Transition man
Firebird has little time to change seasons
By Benton Smith

November 14, 2007


Photo by Nick Krug

When Free State High’s football season came to an end in the 6A state playoffs on Nov. 2 , junior running back/linebacker Jack Caywood didn’t have much time to reflect on the 7-3 campaign.

He had a day, at most, to remain a football player before he transitioned to wrestling, stopped thinking about the gridiron and started thinking about his upcoming season on the mat for the Firebirds.

“I just kind of keep them separate,” Caywood said of the fall and winter sports that nearly overlap. “Usually it’s that weekend after football’s over that I go to the wrestling mind-set. I try to focus on one at a time and not get them all mixed up.”

As a sophomore, Caywood wrestled at 135 pounds. A year later, before the season’s first practice on Monday, the 5-foot-8 grappler weighed in at 147. He anticipates wrestling at 140 this year and doesn’t expect having any problems shedding seven pounds before the team’s opening event Dec. 1 at the Gardner-Edgerton Invitational.

“It’s not all that difficult,” Caywood said of getting to his ideal weight. “During wrestling, you’re always moving; during practice, you’re always going.”

While the two sports are somewhat similar — “They’re both physical kind of contact sports,” Caywood said — the constant movement, he added, is one of the biggest differences between wrestling and football.

“Football — it’s as hard as you can go for a play at a time, and you take a breath,” Caywood explained. “Wrestling — there’s no breath. It’s six minutes straight.

“During wrestling you’re going the whole time. You’ve just got to prepare yourself to go the entire hour-and-a-half, two-hour practice.”

The other obvious difference between the sports is the individuality of wrestling, which contrasts sharply with the team effort needed in football.

“There’s no one else helping you out,” Caywood said of wrestling. “As a running back, there’s a line blocking for you or whatever. Yeah, you have to make people miss or break a tackle sometimes, but it’s always just you in wrestling, against one other guy.”

FSHS wrestling coach Paul Lappin said Caywood looked like a football player at the season’s first practice, but not necessarily in a good way.

“Sometimes he’s a little bit too stiff, and he needs to open up and be a little more fluid,” Lappin said.

That might be the only negative of competing in both sports — it takes the body some time to transition. But ultimately, Caywood said he’s better off playing football in the months leading up to wrestling season.

“I think it makes it easier to transition than if I were to not play football,” said Caywood, noting the practices would be much tougher if he wasn’t already in peak condition. “If I didn’t play football and went straight to wrestling, I’d be dying. It helps to be in shape and have the endurance for football already.”

As a youngster coming up in the youth sports scene, Caywood didn’t pick up either sport until he was in middle school. His first sports of choice were baseball, soccer and basketball. Although he still plays baseball (and hopes to play in the FSHS outfield next spring), football supplanted soccer when Caywood was in fifth grade, and he started wrestling in seventh grade in lieu of basketball.

“My dad always told me he thought I should do it instead of basketball because I was terrible at basketball,” Caywood said with a grin.

This three-sport athlete (who still plays a little pickup basketball on the side) said he doesn’t consider himself more a wrestler than a football or baseball player.

“I guess I’m all three,” Caywood said. “I don’t really classify it. I don’t have a favorite.”

Lappin, for one, is glad the junior decided to give wrestling a shot.

“He’s got a great work ethic,” Lappin said. “He’s one of those kids that if you tell him: ‘It’ll make you a better wrestler if you run through that wall,’ he’ll do it for you, and I love that about him.”

The coach is expecting big things from Caywood this season coming off a sophomore year during which he learned the Firebirds’ system and showed steady improvement. Lappin hopes to see Caywood place at the state tournament this season and knows he can count on him for leadership along the way.

“He’s already somewhat of a leader on the team just by his work ethic,” Lappin said. “A lot of the younger kids follow him and try to work that hard.”

When the wrestling season comes to an end in February, the transition game will begin again for Caywood, with baseball season just around the corner.

Originally published at: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/nov/14/transition_man/