Curd ending wrestling career at James Wood with a bang

By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI | The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — When James Wood senior 132-pound wrestler Corey Lemons was in seventh grade, he discovered one of the benefits of taking up wrestling was the effect it had on his relationship with his best friend since he was 5 years old, Aaron Curd.

“He was always just a little bit bigger than I was,” said Lemons, who at 75 pounds weighed five pounds less than Curd in seventh grade. “He could always beat me up. But then I started wrestling in seventh grade, and I started to get a little bit of an edge on him. I think that made him angry.”

“Then I started wrestling, and [things] went back to normal,” responded Curd with a laugh inside James Wood’s wrestling room on Monday.

“Yep, now I’m getting beat up again,” Lemons said.

Lemons can laugh about it because Curd is his friend and teammate. But all the opponents that Curd has been beating up on the wrestling mat this year probably wish Lemons had never introduced Curd to the sport.

The 5-foot-11 Curd — a senior who competes at 152 pounds — is going out with a bang in his final year of wrestling.

Curd has a 30-4 record as a result of winning three matches to claim the 152-pound title at the Region 4C tournament on Friday at Sherando, which means he has more wins as a senior than in his first three years combined at James Wood, when he went 28-32. Curd had never competed in a regional tournament before this year.

Curd — who plans on pursuing a career in the military after graduation — will compete for James Wood for the final time in the Class 4 state tournament on Friday and Saturday at Churchland High School in Portsmouth.

“I think coming into this year, I wasn’t expecting him to be at the level he is,” said James Wood second-year head coach Cory Crenshaw of Curd, who has 16 pins. “I was thinking that Aaron would be a 10-loss kid. That’s not a bad thing to be when you’re closing in on 40 matches, to have 10 losses. That’s still a very good record.

“But this year his experience level and his maturity level has improved, and his record and his accomplishments are showing that.”

Curd — who also runs cross country and plays baseball for James Wood — played baseball, soccer and basketball as a child.

Curd began his seventh-grade year as a manager for the basketball team at Frederick County Middle School, then became a player when one of the players suffered a concussion. For Curd, it was nice to play, but it wasn’t satisfying.

“Basketball, I liked it, kind of, but it was never really my thing,” Curd said. “Rec basketball, I loved, because there was so much more freedom in rec basketball. But running plays on a basketball court didn’t make any sense to me.”

Curd was plenty busy in middle school — he ran track in addition to playing baseball and soccer. But Lemons and Frank Roy — the father of James Wood 195-pounder wrestler Luke Roy — convinced Curd and his parents that there was another way to occupy himself in the winter by introducing him to wrestling.

“There was a lot of people who I really loved and I really trusted telling me I should try wrestling, because I’d be great for it,” Curd said.

Curd said he won nearly all of his matches while wrestling at 113 pounds for Frederick County Middle in eighth grade. But more important than the success was the way the sport made him feel.

“I loved every minute of it,” Curd said. “Wrestling creates a brotherhood, because you all suffer a little bit in the room. At Frederick County [Middle School], we prided ourselves on conditioning and being the toughest, and we do the same thing at James Wood. We condition really hard. Going through that with everybody on the team has created bonds that I’ve never felt on any other team.

“And it’s just you out there. When you’re in a wrestling match, it’s one on one, and you can’t blame anybody but yourself. You can say the ref made a bad call, but if you leave it in the ref’s hands it’s your fault.”

Curd wrestled a few varsity matches at 126 pounds as a freshman, then beat out a senior to earn a starting spot at 132 pounds as a sophomore. Curd went a combined 7-18 in those two seasons.

Curd showed improvement as a junior in posting a 21-14 record at 138 pounds, but at the Conference 21 West tournament he lost 12-6 in the third-place match to Millbrook’s Lukas Guerrero, denying Curd a spot at the regional tournament.

“I was happy with my season overall, but I was pretty disappointed with how my junior year ended,” Curd said. “I thought I at least had a chance to make it out of [conference], and I blew it.”

Curd has always prided himself on his strong conditioning and his ability to wear down opponents. But he changed his approach after his first match of his senior year, a victory by decision at the Max Horz Invitational at Berkeley Springs (W.Va.) High School on Dec. 8. Lemons thought Curd could have done better in that match.

“The kid wasn’t a very strong wrestler,” Lemons said. “I was like, ‘Go out next time and just be aggressive.’ He was like, ‘All right, I’ll try that.’ He started hitting moves out of nowhere and doing stuff really fast. And I was just like, ‘There you go.’”

Curd won his second match by fall in 65 seconds, and he went on to win the tournament for his first career tournament victory.

“That was phenomenal [to win the tournament],” Curd said. “We talked about being more aggressive, and I did it.

“I would always just wait until the third period to actually start wrestling. That’s not the case this year. I go out first period and I wrestle for the whole match, and that’s what’s made the difference. The more aggressive I wrestle, the more technical I seem to become. If I just sit on my heels, I’m not going to wrestle well. Just sitting back and waiting, it’s not going to do anything for you. That little change has made me start hitting moves really well.”

Crenshaw said he’s like what he’s seen from Curd this year.

“He’s become one of those wrestlers when he’s in neutral, he’s really sticking to his game,” Crenshaw said. “A lot of kids, for us at least, they haven’t been as aggressive as we would like to see on their feet. Aaron is staying aggressive. You tell him to get back on the offense, he does it. Just his tenacity in that aspect has been a big shot and big jolt for him.”

Curd’s approach has paid off in consecutive postseason tournament wins, and the grit that Crenshaw lauds Curd for has helped him pull out some tight matches.

In the Class 4 Northwestern District tournament, Curd won his semifinal 5-4 over Fauquier’s Darryl Mayfield, and in the final he was tied 8-8 with Handley’s Ethan Bishop when he pinned him in the second period. In the Region 4C tournament, he won his semifinal 3-2 over Loudoun Valley’s Daniel Kelly, and trailed 1-0 in the title match when he pinned Heritage’s Beau Hogan in the third period.

“He’s just a hard worker,” Crenshaw said.

Crenshaw also says Curd is “a good kid with a good heart. He looks out for himself, but he looks out for others too.”

Those qualities bode well for Curd’s military aspirations.

Curd said his goal is to get a Navy ROTC scholarship, which would pay for most of his college tuition. After graduation, he would then go to Officer Candidate School (OCS) to become an officer in the Marine Corps. Curd said those who receive scholarships should be notified by the end of March.

Curd said a big reason for his interest in the military is because of his father Robert Franklin Curd III, a fighter pilot in the Vietnam War and a member of the Marines.

“My father is a model to me of what a good person is,” Curd said. “If I want to be a good person, a respected person, a great way to accomplish that is to serve.”

Crenshaw said Curd has done an excellent job serving as leader and setting a good example for a young James Wood team (four seniors) that placed third in both the district and region this year, and he’d love to see Curd finish his career by at least placing in the top six of the 16 wrestlers in his weight class at the state tournament. 


With the VHSL expanding to four regions in each class again after there were only two in each class in the last four years, the state tournament will be a little more unpredictable than in the past. Curd is undefeated against Class 4 competition so far — he has two losses against wrestlers in Class 5, one to a wrestler in Class 1, and one to a wrestler from Delaware.

As long as Curd makes sure to wrestle with the aggressive mindset that’s served him so well, he probably won’t have any regrets.

“It’s my last chance,” Curd said. “I’ve got to give it everything I have. I’ve got to hit every move with purpose. I have to hit every move hard.

“At the regional tournament, until the final match, I wasn’t doing that, and it almost caught up with me. I realized in the final match [when I got the pin] that I’ve got to go, it’s now or never, and that’s my mentality going into states.”

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