Unable to sweat, Wasilla wrestler learns to chill out
By RON WILMOT
Anchorage Daily News
Wasilla sophomore Jaimee Lettow cools Wasilla wrestler Ammon Pettijohn with mist Friday following his victory in the first match of the 152-pound class during the opening session of the Alaska State Wrestling Tournament.
Published: February 5th, 2005
Wrestling is considered by most coaches and athletes to be the toughest high school sport. Wrestlers endlessly run, jump rope and perform drills in hot, humid rooms to stay in shape. They pull on hooded sweatshirts and don layers of clothes and run to cut weight.
In other words, wrestlers sweat. A lot.
But sweating is one thing than Ammon Pettijohn cannot do, no matter how hard he tries.
Pettijohn, an 18-year-old senior wrestler for Wasilla High, was born without sweat glands. His condition, known as an ectodermal defect, is a rare genetic condition that renders the body’s natural cooling system ineffective. Some, such as Pettijohn’s mother Ginger, have poorly functioning sweat glands. Others, such as Ammon, have no sweat glands at all.
During wrestling matches and practices, Pettijohn must take precautions that he does not overheat. Sometimes, at practice, he excuses himself from drills, walks out into the winter air and jumps into a snow bank. A team manager may accompany him and cover him in snow like a vacationer on a white-sand beach.
Pettijohn said he can’t feel the cold sting of the snow.
“Though once I almost got frostbite, “he said.
Prior to matches, coaches and team managers use a spray bottle to mist the top of his head, face and neck and all over his upper body with cool water. That usually keeps him cool for the first two rounds. But as his body heats, his mouth goes dry, his face reddens and his eyes go blank. He becomes lethargic and, in his already exhausted state, it becomes difficult to think.
“It’s like I have a fever, “said Pettijohn, who once took his temperature during practice. The thermometer read 102 degrees.
“My head heats up and my muscles fatigue a lot faster, “he said. “I’m kind of in a stupor.”
So prior to the third and final round, Pettijohn calls an injury timeout and covers himself in ice packs. He carries two coolers to every meet filled with ice gel packs of various sizes and ziplock bags full of ice. In a well-practiced routine, coaches and managers set out two long ice gel packs for Pettijohn to lie down on. One pack wraps up and around his stomach. Two ice packs go under his knees, two under his armpits, one behind his head, another on his face and one on his chest. Meanwhile, coaches and managers continually spray him down with water bottles.
Because there is no break between rounds, Pettijohn must spend his minute and a half of allotted injury time for the ice break. Any more time and the wrestler must forfeit the match. Pettijohn takes his ice bath for about a minute, so he can preserve 30 seconds or so to deal with any injury. Once, a referee forgot to call out the remaining time. The minute and half ran out and Pettijohn had to forfeit.
He has petitioned the Alaska School Activities Association, which governs high school athletics, to allow him three minutes of injury time but was denied.
Pettijohn requires about half an hour to cool down after matches. At Friday’s Class 4A state meet at Chugiak High, after an 11-1 opening-round victory over South’s Jeff Dubuisson, he sat next to the mat for several minutes, breathing heavily, a large ice bag resting on the back of his neck.
Pettijohn grew up playing various sports, but it took some time to realize the limits of his condition. He said that as a baby, he experienced seizures. The seizures went away when one of several doctors finally diagnosed his condition and Pettijohn could monitor his activity.
Pettijohn tried other sports, for instance swimming, a seemingly ideal sport for anyone with his condition.
“I never overheated, “he said. “But I sink like a rock.”
An eighth-grade foray into football didn’t work out so well either. At first he couldn’t figure out why he tired so quickly.
“I thought maybe I’m just not cut out for football, “he said. “Then I realized it was the helmet on my head. I was just roasting.”
He settled on wrestling, and for the past four years has qualified for the state meet. He wears a shirt that says, “Wasilla wrestling. No sweat.”
“My dad wrestled, and my brother before me, “he said.
Pettijohn’s condition makes it dangerous to shed more than a few pounds at a time — unlike most wrestlers, who may sweat off many pounds prior to a meet in order to make weight. Pettijohn must always stay close to his wrestling weight of 152 pounds so he doesn’t have to lose too much at once.
“I could drop fifteen pounds of sweat in one workout, “said Pettijohn’s father Pat, a former state champion wrestler with Dimond. “He can’t do that.”
It also limits where he can live. On a summer trip to Washington, D.C., when he was 10, Pettijohn said he nearly passed out in the humid heat.
Pettijohn plans to attend Brigham Young University next year, then serve a one-year mission with the Mormon church.
“I’ll ask them just one thing, “Pettijohn said. “To not send me someplace hot.”
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