Tolbert’s ‘upper hand’
Portage junior continues to ascend in sport, winning first sectional title
Portage junior E’Shawn Tolbert is catching up to his competition. He was a later arrival to wrestling, although that didn’t stop him from diving into it headfirst.
“Once I started wrestling, I just fell in love with the sport,” he said. “I wasn’t that good when I first started, but I had a lot of good drill partners. That’s how my wrestling evolved.”
It has evolved enough that Tolbert (27-3), who is ranked No. 14 in the state at 113 pounds by IndianaMat, was once again atop the podium on Saturday. He won at 113 at the Portage Sectional and was one of five individual champions for Portage, which captured its third straight sectional title.
Success like that is nothing new for Tolbert, who went 24-6 and was a state qualifier at 106 last season, an accomplishment he described as “just a happy moment.” But this was his first sectional title.
“I worked hard for it all year,” he said.
The road to the 2022 state meet started just three years earlier, when Tolbert started wrestling after watching his younger brother, Lashon, compete.
Lashon Tolbert, a freshman 132-pounder who also advanced to the Hobart Regional, said he had the advantage on his older brother when E’Shawn Tolbert started wrestling. But that didn’t last long.
“We used to wrestle a lot,” Lashon Tolbert said. “But he just got better and better, and now he’s winning sectional titles. These days he does have the upper hand on me a little bit.”
E’Shawn Tolbert also credited his quick ascension to working with his cousin Tim Springs, a 2001 Illinois state champion at 152 pounds at Bremen. They had a similar style, which helped Tolbert
pick up the early fundamentals of the sport.
“He was big for me because he wrestled in space,” E’Shawn Tolbert said. “My wrestling evolved from how he wrestled.”
The wins didn’t come for E’Shawn Tolbert immediately, however. The losses weighed on his mind but didn’t stop him from pursuing more progress.
“When I was losing matches, I’d
still be mad,” he said. “I didn’t want to lose. But every time I lost, I just went back to practice.”
E’Shawn Tolbert went 21-9 as a freshman at 106, and his season ended in the second round of the East Chicago Semistate, one win shy of a ticket to state.
Lashon Tolbert said he believes his older brother’s success this season stems from his willingness to “shoot” — wrestling jargon for attempting the takedowns which lead to points.
“He never used to shoot,” Lashon Tolbert said. “He’d just back up the whole match, and the coaches would be screaming at him for it. But now he’s shooting every match.”
Portage coach Luis Acuna said E’Shawn Tolbert has also started to grasp the details beyond practices and meets that can be just as important for success in the sport.
“He got a taste of state last year, and he’s always had an innate fire,” Acuna said. “But he’s a little more mature now, especially when it comes to things off of the mats, like nutrition. That’s been a bigger piece for him.”
E’Shawn Tolbert kept referring to his “tool belt” when talking about his wrestling future. It’s a popular phrase in Portage’s wrestling room, according to Acuna.
For someone who’s still relatively new to the sport, E’Shawn Tolbert said his goal has been to keep practicing new situations so he’s prepared when he encounters them in a match — a new tool for the belt. He also used this philosophy during the offseason, experimenting with freestyle wrestling, which is different from the folkstyle wrestling in high school.
“It’s doing what I usually do but just evolving, always doing different things to put in my tool belt that I can use during matches,” he said.