Harper Article in South Bend Tribune

[Indyfan]

Harper pushes past the pain

Mishawaka wrestler won't let injury deter his run at history.

By AL LESAR Tribune Columnist

 

MISHAWAKA -- Pain never goes away. It's become as much a part of Josh Harper's wrestling season as cutting weight and winning matches.

 

"This wasn't how I pictured my senior year," Harper said.

 

This was supposed to be the 130-pound Mishawaka High wrestler's encore. Individual state championships each of his first three years. A team state championship last year. A team loaded with potential this season and a future at Michigan State already sealed.

 

History was within his grasp. Four-time state champions are rare.One-armed state champions, though, are even more scarce.

 

Last summer wasn't any different than any other. Harper worked out diligently. Traveled the circuit. Wrestled the best.

 

However, during a team camp in Michigan, Harper felt his left shoulder pop. Immediate medical opinions called for rest and recovery. But by the start of the high school season, the shoulder hadn't improved. Further tests diagnosed a torn labrum.

 

Surgery would put Harper on the shelf anywhere from three to six months. Had it been July, it might have been an option. By October, Harper's only recourse was to wrestle in pain and schedule surgery for March 6, after the team and individual season is over.

 

"Josh decided to put up with the pain for three reasons," Mishawaka coach Darrick Snyder said. "No. 1, the team championship. If we're going to win, we have to have Josh Harper. No. 2, he has a chance to be the best. No. 3, he has a chance to be part of history."Ninety-nine percent of the reason is because of these guys out there on the mat with him."

 

"The team needs me, and I need them," Harper said. "It's obvious, we're looking for another state title. This is my life."

 

His life has taken some strange -- and sometimes frustrating -- turns this year.

 

Because of the injury, Harper had to learn a whole new way to wrestle, to protect his left side.

 

"It was a process that took eight or 10 weeks for it to become instinct," said Snyder, who went through a serious shoulder injury himself while wrestling in college. "That time was frustrating for Josh. When you know there are weapons in the arsenal that you can't use, it's frustrating."Snyder said he consulted with former Mishawaka coach Al Smith to devise Harper's new style of wrestling.

 

"A lot of my offense has been taken out," Harper said. "I used to shoot off my left side."

 

While learning the new techniques, Harper lost twice -- at the Al Smith Invitational and the Bellmont Super Duals. He had only lost once in the previous three years.

 

One loss won't be avenged, since the wrestler is in another weight class, but the other, Perry Meridian's Sampson Cook, could be righted in the individual state finals Feb. 20-21.

 

"He's foaming at the mouth to get (Cook)," Snyder said."I got into a cradle (against Cook)," Harper said, who was pinned. "I've never been on my back. I'll take it to him this time."

 

"Josh has never used the injury as an excuse for losing," Snyder said. "He lost because the other guys were better that day. The losses drive him."

 

"I've heard it over and over, 'Nobody cares if you're hurt,'" Harper said. "In the (regional final last Saturday), my shoulder slipped out early in the second round. I wrestled two rounds with one arm. There wasn't anything I could do about it."

 

Still, he won by a major decision and didn't allow his opponent to score a point.

 

Victory made the pain more bearable.