My name is Davis Jones. I graduated from Bellevue High School in the class of 09. I wrestled for four years there, a truly life changing experience. I have recently heard about the need for saving some money in the Bellevue School District. Being a college student, I am all for saving money. However, wrestling needs to stay active in the district.

Wrestling is much more than a sport. Wrestling has the power to change people. I have decided to tell you a wrestling story that I know better than all the rest, my own.

I started wrestling in with no sense of dedication whatsoever. My lack of dedication was very blatant as I ended my freshman year winning only 2 matches at 125 pounds. I took a lot of pride in those two matches. You could say I was simply one of the worst wrestlers in state.

My sophomore year did not have much of an improvement. I was 20 pounds heavier, highly unlikely that the 20 pounds was muscle. I ended up posting a measly 6 wins at 145 my sophomore year.

My junior year was thankfully a surprise to me. With a new coach, Tom Ovens, I was very surprised when I wound up in the finals of the district tournament, the tournament I originally couldn’t get into. Because I placed at the district tournament I made it to regionals. Needing to place in the top 4, I was not surprised when I did not make it to state. I was actually shocked when I managed 5th place, making myself an alternate. I finished at 26-15

During the spring of my Junior year, I took a little break from school and wrestling. One day, I had a visitor, Coach Ovens, at my house. He had a very frank and direct discussion with me about how I was throwing away opportunities. We talked for two hours, he mentored me on my academic and athletic goals. We made up 3 by 5 cards of my goals and how to get them. That night is when I decided that next year would be different. I wanted to place at state. I was going to place at state. At the coaches suggestion, I trained along with three teammates under the University of Minnesota head coach, J Robinson, for 2 weeks at the hardest wrestling camp in the nation. Simply called, J Robinson’s Intensive Camp. It was at that camp that I decided my weight for my senior year. One hundred and thirty five pounds. 10 pounds lighter than what I was my sophomore year.

It was my senior year, my last chance to make my mark. If i was going to place at state I was going to need to focus all of my attention on it. Being the son of a former state champion, I knew what it would take to reach my goal. No distractions, No girls, no facebook, no TV. Midway through the season I finally made 135. Nobody believed that I could do it. I was ranked 8th in state at 152 at the beginning of the season. My strict dieting and exercising outside of practice was paying off. I was ready. It had been a very successful year so far. I had made the championship in every tournament during the regular season. However, that was not my goal. I finally won the district tournament and the following week won the regionals tournament. And yes, the team finished first in the district. It hadn’t been done since 1977. I had rewritten my goal, I wanted to be a state champion. I was afraid of the next week, but it is what I had been waiting for.

The state tournament was everything I had dreamed it would be. Bright lights, 16 mats, thousands of fans watched from the seats of the Tacoma Dome. Something unbelievable had happened in the match. I lost. I managed to give up a 2 point takedown with a one point lead with 3 seconds left. I was stunned. My dreams, were crushed. I could no longer be a state champion. But I could still get 3rd. I never would have thought my freshman year that I would be fighting for 3rd place. But something even more unbelievable had happened next. I lost, again. My season, dead. I was simply, a state qualifier. Not only did I not reach my new goal of winning state, but I didn’t reach my original goal. I couldn’t even place. I screwed up. As I held back the tears from wrestling fans around the state, I took the most depressed walk I had ever taken to the locker room. I sat there in only my singlet and throw a towel over my head and let my emotions pour out. At that point, I thought the season was a failure. It haunted me everyday. Well, everyday until a few months later when my coach had dropped off a highlight tape with a long letter. He told me he was proud of me for what I had accomplished and how I had helped revive a dead program.

That is when I realized the season really wasn’t a failure at all. Even though I had not reached my goal, I had changed as a person. I had never really been somebody until my senior year. Nothing I could really be proud of. But wrestling had made me a better person. I proved to myself that if you dedicate yourself to something, you can do it. Although I wrestled poorly at state, I can’t base my season off that.

I was never somebody who put my studies very high on my priorities list. Being somebody who didn’t take any AP classes, it seemed as though I was being allowed to slip through the cracks. My parents, my counselor, my teachers, they couldn’t really get through to me. Only one person could, Tom Ovens. I could see myself changing thanks to this man. I felt obligated to get my grades up. At this point I was finally a leader and somebody who was passionate. I was not going to let my grades screw any of this up. And I didn’t, I forced my grades to go up.

Wrestling proved to me, I could be somebody. It is a haunting thought to think that wrestling might actually be abolished at Bellevue. I don’t know where I would be without the sport. I do know that I would not be at the University of Montana. I do know that I would not be the confident person that I have become. I wouldn’t be who I am today without wrestling.

Is wrestling going to get Bellevue back in the top 50 schools in the nation? Sadly, no. But that is not what high school is about to everyone. I have watched people who will graduate in the class of 2011 wrestle since they were in 6th grade. And now that the program is a powerhouse in the state of Washington, with wrestlers who, just like me, are becoming somebody, you simply cannot steal their dreams.

I have three main goals in my life; Be a sports agent, have a happy family, and be a wrestling coach. I only hope that one day I have the chance to do for others what Coach Ovens did for me. It breaks my heart to know that I might not have the chance to do that. This cannot happen. In a prestigious school such as Bellevue, a school that watches countless wealthy families graduate their children each year, there needs to be another way to solve this problem.

Wrestling changed my life, the textbooks I read did not, allow wrestling to continue to change lives in the Bellevue School District.