How about another good story about a quality young man!
WAY of LIFE - Iowa City West's Phillip Laux is focused enough for wrestling, driven enough for cross country and competitive enough to succeed
Lots of high school educators recommend that athletes avoid specializing in one sport. The reasons are varied and many but are largely lost on serious athletes in sports like wrestling.
You might find the occasional heavyweight who also will play football or throw in track, but more times than not, football is their true passion. For those at the other end of the weight scale, wrestling is not just their concentration; it is their calling. It is their identity, and it has been since they were in preschool.
Wrestling is a demanding, grinding, single-minded pursuit that requires more than your average amount of dedication to achieve state and national recognition. Finding the time or the inclination to try another sport just isn’t something a lot of wrestlers are interested in. They don’t want the distraction.
Phillip Laux won the 103-pound state championship last year. The West High senior is ranked No. 1 at 113 this year as he pursues a second title. He was a Cadet National freestyle champ in 2010. He will wrestle next year at Wisconsin.
Laux also was a valuable member of the West High cross country team, finishing 17th overall at the state meet and third on the team that placed third in Class 4A.
“I like running,” Laux said. “I’ve just always done it since seventh grade.”
He thinks the two sports complement each other, but don’t take that comparison too far. Wrestling conditioning is quite different from long-distance running conditioning.
“It may help a little bit, but wrestling is a different type of stamina than cross country,” Laux said.
Cross country coach Brian Martz was happy to have Laux!
“I knew he was wrestling in tournaments in the summer (of 2011) and he kept confirming that he was coming out for cross country,” Martz said.
Martz said Laux wasn’t in running shape like some teammates who put on big mileage over the summer.
“But he was in shape, and he’s a competitor, and he knew what he wanted to do,” Martz said. “I was patient because I knew what his potential was.”
Martz acknowledged that wrestlers in a big-school program as prominent and successful as West’s usually are singularly focused.
“But I think Phil has shown that you can do multiple sports, and you can be pretty darn competitive at both of them,” Martz said.
Martz, who follows wrestling closely, says the mindset required by both sports is somewhat similar.
“(Wrestlers) are good athletes,” he said. “They know how to endure. They know what it feels like to extend themselves. They are mentally tough.
“But (in cross country) they have to push themselves. There’s nobody grabbing them and trying to take them down. So they have to like that aspect of pushing themselves.”
It’s not like Laux abandoned wrestling during the fall. In fact, he doubled up. He ran at practice or in meets and then would go to the room and practice afterward. He usually had less than an hour in between.
“It was tiring, but you get used to it,” he shrugged.
He might run track this spring. Martz would welcome him with open arms. Not only is Laux multi-talented, but he’s a walking, talking role model.
“He’s very well-mannered. He’s been a good role model for other kids on how to get along with other people,” Martz said.
Being polite doesn’t mean Laux is any less passionate about his rather rambunctious craft. Martz tells the story of watching Laux after a match he won this year when he was asked to wrestle a class above his normal weight.
“He won the match, but it wasn’t easy,” Martz said. “But there was something that he didn’t quite get right that coach wanted him to do.”
Laux immediately grabbed a teammate and tried to simulate the situation and called the coach over to explain what he should have done. He wanted to learn.
“That’s part of the deal, too,” Martz said. “As a runner, you have to learn to push yourself but you have to analyze things, without overanalyzing, but you have to think things through a little bit.
“He’s kind of an ideal athlete for a coach to work with. The personality, the competitive spirit, the willingness to continue to learn even though he’s on top of his game. He influences people around him, and he’s such a positive, likable person anyway.”
Does Laux recommend the double of cross country and wrestling?
“They have to want to do it,” Laux said.
It’s not for everybody. But then Phillip Laux isn’t just anybody
http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012301190018
