West G’s Gallagher done with doubt

Kyle Gallagher was done. A sophomore with the West Geauga wrestling team, Gallagher had just finished off a 11-18 season, including a two-and-out at the Division II Lake Catholic Sectional.

Over a five-year span, going back to his sixth-grade year, Gallagher had one season with a winning record — his eighth-grade year. He was 19-27 as a high schooler.

Gallagher wasn’t sure what he was going to do in his winters. But at the time, anything sounded better than wrestling.

“I almost quit, to be honest with you,” Gallagher said. “But I just love the sport, I guess.”

So Gallagher stuck with it.

His loyalty to the sport paid off this past weekend, when he clinched a state berth with a consolation semifinal win against Perry’s Nick Mason.

Gallagher (30-9) will face two-time state-placer Landon Hall of Wapakoneta in a 220-pound openinground match March 9 at the Jerome Schottenstein Center.

Many observers will write him off before the match even starts. But that’s OK with Gallagher because, frankly, he almost wrote himself off at one point. Now he’s glad he didn’t. “At one point I wanted to quit, but now I’m going to state,” Gallagher said. “It’s pretty sweet.

“What would I tell someone thinking about quitting? Don’t. Stick with it. Because if you keep working hard and focus on your goals, you can do anything.”

West Geauga coach Joe Marino can smile now when he thinks back to Gallagher’s younger days in wrestling. At the time, though, it wasn’t all that funny.

“He didn’t have a lot of success in middle school,” Marino said, “and because we didn’t have much depth in the upper weights, he was forced into varsity action as a ninth- and 10thgrader. He almost quit. But look how far he has come. We’re very proud of him.”

His junior year didn’t exactly pay dividends, either. He went 22-16 and was 0-3 at sectionals.

Heading into his senior season this past December, he was 41-43 as a high school wrestler with an 0-5 record at the sectional tournament.

Many wrestlers would have walked away. Gallagher didn’t. Everything came together as a senior. After never winning a tournament in his high school career, Gallagher won four of them this year — Cleveland Central Catholic, Wellsville, the Chagrin Valley Conference tournament and then the sectional at Lake Catholic where previously he had never won a match. Additionally, he was second at Perry’s Pin City Tournament and fourth at the Kenston Invitational Tournament.

“I also think it is really relevant that Kyle is an example how we have to do things at West G and a lot of other public schools,” Marino said. “So many kids today think they will be instantly successful in sports.

“This year there are 672 state qualifiers, and only 44 of them are ninth-graders. Do that math. So many of them quit.”

Gallagher said the combination of his love for wrestling, coupled with his notion wrestling helped his skill set on the football field where he was a defensive end for the Wolverines, was a good marriage.

“Handwork, footwork, it helps with everything I do in football,” said Gallagher, who is planning to play football at Marietta or Tiffin after graduation.

Gallagher even admits he likes wrestling practice.

“Practices ... they’re tough,” he said. “But you need that for your conditioning. I like practices. It’s a good time.”

With his tournament life on the line this past weekend at Alliance, Gallagher fended off a late escape attempt by Perry’s Mason to hold on for a one-point win. Afterward, he raised his arms high above his head in euphoria as Marino pumped his fists emphatically celebrating the state tournament-clinching victory.

How this weekend goes, Gallagher doesn’t know.

But what he does know is he wouldn’t be in this position if he had followed through with his initial thoughts in March 2015 — thoughts that tempted him to quit wrestling.

Now he’s a state-qualifier who has had to surprisingly — even to himself — had to recalibrate his goals.

“Now that I’m there,” he said, “I definitely want to get on that podium. That would be awesome.”