Wrestler Aaron Black Taking Aim At Second State Title

Posted: February 7, 2015
By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — For the first 18 months or so after Aaron Black began wrestling at the age of 5, he wasn’t all that thrilled with the sport.

Winning has a way of curing frustration though.

“Once my dad started to push me, I started to like it because I got a lot better,” Black said Thursday. “Winning in wrestling is awesome.”

And based on what he’s accomplished over the last decade, it’s quite addictive too.

Black, a sophomore 113-pound wrestler at James Wood, will continue his quest for a second straight title as the postseason officially gets underway at 9 a.m. today with the Conference 21 Tournament at Woodgrove.

Black — who won the Group 4A state title last year at 106 pounds with a 49-1 record — is 40-4 this year with 15 pins at 113 pounds.

All of his career losses have come against out-of-state wrestlers in Pennsylvania and Maryland. His two losses at the Hub Cup Tournament in Hagerstown (Md.) came after he hurt his shoulder during the tournament, an injury that forced him to miss two-and-a-half weeks of wrestling upon the tournament’s completion on Jan. 10.

But now Black’s back and feeling 100 percent, and he’s continuing to set the tone for the Colonels. Black will be James Wood’s only No. 1 seed at the conference tournament.

“He’s a really great teammate. We push each other to make each other better,” said James Wood sophomore Matt Artrup, a 120-pound wrestler and Black’s practice partner. “He’s the most competitive person here, really, and he’s someone that everyone looks up to.”

Though Black is someone who can serve as a measuring stick for other wrestlers now — his state title last year was James Wood’s first since 2010 — he needs guidance just like everyone else. And in his father Charles, he has someone who’s been a big influence in molding him as a wrestler throughout his life.

Charles Black, a 1984 graduate of Milton-Hershey (Pa.) School, won three Greco-Roman national titles, two freestyle national titles and qualified for the 1984 U.S. Olympic Trials. In college, Black wrestled for Lock Haven University and graduated in 1988.

Charles Black said it was understandable that his son didn’t embrace wrestling immediately, because wrestling’s a tough sport to get accustomed to.

“You don’t just walk out of the womb and say, ‘I want to wrestle,’” Charles Black said. “It’s a challenging sport mentally and physically. I just tried to steer him in the right direction and keep him on the right path.

“The thing is, he had the intangibles. Once he started doing well and seeing progress, he took to it.”

For Aaron Black, the switch flipped when he beat an older wrestler he had lost to twice previously during his second year of wrestling.

“That’s when I started turning it on,” Black said.

When he was 7 years old Black got his first experience of competing around the country with the Virginia Thunder, and his numerous youth accomplishments since include five titles each at the War at the Shore in New Jersey and the Ohio Tournament of Champions, as well as three runner-up finishes at the Tulsa Nationals in Oklahoma.

Even though high school was definitely a big step up from what he had done previously, Black’s history of success prepared him for the challenges of his freshman year. He pinned 21 of his 50 opponents, and capped off his year with a 3-1 win over Hanover’s Gray Hart in the 106 state final.

Charles Black never won a state title in wrestling-hotbed Pennsylvania — his senior year ended prematurely because of illness and injury, and a wrestler he had beaten won the state title — so it meant a lot to see his son seize the moment.

“That was a testament to his hard work,” Charles Black said.

“It kind of set up my whole career,” said Black of winning a state title last year. “My goal coming into high school was to win states my first year, and now it’s just made me work harder this year.”

That last sentiment is something that 11th-year Colonels head coach Greg Walker is glad to see — and not see.

Walker said while Black was more advanced than most freshmen he’s coached, he thought he relied too much on the same moves.

“He had two moves last year — a little low single, and then he’d run his bar, and that’s how he won every match,” Walker said. “For the first year, that’s fine. You can get away with it.

“But when you’re a state champion — especially with the people he’s going to face these next three weekends — everybody’s scouted you. Everybody knows what’s he doing.”

Walker said at the beginning of the season the Colonel coaching staff talked with Black about mixing things up more in his matches to make it harder for opponents to get a read on him and counter what he’s doing. Walker said Black’s done exactly what the Colonels have asked.

“He has a great high-crotch [move], doing great switches, he’s doing some great turks, a good tight waist,” Walker said. “He still has his bar, he’s running some half [nelsons] now, he has a great arm drag, a great sweep. He’s been changing things up on his feet, top and bottom.

“Those are all things that he probably knew, but he just didn’t perfect it or work at it on the high school level [until this year]. He didn’t have to, because he was winning with the same move over and over.”

Walker can’t stress the importance of practice enough, and he’s not talking about the two-plus hours the coaches spend with the wrestlers in the wrestling room after school. When he was growing up, once dinner and schoolwork were done, Walker, his brother and his friends wrestled on a section of a mat in his basement until 10 p.m. every night.

“Everybody knows the same moves basically,” Walker said. “It’s who works hard when nobody’s looking, who’s pushing themselves when nobody’s looking, who’s going to get better.

“There’s moments when everyone needs a push. [On Thursday] we rode him a little bit because he wasn’t working as hard, but then he picked it up and we didn’t have to say another word to him. But I think he is one of those kids who will work when nobody’s looking. [Thursday] he was jumping rope right when I walked in, and those are the key moments that I’m talking about.”

Black’s goal is to not only win another state title, but to do so without giving up a point. Perhaps the work he’s put in while others are likely sleeping will make that happen.

“He works out every day in the morning before school, and he’s usually working out after practice,” Artrup said. “He’s a state champion, and that’s what everybody wants to be. That’s what I want to be.”

— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Follow on Twitter @WinStarSports1