Kings grad gets off mat for victory
By Colleen Kane
Enquirer staff writer
Three weeks ago, John Velez was ready to take some time off from wrestling matches. Last year’s shoulder injury was acting up, and he figured he’d save himself for postseason wrestling. Then, there was a chance to make history.
On Jan. 29, Northwestern hosted Iowa, a team the Wildcats hadn’t beaten since 1968. Velez, a Kings graduate who wrestles at 125 pounds for Northwestern, had told his coaches he probably wasn’t going to wrestle in the meet because of shoulder pain. By the luck of the draw, wrestling started at 133 pounds, leaving the 125-pound match for the last of the night.
The Wildcats fell behind 19-3 early in the match but began to claw their way out of the hole, sparked by a pin at 174 pounds. When Northwestern heavyweight Dustin Fox won a decision to tie the score at 19 with only the 125 match to go, Velez knew what he had to do. He had wrestled Iowa’s Charlie Falck before, at the Midlands Championships, and won.
“If I went out there, I knew we were going to win, “Velez said.
Velez threw on a teammate’s shoes, singlet and headgear and jumped in. He won a 10-8 decision, and Northwestern beat No. 8 Iowa 22-19, its first win over the Hawkeyes in 37 years.
“I’d have to say it was one of the best sports experiences of my life, “Velez said. “The fans rushed the stadium floor and were all over us. It was like we had won the national championship. They were going nuts.”
The No. 17 Wildcats have been giving the crowd more to cheer about this season. The week before the Iowa meeting, Northwestern won its first Big Ten dual match in five years at Purdue. Velez also won the final match of that night.
“It’s the attitude in our locker room – a we-can-do-anything attitude, “Velez said. “Guys are asking for bigger challenges.”
Velez is also looking for big things for himself in his junior season, a year he has been building up to since redshirting his first year.
As an Ohio state champion at Kings, Velez wrestled at 112 pounds, so he entered Northwestern a very small 125-pounder. “He was 119 pounds soaking wet, with a full belly, “Northwestern coach Tim Cysewski said.
Said Velez: “My freshman year was extremely tough. I was the smallest kid and the most inexperienced. I would get my butt kicked every day. It was a hard lesson learned.”
By the end of his sophomore year, with many 7:30 a.m. weightlifting sessions, Velez grew into his weight class. He is now consistently 135-140 pounds.
Last year, he wrestled with a shoulder problem called subluxation, in which the shoulder dislocates partially and pops back into place. He wore an elastic brace to hold the shoulder while he wrestled. The condition caused tears in the rotator cuff and labrum of his shoulder, which required arthroscopic surgery and six months of rehabilitation to repair, Velez said.
He still finished the season just one match from All-America status.
But the injury did have an upside. Velez said it taught him better form and to wrestle safer. He also said that after the Iowa match, his shoulder has felt better. He is ranked 10th nationally at 125 pounds in the latest NWCA/InterMat Division I coaches’ poll.
He wants to be an NCAA champ.
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