrestle at our best regardless of the situation. We’ve worked all year to this point, and I expect them to go and give full effort and see where things land out.”
