OJR grad Fratantoni reflects on college years
OJR grad Fratantoni endures through embattled career to finally get happy ending
Whether cruel or ironic, Jimmy Fratantoni was more prepared for the moment than most.
It was Thursday, March 12, the day the sports world changed, and the Muhlenberg fifth-year senior and 2015 Owen J. Roberts graduate was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, just days away from competing in the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships for the first time, the pinnacle of a career that rarely came easy.
Fratantoni, a 184-pounder, was joined by teammates Austin Sherman and Luca Colestock at nationals, the Mules trio buzzing to train and compete at one of the sport’s biggest venues, the
Carver-Hawkeye Arena at the University of Iowa.
The afternoon of their second day in Iowa was going as expected with coach Jason McLean giving his wrestlers the green light to come to the venue after a coaches meeting ahead of the start of the tournament the next day.
By the time the Mules trio arrived, McLean’s demeanor had changed.
“We get to the venue and my coach is looking distraught. He comes up to us and tells us, ‘Guys, the tournament’s cancelled,’” Fratantoni said. “I just looked at my teammates. We were all very distraught and upset to say the least.”
What would you do right after learning the thing you finally achieved after working toward your entire career was never going to happen?
Probably not what Jimmy Fratantoni did.
“I mentioned to my teammates and my coach, ‘Well, we’re here. Might as well get one last workout in and take advantage of this venue,’” Fratantoni said. “We were one of the only teams who worked out still (after learning of the tournament’s cancellation). I think that was a cool experience in itself, that we got one more workout in at the venue.”
Even on the last day of his wrestling career, the NCAA Division III Championships cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak, it was still about the work for Fratantoni.
That commitment carried him through a college career that saw him go 27-7 this winter and 8232 for his career and become Muhlenberg’s all-time leader in technical falls (22), far exceeding the frustrating high school career that motivated him over the past five years.
The former Wildcat’s Owen J. Roberts career didn’t amount to what he sought as he spent his first two years on junior varsity before enduring injury-riddled seasons as a junior and senior.
“I honestly contemplated quitting the sport quite a few times,” Fratantoni said.
His junior year got a late start due to a torn labrum and ended after just 12 matches at sectionals.
“Senior year is when I really started having some success,” Fratantoni said. “I was projected to make states but halfway through the season in one of our winter tournaments I tore my ACL, MCL, meniscus, all in one blow. And it ended up being a year recovery.”
Fratantoni’s high school career ended with a 16-12 record, a number that doesn’t exactly scream future NCAA qualifier.
But through massive disappointment developed drive.
“That was really the mental pushing point. I was really disappointed. To be honest, it was definitely a really sad time in my life after the surgery because wrestling was a part of my identity and I didn’t have nearly as much success as I wanted to,” Fratantoni said. “That’s where I told myself, ‘I’m wrestling in college and I’m going to have that success. I’m gonna work my ass off day in and day out in the offseason until the success comes.’
“The injuries were a blessing in disguise. I didn’t have the success that I wanted to in high school and that’s what really kept me so hungry to keep searching for that success.”
Fratantoni found a home at Muhlenberg College in Allentown. He sat out his freshman year while still recovering from his ACL injury, receiving a medical redshirt. He first got on the mat as a sophomore and had a degree of success in an 18-11 campaign that ended with an injury default in the Centennial Conference Championships.
Fratantoni felt he and the team started to turn a corner as a junior in current head coach Jason McLean’s first season while amassing a 13-5 record but his season ended two weeks before the postseason due to a concussion.
His true senior year was an opportunity for Fratantoni to make some noise, just as the Muhlenberg team continued its ascent, a year that ‘reminded me why I love wrestling so much,” according to Fratantoni.
Fratantoni, wrestling at 174, won his first Centennial Conference championship and helped the Mules finish fourth at the conference finals, their best finish in 10 years.
But his 24-9 season ended on another painful note – albeit this one not injury related – when he placed fourth at the NCAA Mideast Regional, losing to Ithaca’s Eze Chukwuezi 3-1 in sudden victory to fall a place short of reaching nationals.
Think Fratantoni had any motivation after that experience and knowing his next season would be his last?
“I couldn’t take that, man. So I took the extra year of eligibility and I worked my ass off, had very little distractions this season, didn’t have as many commitments in the classroom so it was wrestling all week, two-a-days, you name it, I just grinded and grinded,” he said. “I think a lot of it for me this season was my mindset. Having a good mental mindset is more important than anything, even physicality.
“(Previously) I kept losing close matches and thinking, ‘What the heck am I doing wrong?’ I’m pretty decent when it comes to technique, I’m pretty decent all around: I have the strength, good on top, pretty good on neutral and I realized that it all came down to mentality, that third-period grinding to get those last points or not staying complacent.”
It all came together for Fratantoni and Muhlenberg in 2019-20 as the Mules went 6-0 in the Centennial and amassed an 18-4 duals record, including a win over nationally-ranked Messiah in December, a weekend that Fratantoni, wrestling at 184 pounds, felt was pivotal in his and the Mules’ trajectory. The weekend also included a match with No. 5 Johnson & Wales and while it was a 2716 loss, Fratantoni swept both his matches despite being six pounds underweight.
But it came with a receipt. “After those duals, I woke up the next day, knee swollen. Turned out I tore my meniscus,” Fratantoni said. “I saw an orthopedic, and she gave me the option 1) I can get surgery now and try to come back or 2) suck it up and try to wrestle until the end of the year and then get surgery. I decided to suck it up and get surgery after the season and obviously it worked out.”
Wrestling asks its competitors to battle through injury and grind like no other. So many wrestlers don’t see their careers through to the end of college because of the toll and toil and why Fratantoni feels like a rarity.
“As far as injuries, that’s a big reason why a lot of guys stop the sport,” Fratantoni empathized. “I’ve seen it in so many of my teammates, especially in college. A lot of these freshmen will come in with injuries and they’ll end up stopping because they can’t handle it anymore.
“I’ve never been a quitter. I try to pride myself on sticking with something no matter what it is.”
At the Mideast Regionals at Ithaca, Fratantoni started strong with a technical fall and pin of his first two opponents before running into Merchant Marine’s Josh Glantzman and fell 1-0 to the same wrestler that denied him a second Centennial Conference championship two weeks earlier.
His road to NCAA qualification began against The College of New Jersey’s Daniel Surich, a wrestler who he’d lost to last season.
Fratantoni trailed entering the third period but responded with two takedowns and back points for a 9-5 decision of Surich to return to the third-place match, the same spot he was denied the season before.
“I was there last year, so I really already had the experience and feeling of that match having all the pressure of getting to nationals,” Fratantoni said. “It was a lot of adrenaline.”
Fratantoni was reversed by Centenary’s Kenny Long early in the third period to go down 2-1 and was in danger of another near-miss and bitter end.
“Right when he got that reversal, there was about a minute left in the match, and something hit me. ‘There’s no way in hell I’m staying on bottom here,’” he said.
Fratantoni escaped quickly, pushed the pace and drove through for a takedown with two seconds left on the clock for a thrilling 4-2 win to clinch his first trip to the NCAA Championships.
“It was surreal. To be an NCAA qualifier was one of my biggest goals coming into college. I honestly don’t have words for it but there’s no better feeling,” said Fratantoni, who will return to the area after graduation after accepting a job with NextGen Security in Exton and hopes to volunteer coach with Owen J. Roberts wrestlers.
“I’ve always said there’s no better feeling than getting your hand raised.”
In a career that often lacked feel-good finishes, the cancellation of the NCAA Division III Championships actually produced one for Fratantoni: the last moment of his wrestling career will forever be the feeling of having his hand raised after clinching a place in nationals.
It took an entire career, but Jimmy Fratantoni finally got a happy ending.