Just can't stay away

Few things have made me feel as old as when I walked into De La Salle's gym and saw 2008 Warren Woods Tower grad Kyle Lowry working as a coach with the Pilots.

Then I walked into St. Clair Shores Lakeview Jan. 21 and coach Steve Nicholl told me he had two new assistants, Mike Hissong and Jake Fisher.

It took me a minute to remember why the name Jake Fisher was familiar, but soon enough I realized Jake Fisher was Jacob Fisher, the Huskies' 2005-06 Division 2 145-pound state runner-up that I had covered.

Aside from high school athletes that I covered that are now coaches making me feel every one of my 29 years, they show one of the main reasons I enjoy covering wrestling — commitment.

Unlike any other sport, wrestling brings people together who must be of a like, and sometimes skewed, mind.

These folks enjoy literally taking beatings and call it practice. As the Warren Mott team Web site boasts, "Does your sport have blood time?"

Aside from all the perceived oddities that those outside the wrestling world see, those in it see something bigger than themselves and greater then the tough times that come with losing and the rigors of things like cutting weight.

As Warren Woods Tower coach Greg Mayer said of grapplers like Lowry, "Those guys eat, breath and sleep wrestling, and it's why Fisher admitted that even if he wasn't a paid assistant on the Huskies' staff, he would have been in the practice room anyway.

Guys like Lowry and Fisher returned to the sport so soon after their graduation because it means so much to them, and even though it makes me feel old, I'm glad they're doing it and helping to introduce a new generation to a sport they just can't stay away from.