Asselstine hopes to grind out medal
U of A wrestler likes to wear out the opposition
As a developing local club wrestler, Michael Asselstine had one major problem — nobody wanted to be his training partner.
“They didn’t want to wrestle me because I was too small,” said the 5-foot-6 Asselstine, whose ‘sitting’ weight is 69 kilograms (152 pounds), but who competes at 61-kilos (134 and-a-half pounds). “Part of my scrappiness is that I had to prove (myself) to these guys by keeping on fighting, getting beat up and just keeping going.”
When it was suggested to the amiable University of Alberta student, and the 2014 Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) champion in his weight class, that he’s Canadian wrestling’s Brendan Gallagher, he said, laughing: “I guess so.”
“I was always small,” the 24-year-old Asselstine said. “When I graduated from high school, I was only five feet. Then I grew five inches right after that and put on a bunch of weight.”
That growth spurt still leaves Asselstine well short of Gallagher, the Montreal Canadiens pocket-sized agitator. Both are fierce competitors with good natured attitudes. Both are elite athletes in their chosen sport.
Like Gallagher, who grew up in Sherwood Park, Asselstine is a self-described grinder, a tireless worker, a real pain in the neck to his opponents.
“I beat people up by wearing them down,” Asselstine said. “I make them not want to wrestle me. By the end, a lot of them are exhausted.”
It’s a successful formula. Asselstine, the U of A’s male athlete of the year in 2013, is part of Canada’s 14-athlete wrestling team (seven men, seven women) who will compete at the Commonwealth Games, which open Wednesday in Glasgow, Scotland.
Before you can grind on the wrestling mat, you’ve got to be exceptionally fit, and Asselstine qualifies by hard work.
“That’s one of the big things that I have here in the room is my cardio (cardiovascular fitness), it has always been there,” Asselstine said. “When I do my workouts here, I do a six-mile bike ride to the U of A, down into the river valley and back up in about 20 minutes.
“I do that coming here, do my workout, bike home. Before practice, I bike here, practise, bike home.”
He needs to be exceptionally fit, given his workload, on and off the mat.
Asselstine just returned from Mexico City, where he won the silver medal in the 61-kilo weight class at the Pan American Wrestling Championships. After the Commonwealth Games, he will spend four days enjoying Glasgow before returning to Edmonton to prepare for the World Wrestling Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in September.
Last year, Asselstine also was head wrestling coach at McNally High School and an assistant coach with the Edmonton Wrestling Club, which is run out of the U of A.
He also is the athletes’ representative for both Alberta Wrestling and Canada Wrestling. Not to mention being a full-time student pursuing a degree in secondary education. He’s majoring in business and finance, with a minor in physical education. Apparently, he also could teach a graduate course in time management.
“It is hectic, to say the least,” Asselstine said. “There are some days when I’m leaving home at 5:30 a.m. (for 6 a.m. practice) and I’m not leaving the U of A until 10 at night to go home.”
Not for nothing is the video of Asselstine on his website titled, The Way of the Grinder (makeachamp.com/ar/mikeasselstine). He also is in the process of raising $10,000 to fund his international wrestling endeavours. So far, he’s raised about $5,800, by way of donations made through his website.
Asselstine continues to learn the nuances required to win on the international mat.
In Mexico City, Asselstine held early leads on points of 2-0 and 4-2 over his American opponent, before being surprised by a match-ending pin, for example.
“With the quality of competition and the way I was wrestling, I really feel I should have walked away with the gold.”
“At (the international) level, he’s still gathering experience,” said U of A wrestling coach Owen Dawkins, who has coached Asselstine since he was in Grade 10 at McNally High School. “The guys at that level, some of them have been at it for 10 years.
“When his time comes, he’ll be able to push for a world medal.”
A crucial question for ‘Wrasselstine,’ as a friend dubbed him, is whether he’ll be able to push for an Olympic medal. The 61-kilo class is not part of the Olympic program. He can’t make the 57-kilo weight and would have to layer on more muscle to wrestle at 65 kilos.
At the higher weight category, he reckons he might have to modify his style, also.
Dawkins also suggested politics could come into play, if wrestling superpowers like Russia, Iran and the United States were to lobby for the reinstatement of the 61-kilo class. But that’s out of Asselstine’s control.
In the meantime, Asselstine prepares for what may be the final two times he wrestles at 61-kilos internationally — the Commonwealth Games and the World Championships.
What does he expect in Glasgow, where Asselstine will weigh in on July 29 and wrestle the next day?
“It’s tough going in because I don’t know who’s necessarily going to be there,” Asselstine said. “India will be strong, they’re always strong.
“I’m pretty sure their 61-kilo (wrestler) is a World’s bronze medallist. Ideally, if I don’t walk out of there with a medal, I’m going to be really disappointed with myself.”