High Aspirations
By Liz Barry on Mar. 03, 2010
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Face flushed and sweat suit drenched, Liberty University senior Frankie Gayeski grapples with a teammate in the balmy wrestling room, then cranks out a few miles on the stationary bike.
Tonight’s match against UNC Greensboro is Gayeski’s first after being sidelined for two weeks with a lower back injury.
In the next three hours, his weight must dip to 149, and he still has pounds to lose.
Now, it’s down to sheer grit. He’s barely eaten all day and he’s hurting badly.
***
Gayeski — a senior and team captain — is a standout wrestler on Liberty’s burgeoning wrestling team. Head Coach Jesse Castro calls Gayeski a “pace setter” whose intensity and passion sets an example for his teammates.
Gayeski is part of the resurgence of Liberty’s wrestling program, which was cut in 1994 due to financial pressure and to comply with Title IX gender requirements, Castro said.
In 2005, Castro was hired to revamp the program and this year marks the team’s fourth season.
Castro’s dream is to see a national resurgence of wrestling, an under-the-radar sport that has gotten the ax at high schools and colleges tight on cash. For Castro, who has devoted more than 40 years to the sport, wrestling is as much a culture as it is a sport.
“I’ll be bold, I personally don’t believe there is a comparable sport in developing young men.”
“It’s man vs. man… You can’t hide behind your teammates. The pressure is intense and the discipline and athleticism required to compete at a high level is also intense.”
Castro is frank about his aspirations for Liberty: he wants to build one of the top 20 programs in the nation.
The first step in getting there is to break into the top 50 of the Division 1 NCAA teams. Liberty is on the cusp, he said.
The squad ended its dual meet schedule with 11 wins and 9 losses, and the NCAA East Regional Qualifier is on the horizon. Castro hopes to send wrestlers from six out of 10 weight classes to the NCAA national tournament, and produce the school’s first All-American. Gayeski is in the running for that.
“It’s a tall order, but it’s a good goal,” Castro said.
***
Gayeski makes weight for the UNC Greensboro match. The relief in his face is palpable when he steps off the scale.
With more than an hour until he competes, he has time to refuel. He eats a bagel and cream cheese and an orange to gain strength. If he eats too much, he risks feeling sluggish on the mat.
During wrestling season, Gayeski lives by the scale. His weight fluctuates within a ten- pound margin during the week and at any given moment, he can usually guess his weight to within a half-pound.
Years of wrestling have taught him about portion control and moderation. The worst thing he can do is binge.
“You don’t want to bounce up and down like that…” he says. “Then wresting becomes the sport of losing weight instead of wrestling.”
Chicken and pasta are staples. His mom mails him coolers of frozen chicken Parmesan, lasagna and other home-cooked meals individually packaged in Tupperware.
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Gayeski, a native of New Jersey, transferred to Liberty from Lehigh University, which has a top 10 wrestling program. At Lehigh, Gayeski said, he partied too much, his GPA suffered and he lost his grant money.
“My coach at Lehigh always said, ‘You can do two things right. You got your social scene, you got your grades and you got wrestling,’” Gayeski said. “Mine were social scene and wrestling, I did alright in both of them, but my grades were awful.”
During high school, Gayeksi crossed paths with Castro, who coached a rival high school wrestling team. A few years later, when his time at Lehigh was on the rocks, Gayeski decided to check out Liberty.
The conservative Christian school was a different world: strict rules, mandatory convocation three times a week, a non-existent drinking culture.
“It was definitely a shock to me at first,” Gayeski said. “But it started to grow on me.”
The structure worked. His grades improved dramatically, and he’s finishing up a graduate degree through Liberty Online.
***
Gayeski jogs through the hallways of the Vines Center, waiting for his match to begin. He can’t stay still. If he’s not jogging, he’s stretching, if he’s not stretching, he’s sitting down in a nervous jitter.
Three hours ago, his energy was draining fast. Now he’s revved up and ready to wrestle.
Wrestling includes a huge mental component. Though it’s a team sport, out on the mat, it’s man vs. man. Gayeski has been groomed to compete since third grade, and he’s in it to win.
“It’s just you against somebody else out there,” Gayeski said. “The feeling you get when you wear somebody down and they’re mentally broken ... you can just see the look in his face, the way he carries himself, he’s just not putting forth much effort.”
Gayeski faces off with his opponent in an even grapple. Within minutes, it becomes clear that Gayeski will dominate the match.
He beats his opponent 23-12.
***
The match attracted about 300 students and community members. Compared to football or basketball, the team’s fan base is very small.
“Wrestling is not in the limelight,” Castro said.
“These guys do it not for the glory, but for the reward of self-gratification of reaching a particular goal.”
Now that the dual-meet season is over, Liberty focuses on preparing for the NCAA East Regional Qualifier on March 6. If the team lives up to Castro’s goal, they will send six men to the NCAA National Championship in Nebraska.
For Gayeski, it’s his last shot at All-American.
The career of a competitive wrestler is short, with most athletes peaking in college, Castro said. However, the discipline and commitment that the sport requires translates into a life after wrestling and a future career. It’s no coincidence, Castro says, that military recruiters target high school wrestling matches to recruit for Special Forces.
“We’re producing a certain type of young men, we’re producing warriors.”
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