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Inside Hokie Sports
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GRAPPLING
WITH
MORE
THAN HIS
SPORT
/hokiekidsclub“I didn’t have that much
interest in coming here until
I had the opportunity to
wrestle,” Wilding said. “I knew
I wanted to do engineering, but
I wasn’t sure I wanted to wrestle.
I was pretty set on Georgia Tech,
and in February of my senior year,
Coach [Kevin] Dresser reached out
about walking on to the team. That’s what led me here.”
In wrestling, Wilding had no Division I offers, but he knew the
Virginia Tech coaching staff. As a kid, he attended wrestling camps
held during the year, ones that helped the coaching staff to get
familiar with him and vice versa.
Current Virginia Tech wrestling head coach Tony Robie, who
replaced Dresser when the latter went to Iowa State, joined the
Hokies’ staff in 2006 and played a large role in starting the summer
wrestling camps. Robie saw that Wilding had lots of work to do, but
he also saw a young wrestler willing to put the time in to be better.
“It was obvious the kind of character he had, the kind of people in
his family and what they’re all about,” Robie said. “We got to see how
hard he worked. He wasn’t a great wrestler at that time, but the dude
worked incredibly hard. The fact that he’s a brilliant kid adds a lot to
the culture of our team.”
Obviously, life isn’t slowing down for Wilding in the academic
arena, but his wrestling career sits in a tough spot at the moment.
The junior has been injured the past few months, which has slowed
his progression. He also took a redshirt year in 2016, which forced
him to compete unattached from the university.
It’s been a struggle for Wilding to work himself into the starting
lineup, but according to him, the struggle remains a part of a bigger
plan.
“Working into the starting lineup and being successful is very
important,” he said. “What I care about even more is the impact I can
have on my teammates. I have a really strong faith in Jesus Christ, so
I think that He placed me on this team for a reason. Being someone
who isn’t necessarily the most successful on the mat … it becomes
more apparent that you’re on a team like this for a lot more.”
The positive attitude that Wilding brings to the team separates him
from the normal person. That attitude stands out to his coaches and
peers as well.
“He’ll do whatever it takes to get the job done,” Robie said. “If that
means he sleeps four or five hours a night, I wouldn’t really know
because he never complains about it. There are not a lot of kids that
can do what he does and do them as well as he does in both areas. His
drive to be successful is what separates him.”
Robie also has seen improvement in the wrestler whom he first met
years ago at a summer camp. That progress comes from Wilding’s
ability to attack every practice with a strong work ethic.
“It’s been a product of getting in a good environment and getting
around some good workout partners,” Robie said. “I’ve always said
that wrestling rewards hard work more than any other sport. He has
come a long way with his wrestling since he’s been here. A lot of that
is just due to his diligence to his craft, making an effort to get better
and picking the coaches’ brains and picking good partners every day
at practice and wrestling with guys like Jared Haught and Ty Walz.”
For now, Wilding continues to work his way back to the mat. He
also is preparing for an internship opportunity this summer when he
plans on working with Boeing as a loads and dynamics intern. Part of
his job centers on working on NASA’s Space Launch System, which is
a new rocket designed for deep space travel.
It seems as if Wilding remains on the road to pursuing his dreams,
and he also holds hopes of one day being a high school math teacher
or a wrestling coach.
Wilding still has plenty of time left at Virginia Tech to make his
impact. Between his support system back home, his faith, and his
ability to handle almost anything that comes his way, he exemplifies
what it means to be a student-athlete. His road to wrestling in
Blacksburg wasn’t necessarily clear-cut, but looking back, he harbors
no regrets about his decision.
“One thing that I love about Coach [Frank] Molinaro, Coach Robie,
Coach [Jared] Frayer and Coach [Tyler] Graff is that they’re very
uplifting people,” he said. “It’s something that’s not new to my life,
but kind of new to my career as a wrestler. We have the best coaching
staff in the country.
“I love the slogan ‘This is Home.’ There’s a sense of belonging
and caring that people in positions of power really want to extend to
athletes.”
Between wrestling and his academic pursuits, Wilding doesn’t
necessarily have a lot of free time. But it certainly didn’t take him long
while in Blacksburg to realize that this, indeed, is home.