Hood rewarded for long journey> Heavyweight wrestler is off to U.S. Nationals

SHERMAN STATION – Four years ago, Tanek Hood began making the trips by himself.

Forty-mile round trips to practice, five days a week. Meets would take him even further away from his school in Sherman Station that did not sponsor his sport until this winter.

Borrowed uniforms were the rule, not the exception. There were no black, red, white unitards to be had – just some blue Maine Maritime Academy uniforms, acquired from that college’s now-defunct program.

“I wanted the challenge of it, and a challenge it was,” said the vivacious Katahdin High School senior. “But it was great.”

Gradually, he was joined by a few other wrestlers. Last year there were four, including himself. Then they became eight.

Their coach is unpaid. The practice mat is a quarter of a wrestling mat, also left over from Maine Maritime. Some days, practice was supervised by their coach. Other days, teachers volunteered to watch over the eight squirming adolescents working out in the junior high cafeteria.

It’s been a long, scrappy journey for Tanek Hood of Patten, but now the enthusiastic heavyweight is wrestling at the U.S. High School National Wrestling Championships this weekend at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

“It’s given me a lot of direction, a lot of drive,” Hood said of his wrestling experience that has included a lot of miles, coaches, and time. “I’ve learned how to lose, which was good because I always wanted to win, but the wrestling community is very gracious.

Hood noted that Madawaska allowed him to train with that team when he was at his girlfriend’s home. “I can go and work out with the team, ask their coach (Madawaska’s Bruce Martin) questions,” he said. “You just can’t do that in basketball.”

Hood qualified for the nationals by finishing second in February’s Class C state wrestling meet, after being pinned by Penobscot Valley’s Aaron Gilman. First and second place finishers in state championship meets, from all 50 states and all 13 weight classes, have the option of wrestling at the nationals.

The Katahdin senior left Wednesday for the meet where he’s hoping to catch the attention of Division I college coaches who flock to such showcases.

Weigh-ins, the bane of all wrestlers, are today. Hood, who normally wrestles at 200 pounds in the heavyweight class, will enter the contest in the next lower class, 189 pounds.

Wrestling starts Friday. Two losses sends a wrestler into the consolation round. Another two defeats send the athlete home. The championship rounds will be held Sunday.

Not bad for someone who wrestles about 10 matches a year.

“He hasn’t had anyone in his weight class to work out with,” chuckled Tom Sheehan, the 55-year-old coach of the Southern Aroostook Wrestling Club. “I’ve worked out with him and it damn near killed me.”

Sheehan, who swears he doesn’t remember how Hood came to wrestle with his Dyer Brook-based club, has watched the 200-pound, 6-foot-2 wrestler learn the basics of wrestling and knows Hood’s potential has yet to be tapped.

“He’s a well-proportioned kid. He’s fairly fast and a strong kid,” Sheehan said. “He’s still learning. He’s got a long way to go, but he might make a good small college prospect.

“He’s certainly got the tools for it,” he continued. “He’s nowhere, nowhere, near his potential.”

Hood is waiting to hear from Stanford, Harvard, and Brown, among others, hoping to make it in a Division I program.

“No matter where I go I’ll wrestle, whether its collegiate, amateur,” he said. “There’s no dream that’s not accomplishable.”