Tag Archives: Josh Lackey

Necessary Toughness: Three-Sport Star Colton Kells Leads Fairport to First-Ever County Title

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No matter what time of year it is, you’ll find Fairport’s Colton Kells immersed in a contact sport . . .  (or two, or even three).

“Colton is always passionately doing something athletic,” said head wrestling coach Michael Kohl. “He loves sports, especially those of a physical nature. He just loves to lift and work out and especially to compete.”

An All-State linebacker this fall on the gridiron, Kells also suits up for the school’s rugby team in the spring.  And of course, the senior is a standout on the mat where he is currently ranked third in New York after an undefeated start to the 2012-13 campaign.

Courtesy of Colton Kells

Kells said that to “stay sharp”, he does some work in all three sports year round.  And for good measure, he adds some additional exercise to his regimen through his work at a local greenhouse, doing things like moving the plants, and through his summer job which involved lifting furniture.

Of all his endeavors, Kells didn’t hesitate when asked what he found most physically demanding.

“Wrestling is definitely the most intense,” he said. “There are four quarters of football and 80 minutes of rugby but the six minutes in a wrestling match are the toughest.”

So far in his senior season, Kells hasn’t had to wrestle the full six minutes very often.  Only eight of his first 38 matches went the distance.

However, last weekend, he was on the mat even longer than three periods in a contest that was significant for a number of reasons.

In the title bout of the Monroe County championships, Kells took on Spencerport’s Collin Pittman, a wrestler he defeated several times last year and 5-1 earlier this season.  After knotting the score late in the third period on a stalling point, the Fairport grappler got the 5-3 victory on a takedown in overtime.

“Colton stayed focused throughout the match and kept hustling,” Kohl said. “He was rewarded for his hustle and ultimately found a way to win.”

“[Pittman] has improved a lot over the past year,” Kells added. “You can see each of our matches gets closer and closer if you look at the scores. In [overtime], he shot in, I sprawled and I ended up on top after we scrambled for a little bit. It was a very physical match; the closest one we’ve had so far.”

It didn’t just mean a championship for Kells. It also was the 100th victory of his career.

“Once I realized I was getting close [to 100 wins], I started keeping track,” he said. “I knew going into the weekend that the finals could be my 100th win and I thought it would be cool to get it there.”

Hitting the century mark wasn’t the only reason the weekend was special, however. Kells was an important contributor to his team’s first-ever county championship, breaking the hold that Spencerport had on the title for more than 20 years.

“It meant a lot and it was great to do our senior year,” Kells said. “We’ve been together for years, working hard together.  We felt pretty confident coming in that we could win but you never know what will happen with a lot of tough teams there.”

“It was very exciting for us,” Kohl added. “It was a compilation of a lot of hard work and I know the boys take a lot of pride in the way they performed and that they were the first to win the county for our school.”

New achievements have been piling up for the Red Raiders. A year ago, Josh Lackey, now a freshman at North Carolina State, became Fairport’s first individual state champion when he put together an unbeaten campaign to capture the 220-pound crown in Albany.  Lackey said in an interview last summer that he hoped his showing would lead to more future championships for Fairport.

“Watching him win was actually a great inspiration for me,” Kells said. “We worked out most of last year.  We were drill partners; we lifted together.  Josh was great to work with. He never lets up.  He never stops pushing forward. It was amazing to see him win the title and it inspired me.”

The truth is, Kells wasn’t too far from joining Lackey on the medal stand last year. After dropping a number of matches to All-State wrestler Jesse Kozub as a sophomore and early in his junior campaign, Kells broke through and defeated the Brockport wrestler at the county tournament in 2012, a win that gave him a boost going into the latter stages of the season.

“Jesse had placed in the state the previous year and I knew after beating him that I could go with anyone.  It gave me a lot of confidence.”

Kohl agreed.

“I thought that was the turning point last season for Colton,” Kohl said. “I think he realized that he could wrestle with the elite kids.  He realized that there wasn’t a question of whether he was capable or not, it was all about how he performed.”

He performed well enough in his first trip to state tournament to win a pair of matches and come within one victory of making the podium.

And after he was finished competing, Kells took the floor at the Times Union Center to help Lackey warm up and prepare for his finals bout with Max Antone of Niagara Wheatfield.

It’s a place Kells hopes to visit again on February 23, 2013.  And the two-time captain is doing all the right things to get there, according to his coach.

“He’s not a flashy kid – he does everything the old fashioned way, through hard work and determination.  He’s extremely disciplined and does all the extra things. Kids like him, when you ask them to jump, they ask how high? If you asked him to run through a wall, he would.  He has that determined look in his eye this year and very high expectations for himself.”

Those expectations for success at the highest levels in New York won’t end in February.

“A couple days after states, I’ll be back in rugby,” he said. “We made it to the state finals the last two years and won once.  Hopefully we can get back there again and win.”

After all, every season is sports season for Kells.  Pity the obstacles in his way.

NY to NC: Fairport's Josh Lackey Talks Winning States as a First-Time Qualifier and Joining Coach Popolizio with the Wolfpack

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Josh Lackey, Photo by Boris Veysman

When July 1 arrives, so does the official recruiting period for rising seniors.  There are wrestlers who wait anxiously by the phone or who welcome recruiters into their living rooms.

For Josh Lackey of Fairport, the experience was different.  He was without question a talented wrestler, but going into his last year of high school, he hadn’t yet made an appearance at the state tournament.  In fact, he hadn’t placed at the qualifying tournament – the SuperSectionals, either.  He hoped to change all of that as a junior, but a meniscus tear just two days before the SuperSectionals prevented him from participating in the postseason.

The injury threatened to take away activity in the summer – a time during which Lackey felt essential gains would be made in preparation for his last chance on the high school mats.  So he decided against surgery and continued on, both working on his skills and beginning to plan his future.

“The doctor told me it was a deep tear, and if I wanted to have surgery I could be out a full six months,” Lackey said. “That would mean missing clubs and summer tournaments to build up my skill level.  I thought that time was critical to success the following year and decided to just fight through it while being careful. When it hurt, I took a break.”

He also took some breaks from his workouts during the summer to visit campuses with his parents, during which he spoke to coaches about the college wrestling experience.

“We visited a ton of schools,” Lackey said. “I got a lot out of seeing what different places were like.  I talked to some coaches, who gave me a lot of insight into what they expect out of a college wrestler.”

Lackey learned a lot and got a feel for several schools, but he wasn’t sure whether his future would include wrestling or not.  In fact, going into his final campaign for the Red Raiders, Lackey thought he would probably hang up his wrestling shoes after leaving Fairport High.

“Going into my senior season, I didn’t think I wanted to wrestle in college,” he said. “It seemed like a huge commitment and I knew I had to either be fully committed and really want it or not do it at all.  There’s no in between.  Also, when I was talking to those coaches at that point, they weren’t too interested in me.  I was 29-11 as a junior and didn’t have much to show for myself yet.”

That wouldn’t last too long.  Lackey started his senior year at 220 pounds with an objective of becoming a Sectional champion, but very soon began to set his sights higher.  In his first bout of the campaign, he pinned Max Antone of Niagara Wheatfield, who had appeared at the state tournament in 2011.

“Once I beat [Antone], people came up to me and told me I could do more than win Sectionals,” he said.  “My goals slowly started creeping higher.”

Indeed, with every win, Lackey began believing he could achieve more.  However, his knee injury constantly grounded him.

“It was always on my mind,” Lackey said.  “Maybe once a week, it would act up a little bit and I would get a little worried.  There was never a time when I felt it was completely healed.  It’s always a gamble when you get on the mat because things happen so fast.  One bad move, or twist, the rest of the season could be gone.  My coaches watched it closely, but there wasn’t a time where I was totally confident in it.”

Despite that, Lackey kept winning, dropping only a single match to eventual 195-pound state champion Tony Fusco of Shenendehowa in December.

When the SuperSectionals rolled around, Lackey made up for his absence the previous year with a dominant performance in which he didn’t yield an offensive point.  With another goal crossed off the list, he said his new focus was on placing in the top six in Albany.  But when the brackets were released and his name was on the top line as the number one seed, he once again raised his ambitions.

“I started to believe I could be a state champion,” he said. “I wanted to shoot for first.”

A pin and two decisions earned him a spot in the finals against a familiar foe – Antone.  In addition to their meeting very early in the season, Lackey had beaten Antone again in late December.   (The Niagara Wheatfield grappler lost only one other match the entire season).

“I was glad to be facing [Antone] in the finals because I had wrestled him twice already and I knew what kind of wrestler he was,” Lackey said. “But I also knew I couldn’t be too confident.  I saw an article where he was talking about training just to beat me.  I never let myself be too confident because I didn’t want to look back and regret anything.”

He didn’t have to, earning a 10-8 decision to complete his 40-1 season.  And he made history in the process, giving Fairport High its first-ever state champion.

“I think the greatest thing about being the first one from my school is that I could set new goals for the underclassmen,” he said. “It’s hard to break the barrier to be the first one, but once it’s done, others believe too.  I think it sets a new standard for the team for years to come and lets people know that they can win the state championship too.”

The title run attracted the attention of college recruiters as well.  But Lackey said schools such as NC State and George Mason were at the top of his list all along, whether he was going to be a student-athlete at the next level or just a student.

“Day to day I changed my mind on whether I wanted to wrestle or not,” he said. “My parents didn’t want to influence me.  I decided on NC State on May 1 and I decided that I was going to wrestle a little bit after that.  At the end, I realized that if I graduated college without wrestling, I would regret it.  It’s such an enriching experience that very few people get the pleasure of doing.  I want to take the opportunity and make the most of it.”

The Wolfpack are happy to have him, at either 197 pounds or heavyweight.  In the past five years, the NC State roster included only two wrestlers from the state of New York.  But with the addition of Lackey, two-time state runner up Sam Speno of Fox Lane and a pair of transfers, All-American heavyweight Nick Gwiazdowski (from Binghamton) and Ryan Fox (Nassau), the roster will have a strong Empire State influence.  And with Pat Popolizio at the helm, that is likely to continue.

“I think it will be a great experience to be part of a building team rather than a team that already has had a great track record of success,” he said.  “I think the pursuit of success is most rewarding and I think I can be part of building something special at NC State.  That definitely contributed to my decision.”