Great story from District 11

[Callthestall]

Wasn't able to attend last night's finals for District 11 but watched on TV.In this forum,we can always discuss the normal wrestling topics,best wrestler,best district, bad refs and so on. Last night in the AAA 195 bout something special happened. Carlo Perugini from Liberty overcame many obstacles to win the title. At birth he was borned hearing impaired. He did not wrestle his sophomore and junior years because he tore both of his ACLs. Playing football this fall he tears ACL again. He decides he wants to try to wrestle but his coach Jody Karam warns him he probably would be a backup. Wrestling with a brace from his ankle to his thigh the "backup" won the title. As the final whistle blew, you could see Coach Karam joy with tears coming down his face. Sometimes in sports, the story of what an athlete does to overcome obstacles is lost. Last night it was not lost for Coach Karam and many of the fans.

 

[Ja1339]

Callthestall, thank you for posting this thread. I really enjoyed reading it. Beautiful story, and awesome write-up on your part.

Even though I was never a wrestler myself, I sense that the wrestling community is very tight knit and close community, pulling for one another. That was also very evident in the thread today about the wrestler in Erie who was hurt. Just one additional reason why I love this site, and I'm always thankful for the folks who post on here. Thanks again.

 

[Callthestall]

Thank you. Sometimes it's easy to lose the perspective of what sports is about. I have a daughter who was a tremendous athlete that suffered 3 terrible concussions by her sophomore year in high school.Her last concussion happened in April 2011 when she got kicked in the head as the starting soccer goalie.Did not go back to school the rest of the year.We had to put flannel sheets on our windows because of the light depervation. Was told no more contact sports, bought her a tennis racket and she won a silver in districts her senior year. When I watched the Perugini boy win, I really did understand the emotions of watching a young athlete overcome diversity.