Oswego State has a lot of elite competitors throughout its Div. III athletic teams. Freshman wrestler Charlie Grygas is one of those elite competitors, carrying a 26-5 individual record and an Empire Collegiate Wrestling Conference title at 165 pounds. He is just a freshman and is aspiring to be one of the greatest to take the mat for the Lakers.
A fascinating quirk to Grygas is his switch from just a regular student here at Oswego State to a killer on the mat in an instant. He does not overthink anything and takes it moment by moment. When he is a student, he is here to enjoy the atmosphere on campus and hang out with friends. When he is a wrestler, he is going to do everything in his power to defeat you. As soon as the match is over though, he is back to joking around with teammates and friends. Head coach Mike Howard has noticed this quick change in personality from his young wrestler.
“When he takes the mat, he is going out there to win,” Howard said. “And you can see the change in him. When the other guys are wrestling, he’s kind of cool and just hanging out, chilling on the bench, in between matches and tournaments. But when he steps on that mat, the intensity level goes up and the look in his eye, you can see he is out there to win. He is like that in practice. We just finished up some sprints, and he was trying to win every single one of them.”
Grygas is not just an elite competitor, who is looking to win every single match. He has been described as a very technical wrestler, who can outsmart anyone across from him on the mat. A great technique in wrestling comes from many years on the mat, starting at a very young age. It seems like most wrestlers who succeed at the high school and college level have an extensive wrestling background and were introduced to the sport as a child. Grygas is no different.
“My dad got me into it when I was five,” Grygas said. “He just threw me into it and just did ‘pee-wees’ and it just stuck with me.”
Grygas went 48-3 as a senior at Duanesburg High School, in Delanson. The more someone wins, the more tragic a loss becomes. But that is not the pressure that Grygas puts on himself before matches. He goes out and wrestles to the best of his ability, the wins will come. That is the supreme level of confidence he has in himself.
“I don’t feel a lot of pressure,” Grygas said. “I just go in and wrestle.”
Grygas comes from a Class D, section II high school. That is the smallest classification of a high school in athletics, but he does not feel a chip on his shoulder coming from a small high school. It would add to the pressure before matches if he did so, it is just a small fact to him. All these small facts add up to who Grygas is, but he is not going to draw on them for excuses or extra motivation. He has enough motivation to begin with. The small high school which has an enrollment of just over 300 students according to its website, is just a confidence boost to the freshman.
“I learned the more confidence you have [the better],” Grygas said. “Confidence is a big thing. Being part of it and being part of a small program and being good is definitely a confidence builder. For sure.”
Grygas already has a favorite memory after just 31 career matches here at Oswego State, it came against Rochester Institute of Technology’s Kaidon Winters. One of the most established wrestlers in the Empire Collegiate Wrestling Conference, Winters entered this season with a 77-12 individual record. He is currently ranked fifth in the country for Div. III, 157 pound wrestlers. Winters is not someone who expected to be taken down by a freshman, but Grygas took care of business against him.
“Beating Winters from RIT,” Grygas said. “He was ranked fourth in the country [at the time], and it was the first tournament of the year. So it was cool. I went right in and beat him. It was pretty sick.”
“Pretty sick” might be the only way to describe a wrestler who can come in to his first major tournament and beat a nationally ranked junior. He then followed that up by being the best wrestler for 165 pounds this year in the ECWC. Grygas has big goals for his three-plus years left here at Oswego State.
“Definitely want to place top three in the region,” Grygas said. “And All-American. Place top six in the country.”
Oswego State has never had a four-time All-American for its wrestling program. It has had four three-time All-Americans. Dave Parisi 1980-82, Doug Morse 1982-84, Jon Buhner 1987-89 and most recently Tenkoran Agyeman 2003-05.
Grygas has the goal to be the first four-time All-American in Oswego State’s program history. He will not get ahead of himself though or discouraged by bumps along the way. Grygas is the present and future of Oswego State wrestling, but you would not know it from watching him off the mat. He lives his life and dominates on the wrestling mat, when someone has the misfortune of facing him. He has fun here and that is why he chose Div. III over Div. I. There is so much more to him than just wrestling.
“What made me want to go to Oswego,” Grygas said. “And go Div. III, is just because it is more fun. I didn’t want to just live wrestling.”
Graphic by Patrick Higgins | The Oswegonian
