Sometimes a dream is just a fantasy born out of wishful thinking, (like how I would spend my Mega Millions winnings), and sometimes a dream is reality. Sometimes reality happens so swiftly it almost seems like a dream.
“I didn’t think I would be here,” Herricks senior wrestler Ryan Singh confided to Head Coach Cliff Forziat during state team practice several days after the Nassau County Championships.
Singh had won the Division I (large schools) 112-pound weight class championship and along with it the acclaim of the 14 other weight-class champions who chose him to be the Nassau County Champion of Champions.
“Ryan became a fan of wrestling back in middle school, and he developed into a real student of the game,” Forziat noted. “He knows about all the excellent wrestlers around the state and knows many of them personally, but for some reason I don’t think he saw himself among them.”
He was 12-0 with nine pins to his credit on the Second-Man squad as a freshman winning the Herricks Invitational and the Bethpage tournaments on that level in early December of that year. Then Forziat threw him out on the A Division mats where Singh went 22-8 with six pins and 5 major decisions. He placed in four varsity tournaments, winning two of them, and won All-Conference honors as a freshman at 112.
“Won Jun Jyung, a senior team captain, and Ryan’s brother Vinod, a sophomore, both excellent wrestlers pretty much pounded the daylights out of Ryan on a daily basis,” Forziat added. “Ryan rose to the challenge and improved dramatically.”
As a sophomore Singh led the team in varsity victories winning 32 bouts with 14 pins and 3 major decisions. He placed in seven tournaments winning three of them and once again earned All-Conference honors in the Conference Championship (Qualifying) Tournament this time at 119. Brother Vinod had five championships that year and made it a point to push Ryan everyday at practice (and I’m sure home was no respite). Ryan tossed a heavy duty month long intensive camp in Minnesota into the mix together with pre and post season clinics and competitions to prepare for his next season. He helped to reorganize the in-house Cobra Wrestling Club and designed a custom singlet for the club members to wear in outside competitions.
“Ryan did a great job. That singlet is pretty slick and distinctive, the more so because our kids have performed well while wearing it. The club has won respect.”
As a junior Singh placed in eight tournaments, reached the finals in five and won three. He notched 31 victories that year with 16 pins and 5 major decisions once again earning all-conference honors at 119.
Singh began this year competing at 125 in December. He trimmed down to 119 by the Dec. 29 for the Patchogue-Medford Red Raider Tournament, and he got down to the 112-pound class, his New York State certified minimum by Jan. 5. Every high school wrestler in New York is examined by specially trained personnel at the beginning of each season to determine the lowest safe weight that the wrestler may compete at while having at least 7 percent body fat (14 percent for females).
Making weight is never easy, not in our society where we are encouraged to indulge ourselves wherever we go (except perhaps the Obama dinner table).
The strenuous fast-paced daily work outs begin the process, and independent work outs (the extra mile) help, but when you get to the bottom line, serious self-discipline, a light-weight yet nutritious and highly energy packed diet, and perhaps a little assistance is absolutely necessary. Ryan got the job done (no easy task, mom bakes some of the best brownies anywhere … and then there are the Wheat Thins).
He reached the finals in eight tournaments this year winning six of them. He won the conference championship at 112. This four-time all-conference wrestler upset (only in the minds of others, the coaches knew that he could do it) the top seed in the Nassau County finals to earn All-County honors. Along the way he amassed 38 victories, 22 pins, and 6 major decisions.
He has made his way quietly yet steadily upward through the ranks of Herricks’ varsity wrestling career leaders. He is second in career victories with 123. He is second in career team points with 651. He is fifth in career pins with 58, and he has established a new Herricks wrestling career major decision mark at 19.
During practice he would be mentoring his younger teammates and sparring partners. Even now that his high school season has concluded, he and many of the Highlanders are at the Middle School assisting the Soaring Eagles coaches and team in practice and at their matches.
“It got to a point this year where he was driving me crazy,” Forziat noted. (A relatively trip some have suggested politely.) “He’d be so busy helping others that I was afraid he would not get himself ready. I don’t think that he was really aware of what a good competitor he has become.”
“Over the decades our program has produced a good many very fine competitors, all of whom have been highly regarded and respected outside of Herricks both on and off the mat.,” Forziat continued. “We’ve had many fine wrestlers from all-Americans down to raw recruits and no prima donnas. They understand that at the end of the game the king and the pawn go into the same box. Ryan has carried himself with class throughout his career. He is a credit to his family, the Herricks wrestling program, and this community.”
Ryan Singh has taken a dream, and through hard work, dedication, and persistence he has fashioned it into reality. He has become one among those who he has so admired. He has become one of the best, and if that has taken him a bit by surprise, it should not have, and perhaps he has come away with the greatest accomplishment of all.
