NO QUIT IN HIM
Anthony won state wrestling title with torn ACL, aims to repeat
Evan Anthony is wearing his gold Christian Brothers warm-up shirt, bouncing up and down on his black Nike sneakers as he gets loose before a match.
A closer look at his left knee reveals a thick, black brace holding together not just damaged ligaments, but the hopes and dreams of a wrestling career that almost ended prematurely.
In December 2019, Anthony's opponent was pushing him to the edge of the wrestling mat, driving him out of bounds. He planted his foot to steady himself. That's when he heard the pop in his knee.
“It was almost like the sound when you knock your knees together real hard,” Anthony said. “Just a quick click. I walked back in like ‘oh I don't think I'm ok.' Every time I'd bend it, it would pop in and out.”
He had torn the anterior cruciate ligament midway through his junior season in the biggest tournament on the schedule, the Kansas City Stampede.
He was wrestling better than
ever before. He thought that it was the year he could finally break through and win the Division II state title after finishing as a runner-up for two years in a row. And just like that, it appeared his season was over.
But after he came home and had an MRI, his doctor gave him a choice.
“He’s like you could stop, do the surgery and for sure make it back by next season,” Anthony said. “Or there’s a possibility you could wrestle without it. It would just be hard.”
Anthony chose the hard route. He pressed on without the surgery. He missed three weeks of competition but made it back in time for the postseason. To maybe no one’s surprise, there was Anthony in the finals of the 145-pound weight class at the Williamson County Ag Expo Center in Franklin last February.
He was leading Benjamin Marchetti of Father Ryan 9-5 with seven seconds to go when he heard another pop in his knee.
He was laying on the ground wondering if he had the strength to finish when he heard coach Derek Harrison’s voice saying there were just seven seconds left.
“He powered through it and after he won that match in the state finals he literally couldn’t walk,” Harrison said. “Two of us had to get on both sides of him and carry him off the mat and put him in a chair. He’s one of the first kids I’ve seen win a state championship on one leg more or less.”
Another trip to the doctor revealed that he had torn the meniscus in the knee, along with the ACL. This time, recovery would take six months. He had surgery done in March, a week before COVID-19 forced hospitals to pause elective surgeries.
“He was in a situation where if he didn’t have that surgery scheduled when it was scheduled with COVID and the regulations they put into hospitals, he wouldn’t have been able to wrestle this whole year. He made that window by like a week and that was a blessing from God,” said Harrison.
Following the surgery, Anthony went to physical therapy and rehabbed his knee. He was back by the beginning of the season. But by the time December rolled around, on the same weekend as last year, he tore the meniscus in his other knee.
“It turned out my other meniscus had torn and flipped upside down,” Anthony said. “I don’t know what the exact surgical name is for that but if it were to re-flip it would have locked up my whole leg.”
Anthony missed about a month and nearly half of his scheduled matches heading into the region tournament. But if there was any doubt, it wasn’t evident as Anthony won the 152-pound weight class at the region finals last Saturday at Christian Brothers with a dominant 19-2 victory.
He’ll be the No. 1 seed at the state tournament in Chattanooga on Thursday. And he hopes that if he ends up winning again this time, he’ll be able to walk off the mat under his own power and celebrate on his own terms.
But regardless of the result, Anthony knows how close he came to missing this season. And Harrison cherishes the fact that Anthony never gave up.
“He just has the tenacity to keep getting up,” Harrison said. “A lot of people
have situations like that occur and they give up or move on and he just refused to let that be the ending of his career. I give him a lot of applause for that. I think that says a lot about him and his character.”