MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Popular culture references to the “Dark Night of the Soul,” which actually comes from 16th century Spanish poet St. John of the Cross.
It alludes to a crisis in which a person questions their entire life path, and for University senior wrestler Jace Stockett, his athletic dark night arrived midway through his junior season last year.
“I needed to be wrestling at 113 pounds, but trying to make the weight was absolute torture,” he recalled. “It was awful. I wasn’t big enough to wrestle at 120, but every time I tried to drop down to 113, I either couldn’t get there, or I’d try to drop the weight too fast and be wiped out physically. I would stop eating three days before a match, and I just couldn’t move. It was like every part of my body was tired. It pretty much broke me mentally and physically.”
And that’s when he walked into his coach’s office, and informed him that he wanted to quit.
But UHS veteran coach Ken Maisel, who has heard many similar stories of despair in his 25 years running the Hawks program, listened closely, then responded.
“I told him, ‘No,’” he laughed. “He was too talented a wrestler and had put too much hard work in from the time he was in first grade to give it all up. He didn’t listen when I told him he had to drop the weight slowly, and it really affected him all season. But he stuck it out, filled in at different classes when we needed him, and dedicated himself in the off-season for his senior year. And it’s really paid off.”
Now that he’s grown into a comfortable 126, Stockett has had no trouble making weight or dominating his competition for most of the year.
He’s currently 35-6 heading into the start of the state tournament Thursday at Big Sandy Super Store Arena in Huntington. He gained a boatload of confidence early in the year at the National High School Coaches Association Duel meet in Virginia Beach — “I went 4-2 against some of the best wrestlers in the country, and that’s when I thought I might have a chance for a really good year.” — and after an excellent regular season, he’s considered a strong contender for the 126 title.
“He’s had a great year,” Maisel said. “He’s always had all the tools that make a great wrestler: athleticism, work ethic, speed, and strength. Now, he really knows his own abilities, his own strengths and weaknesses, and he understands how to exploit and defend them. Of the three in-state guys he’s lost to, he’s beaten two of them later in the season. And if things go his way — and that will be tough, because there are five or six 126s that are capable of winning the tournament — he’ll have a chance to avenge that loss, too.”
For Stockett, getting that one, final, precious chance at Buckhannon-Upshur’s Julius Hobbs is his greatest wish.
“We’re in opposite brackets,” he explained, “so the only way I’ll face him again is if we both make the finals. I’m rooting for that to happen for sure. It’s a really tough class – maybe the deepest in the tournament – but I know what I have to do to be successful. Coach Maisel has told me that if I can stay on my feet, nobody can stop me. My speed and motion and hand-fighting are my strengths, so if I can just crank out mistake-free matches, and stick to the best parts of my game plan, I don’t think anybody can beat me. It’s mine to win.”
