OXFORD BEGINS DIFFICULT JOURNEY TO HONOR MYRE
It’s safe to say that wrestlers are a different breed.
Along with the physical strength you need to succeed, mental toughness is what makes individuals stand out.
This season, the Oxford wrestling team will unquestionably be dealing with mental and emotional challenges unlike anything they could have been prepared for.
But, they stand united to do it for one of the most mentally tough and courageous people they knew in Tate Myre.
The two-time state qualifier was set to enter his junior season this winter before being tragically killed in the Oxford High School shooting on Nov. 30.
Myre was one of four victims that lost their life, along with Hana St. Juliana, Madisyn Baldwin and Justin Shilling.
“We’re here to honor now. We’re not going to just remember our lost friends and family. That’s not enough. We’re going to honor them, and we’re going to make sure that everybody on our team is honoring them,” Oxford wrestling coach Ross Wingert said. “When that gets done, and we’ve paid our respects, I have full confidence that our kids are going to be able to figure out how to lace them up and go out there and compete, and hopefully even compete harder than they ever have before. Because that’s what’s on the table now. When you’re honoring your fallen friends and victims and when you’re honoring Tate Myre, that’s a tall task. That’s a real tall task, and we want everybody to accept the challenge of that.”
In recent days, the Oxford wrestling team has gotten back together to practice at an undisclosed location while getting set for the team’s first competition next week.
Having the group together has been therapeutic in many ways for the coaches and athletes. Wingert has been very impressed with how his team has responded so far.
“It’s been amazing, and I strictly mean, amazing by how strong they’ve been, and their willingness to be open minded to getting back to hard work, and movements, and things that they understand and know,” he said. “I just, I couldn’t be more proud of what they’re doing.”
Wingert knows there will be a lot of hurdles ahead for each of his wrestlers as they continue to cope with the events of Nov. 30.
“The situation that we’re in is, it’s a dire one, without a doubt.
So, we fully planned on taking it at whatever pace each individual needed it to be taken at,” Wingert said. “We’ve had a few that they’ve come in and been in a little bit tougher spot than others. And then we’ve got others that they’re ready to rip, roar and honor right away. The ones having a little bit tougher time are ready to honor too, they’re just figuring out their way to honor right now. I couldn’t be more proud of the team and their strength. As a coaching staff, we are all really proud of them.”
In a sport like wrestling, showing emotion is often judged as a weakness, but Wingert wants his team to embrace the roller coaster of emotions that they are going to be facing.
“It’s been interesting so far, because we do talk a lot about in the athletic world and in the competition world that we have mat composure, and our mat presence. We always have a stoic presence about us, not only with our face, but our body language. We’re always ready for more, we’re always ready to keep going. We’re never going to show weakness. And in this instance, we’ve made it very clear to them that that is very different. It is incredibly different,” Wingert said. “One of the things that we have communicated with them is when we are honoring Tate and go from place to place and we’re honoring the other victims, don’t block that out. Don’t try and not think about it while it’s going through. It’s okay. You know, open yourself up to that. If you get a little bit emotional because of it, there’s nothing wrong with that. We need to have these conversations and we need to be open about it and the kids have been, they’ve been amazing. I just can’t say enough good things about how the boys are figuring out a way to move forward right now.”
Myre was on track for a big 2021-22 season. He was one of two returning Oxford wrestlers that competed in last year’s state finals, joining junior Koen Eberhard.
Wingert knows that Myre was on the verge of taking his athletic career to the next level in 2022.
“He was such a charismatic personality, and it was also so original in his own way. As far as wrestling, and being an athlete, all the things and all the accolades that people know about, not only are they well deserved, as he was that talented and hardworking, but one of the things that most people don’t know about Tate is he was so young. He was so young at figuring out how to be a true dominating competitor, and he was just getting to that point,” Wingert said. “He was just starting to figure it out. He was about to just take things over. He was going to go from a great wrestler and a great football player to being on everybody’s TV competing in the future.”
Tate was one of three Myre brothers to compete for the Oxford wrestling team, joining Trent and Tye. Parents Buck and Shari have been staples of the Oxford community as well.
“The Myres are an AllAmerican family, and that doesn’t even fully describe them. I would say that they embody everything that we hope, and try to instill in our competitors and in our families,” Wingert said. “They’re good people. They don’t have any malice intentions in their life at all. They’re here to love each other as a family. They’re here to help serve the citizens of their community, and they’re also out here to help the rest of the people of the world.”
Wingert spoke at Myre’s funeral and offered up his thoughts on the person Tate was with one sentence.
“If you ever thought that Tate Myre wasn’t capable of doing something, no matter how great the task was, you simply didn’t know Tate Myre, because that kid is capable of anything,” he said.
As the competitive journey begins for Myre’s teammates next week, a return to competing at Oxford High School won’t happen until 2022. But, with each day, the wrestling team grows closer and copes together in hopes to do something special for their fallen teammate.
Wingert knows that this experience has just shined a light on how close the Oxford community truly is and how much his team is truly a cohesive unit.
“I think it speaks volumes to our parents and our community. I think it speaks volumes to the trust that the kids have in us as a coaching staff, and letting them know that we’re there for them and we care for them,” he said. “You can go to any program and you see a breakdown, and they break down ‘team’ and they break down ‘family.’ Well, when we do that, we mean it. I’m not saying that other programs don’t, I’m saying that there is no doubt in our program when we do it. We are a family, that’s a real thing, and we’re going to handle this together as a family.”