By Anna Kayser
Freshman Revin Dickman wrestled through rib pain for two weeks prior to state championship
On the Monday leading up to the Evansville Semi-State, freshman and 106-pound IHSAA state champion Revin Dickman suffered an injury to his ribs.
When a guy is hurting in the Brownsburg wrestling room, there’s a series of check-ins that head coach Darrick Snyder goes through in tailoring practices following an injury. Depending on what level the pain is on a scale of one to 10 and if things are progressing positively from the day before, action can be limited.
Over the first few days of practice, Dickman was limited. And then at the end of the week, when Snyder followed up to gauge how the pain was either improving or not, Dickman made a decision that would lead to his dominate run at the state title just over a week later.
“It’s kind of a cool story about him,” Snyder recalled. “I was like ‘Alright, how are we doing and how do we feel?’ And he’s like, ‘I’m done with that coach… I’m fine. I’ve just got to wrestle with it. I’m done talking about it and I’m done adjusting my practices.’
“A rib injury is no joke and he literally just didn’t want to talk about it anymore. He’s a tough kid. We had people look at him and they [told him] it was going to hurt really bad, but he could wrestle with it. He got better over the week [leading up to State], but he was definitely in some pain.”
Dickman took home titles in the Hoosier Crossroads Conference and Mooresville Regional and Evansville Semi-State – the latter of which came during his injury – with a number of wins against State Finals opponent Nate Rioux.
The freshman was a large part of Brownsburg’s success throughout the season, reaching the finals in all but one tournament since December. He was one of the Bulldogs’ only placers at the Walsh Ironman tournament, placing eight on Dec. 10.
The adjustments that came from a number of losses on the season propelled him to success when it mattered most.
“He just has very few flaws in his game,” Snyder said. “He’s a kid where getting out of state to the Ironman and Brecksville, he took losses there. He’s the type of kid that’s like ‘Okay, I lost. What did I do wrong? What do I have to improve on?’ He was a contender at the beginning of the year, but he’s not the same dude because he took those losses and learned from them.”
Those larger tournaments not only improved his physical game, but the mental side of wrestling as well.
Throughout the state series, Snyder reminded his wrestlers that regardless of the arena or the stakes attached to the tournament, it was just another wrestling match.
The State Finals was no different.
“I’ve been to other pretty big tournaments equal to this, so it had kind of already prepared me for this big tournament,” Dickman said. “I had to keep a good mindset going into this and I was excited. My mindset was good so I wrestled good.”
Dickman was the first of three Brownsburg wrestlers to win their respective brackets at the State Finals, setting a school record.
“We just ran out of room in our wrestling room for our wall of state champions, so that will be a fun problem to figure out,” Snyder said. “We wrestled lights out, and overall, it was an outstanding tournament. Any time three of your guys accomplish their goal, it’s pretty awesome to be a part of.”
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