A stint in basic training at Fort Benning last summer helped Dirigo’s Jon Wainwright become a contender for state wrestling champion on Saturday. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

DIXFIELD — Jon Wainwright always had the physical tools to become the latest in a long line of great wrestlers at Dirigo. But he lacked the mental toughness.

Then he attended boot camp last summer and came home a changed man, and a better wrestler.

As the senior 138-pound Class B South champion prepares to compete for Saturday’s Class B state championships at Wells High School, he and his coach can’t help but reflect on how far he has come in the last year.

“In my view, he’s just grown up,” Dirigo coach Dana Whittemore said. “Last year, he’d beg out of a match if he thought the kid was tougher. He’s not dodging anybody this year. And he’s leading my practices and helping the young kids.”

“You could see his demeanor change when he was getting ready to face a top-quality wrestler,” Whittemore said. “He had all kinds of confidence against the average wrestlers, but you could see it change when he was getting ready for someone he thought was better than him.”

Wainwright, who as a junior finished fourth in B South and then lost in the consolation semifinals at states, agreed that he lacked the confidence and determination necessary to become a champion. If he got behind on points in a match, he said, he was as good as done. Often times he was beaten even before he stepped on the mat.

“When I was a sophomore and junior, I’d go out there to wrestle seniors, or even guys that were just stronger than me, I was intimidated,” Wainwright said.

He was a little intimidated when he enrolled in the Army’s Split Option program for last summer, too. But coming from a long line of servicemen on both sides of his family, including his father, Christopher, he knew it would change him for the better.

“I felt obligated to join. It wasn’t like I was forced to. I forced myself,” he said. “It’s just something that we do. I feel like it’s something everyone should experience.”

He spent 14 week in Infantry basic training at Fort Benning in Georgia and learned quickly that withstanding the physical demands of training would require him to become mentally stronger first.

“When you go down there and start training, you find out it’s all about mental toughness,” he said.

He returned in late August, just after the start of football preseason, his favorite sport. Playing center for the Cougars helped Wainwright stay in shape for wrestling. But the biggest difference was apparent to him and his coaches from the start of preseason. 

“I came back with the attitude that I’m going to maul everyone or I’m going to go down trying,” Wainwright said. “I refuse to lose. It’s not an option for me.”

That translated into some big wins almost immediately. Wainwright knew the change in his mental approach was paying off when, bolstered by being snubbed in his weight class’s rankings on a popular high school sport message board, he beat Erskine Academy’s Michael Sprague, 3-0, in the finals of the MCI Winter Classic in late December. 

“When you get a match like that and everybody’s looking at you like you’re going to get mauled, and then I go out there and control that match and he didn’t even score a single point, that’s when it kind of clicked for me, I can hang with these guys,” he said.

Wainwright doesn’t mind flying under the radar a little bit, but knows opposing wrestlers and coaches are paying attention to him now.

Still, he stews over the four matches he’s lost this season much more than he basks in the 30-plus he’s won. He backs up that competitiveness with a disciplined approach for each match he wrestles.

Whittemore pointed to Wainwright’s regional final match against Madison’s Michael Savage as an example. Wainwright had beaten Savage several times during the season, so Savage started the match with a more aggressive, physical style. Wainwright adjusted his strategy on the fly, and pinned Savage at 4:52 (midway through the third period) to win the title.

“He doesn’t get wound up,” Whittemore said. “Last year, he would lay down in that situation. This year, he kind of worked through it, figured out what the kid was doing and adjusted the way he was wrestling.”

“He sets everything up,” he added. “He’s a technician. He’s come a long way technically this year. He sets his takedowns up. He studies and sees what they’re doing to him, what they’re giving to him, and then he sets it up.”

“I think I analyze things better,” Wainwright said. “I understand how they’re moving and what they’re doing. A lot of times, you can anticipate what they’re going to do next, and you’re right there.”

Wainwright chalks that up to experience gained from wrestling since he was little and watching predecessors such as Jon Smith (who he joined on Dirigo’s all-time win list with his 153rd in the regional final) and former teammates such as Bryce Whittemore and Hunter White.

Whittemore and White’s graduation left a void in Dirigo’s leadership at a critical time as the program starts to rebuild under first-year coach Whittemore. Realizing he has a lot of knowledge and experience to pass along, Wainwright jumps at the chance to help future Cougars, whether current teammates or youth wrestlers, understand the sport better physically and mentally.

“We’ve got a small team this year. We don’t have the numbers but you still need someone to mentor the younger guys,” said Wainwright, who will return to Benning for more training after he graduates in the spring.  “(Freshmen) Blaine Wilkins and Owen Libby, they have a lot of potential. They’ve just got to harness it. A lot of it is mental.”

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