In their younger days ... Baylor's Jack Reynolds (left) and McCallie's Trent Walliser
McCallie senior Trent Walliser
photo by JIm Tanner, McCallie
Baylor Sr. Jack Reynolds
photo by Eddie Davis, Baylor School
“We are friends before and after the match, but for those six minutes on the mat we are opponents. We haven’t wrestled each other in 10 years.”
Baylor’s Jack Reynolds who faces McCallie’s Trent Walliser today at 5 p.m.
They wrestled thirtysomething times as kids and neither wrestler knows the exact win-loss total.
A decade later, McCallie’s Trent Walliser and Baylor’s Jack Reynolds meet one more time today (5 p.m.
at McCallie) in the 132 pound match.
“We wrestled each other in kids’ tournaments all the time when we were six, seven and eight years old,” said Walliser a 17-year-old senior and first year McCallie wrestler.
“I would win one week and Jack would win the next and we did that for three years until we were in different weight classes.”
Walliser wrestled for the Tornado Kids Club, while Reynolds, whose dad wrestled for Notre Dame, wrestled for St. Jude and later for UTC kids club.
A look at the two wrestlers journey to today’s match
Jack Reynolds … Sr. Age: 18 … now in his fourth year on the varsity and is veteran of the McCallie-Baylor mat wars at 2-2 … has two individual state medals and a member of two Baylor state championship teams .. also competes in cross-country and track … won a state AAU title as a fifth grader … Attended St. Jude elementary and has been in the Baylor wrestling program since the sixth grade … has a 3.6 GPA and headed to the U. of Tennessee in the fall to study business
Trent Walliser … Sr. Age: 17 …has taken quite a different path to today’s match … five schools, two season-ending injuries … a heart-breaking loss in the 2014 state finals for Lookout Valley … will attend Union College in Jackson, Tenn. and plans to be a youth pastor .. multiple youth state champ .
He is on the short list of those who have wrestled for three schools … started at Chattanooga Christian as an eighth grader … hit by a car while riding his bike prior to his ninth grade year and was told by doctors he would never wrestle again.
“I had put too many hours and years in the sport to quit.”
In other words slim, none and fat chance he was going to give up.
He was the top wrestler in his region as a ninth grader and had recovered from the leg injury, but infection set in and his goal to become a state champion was stopped.
He transferred to Lookout Valley for the 2013-14 season and was ahead in the state finals, but his opponent pinned him with a head throw.
“That was the most devastating loss in my career as I was so close to a state championship.”
Injury No.2: an ACL tear in his right knee at a summer wrestling camp sidelined him for the 2014-15 season which allowed him to transfer to any school without losing an extra year.
“I am grateful for having wrestled at CCS and Lookout Valley, but I have always wanted to wrestle for a team and have a chance at a state title and McCallie is the perfect fit for me.
Evidently so, as he posted a 4.0 GPA in the fall semester.
The McCallie coaches have taught me so much in the way of technique this season, while CCS coach Josh Craft had me in my best wrestling shape ever.”
So today around dinner time, two teenagers - one wearing red and other blue - who have gained and given up take downs and reverses and have had their hands raised in victory meet again as seniors.
The crowd will watch and cheer as a pair old friends meet in the squared circle maybe for the last time.
Note: Three Schools - One other wrestler who competed for three schools in Tenn. is Josh Deckelman … started out at Tullahoma … transferred to Baylor … then transferred to Soddy Daisy and his win in the 2012 state duals final clinched the team title for the Trojans … .. then transferred to Notre Dame but did not wrestle … moved to California with his dad and wrestled his senior year on the west coast.
contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net