was defiance or that I thought myself invincible as a teenager, but that assessment struck me as not only overcautious but truly absurd. My parents didn’t seem all that worried about it. My mom forced me to see a physical therapist, but my dad—an old-school blue-collar type—just told me to tough it out. My high school coach, John Mesenbrink, wasn’t overly concerned about it, either. He told me to “get it stronger and let’s go get another state title next year.” It hindered me late in my sophomore year, but I ignored the doctor’s cautions and kept wrestling, with my only compromise being that
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