The Biggest Match of My Career
The girl is undoubtedly cute. She weighs 103 pounds and has long blond hair. She's 5' ¾, but she says, “Actually you should just say I'm 5'1 because it's close enough (laughs). But its your call.”
Her Facebook and Myspace pictures are filled with pictures of her posing very girly. If you saw her in a dress, wrestling is the last sport you'd think she participated in.
But then you see some pictures exposing her lean and very fit body. There is not an ounce of fat on her. But still, I've seen the pictures where she's wearing a dress. This girl can't possibly be a wrestler can she?
She's not only a wrestler. She's one of the most successful high school wrestlers in the history of girl wrestling. She's CC Weber of Goodrich high school in Michigan. One of the toughest wrestling states there is in the country.
While most girls high school lives would be ruined if they were called a “Beast,” that's one of the biggest compliments you can give a wrestler. And make no mistake about it, this lil' blond beauty is a beast.
CC has won numerous tournaments, both against girls and boys. She has won a National Championship during her junior season against girls at the 105 weight class. But perhaps her biggest individual accomplishment is finishing 4th in the state against boys in Michigan her senior year at the 103 weight class. Or maybe it's the fact she made it to states her sophomore, and junior years as well.
So which of these accomplishments is her personal favorite? None of the above.
During her junior year, the team accomplished a long awaited goal when it won the team state championship. CC and fellow girl teammate Kristi Garr were featured on ESPN's Outside The Lines. The story showed how much the team championship meant to not only CC, but the rest of the wrestlers as well.
CC's senior season was downright amazing. As a captain, CC compiled approximately 50 wins while only suffering 5 losses (3 to the same boy) her senior year. But there's one match in particular, that CC will never forget. It's the match her teammates asked her to defend the state championship.
It was the semi-finals and Goodrich was taking on Swan Valley High School. CC says, “When we started that dual everyone knew it was gonna be a battle. But we also knew that we were the tougher team, and if we all wrestled tough we'd beat them.”
After all her accomplishments, confidence is not something that CC is lacking. But even CC gave a little gulp, when she found out her match at 103, was going to be the last match of the dual. “When they pulled 112 as the starting weight, let me tell you my stomach dropped!!! I knew that no matter what, it was going to come down to me, because our teams were so evenly matched.”
But that stomach has done countless amount of crunches. You can see everyone of CC's abdomen muscles in that stomach. All of her training, prepared her physically for this match. But what about mentally? CC says, “Honestly I couldn't watch any of my teammates because I was too busy pacing the whole time.” The Goodrich captain was nervous. Nervous, but confident. She says, “I was convincing myself that losing was absolutely not an option. I didn't care if God was gonna come out and wrestle me. I was not about to let my team down especially being a captain.”
But God sat this match out. Her opponent, was a boy named Jared Flores.
Flores was no slouch himself. But he was a freshman. He didn't have the experience that CC had. If CC wanted to search her soul for confidence, all she had to do was think back to last season when she beat Shane Dutton in the regionals 5-3, to advance to individual states.
But pressure is a weird element, and you never know how you're going to respond. When CC beat Dutton, it was a big match for her, but not the team. This was different. And her teammates let her know it. She said, “Once we knew it was for sure gonna come down to me, all my teammates were like CC, you have to win. CC it's coming down to you.” But if that's not pressure enough, her coach made sure she knew the magnitude of the match. CC says, “But the moment that really hit me is when my coach said CC its coming down to you, and I wouldn't want it any other way.”
How did CC take all of this pressure? “That fired me up,” she said. If CC was feeling all this pressure, imagine how Flores felt. Before the match, CC knew she was in for a battle, “He only had two losses the whole year, so he was no pud. (wimp)”
But once they walked on the mat, the confident CC knew the match was over. “Right when I stepped out on the mat, I knew I was going to win when I saw the kids face. He was mentally broke before the match even started.”
Had this match occurred during the regular season, perhaps Flores would have stood a chance. But not this match, not today. CC says, “First I see his scared expression on his face, and then right after the whistle blew I got that first takedown so quick, and I wasn't nervous after that.” She may not have been nervous, but there was a long way to go until her hand was raised.
This is where all the training, all the experience, all the confidence comes in. CC was up 2-0. Most wrestlers wouldn't want to give away a point, but CC knew she took Flores down once, she can take him down again. So she let him up, and literally gave him a point. She knew what she was doing, as she took Flores down again, and ended the period up 4-1.
The second period started and Flores chose down. Once again CC let Flores up to make the score 4-2. CC took him down again and made the score 6-2. In the third period, CC chose down and got a point for escaping. She says before the final whistle she took him down again, but the referee never gave her credit for the points.
But CC didn't need the points. The whistle blew to signify the end of the match. CC Weber 7, Jared Flores 2. More importantly, Goodrich H.S. 30, Saginaw Swan Valley 26.
Normally in victory, CC is gracious and mindful of the losing wrestler, but she couldn't hide her emotions this time, “There's a sweet picture of me smiling with my hand raised, and I never smile after I wrestle.” After the match, CC had enough energy to celebrate with her team, “After I won I ran to my coach and he lifted me up, and then everyone on the team pretty much tackled me. (Laughing) It was great!”
Goodrich went on to win their second straight title by defeating Dundee High School 33-25. The second championship felt even nicer than the first one for CC. She says, “It was soooo important to me. This was our teams goal right after we won our first state title, to get a second one. It was more important then the first one because this year our team for sure didn't have as much talent as it did the year before, but we were just so tough and worked so hard. A lot of people doubted us. But we were just so tough and winning on toughness is the best feeling ever.”
As for her semi-final win over Flores, CC says she is extremely proud that when her teammates needed her most, she responded. “I went out there and in my opinion had the best match of my season. I almost majored the kid. Call it the will to win I guess.”
When asked what she meant by the will to win, and didn't she think her opponent also had that same will, she responded, “The only way I can explain it is, basically just believing in your ability to do what you have trained to do...win. And knowing that there is no other option. Flores may have had it, but I know I wanted that match more than he did.”
During the match, CC says she's very proud that she never put her team in danger of losing. While this next quote may seem cocky, it wasn't intended that way. It was more to show how proud she is that during the biggest moment of her high school career, the girl who is oh so close to 5'1, wrestled like a 7' giant, “I was in control the whole match. He didn't even come close to scoring on me. I dominated every period. I dominated the match. I was the better wrestler.”
She proved she was the better wrestler again when the two met up again in individual states. This match was much closer, but CC still came out on top with a 3-1 win. “Well I knew it was going to be a good match because he knew how I wrestled. I still knew I was going to win though.”
Unfortunately for CC, she didn't accomplish her final high school goal, of winning the state individual championship. She had to settle for 4th place.
And though you maybe reading this and saying, “Settle?!?!?!?” CC has the attitude of a winner, and 4th is settling, “Yeah, I was really pissed I didn't win individual states. Everyone else thought getting fourth was good (laughs). That annoyed me but whatever.”
Would she trade one of her team championships for a state championship? No way she says, “I'd rather win the team title. Hands down.”
Thanks to her semi-final victory, she did.
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