Jordan Oliver

When I was in high school, I was on the wrestling team. By my senior year, I was decent and was able to get sixth place in the division two sectional tournament. You have to make the top four to get into the division two state tournament, so that was the end of my career. The state tourney is tough. I remember watching my friend Steve at states. He came very close to placing but just missed. If you place high enough in division two states, you get to go to the all-state tourney. Last year, I went to watch the all-states. Wow, those guys were good. Quick, perfectly conditioned, tenacious. The best of the best in the state. But it doesn't stop there. If you place high enough at all-states, you go compete in the New England championships. This year, the New Englands were held in my state, so I decided to go check them out. Double wow, almost all of the matches were amazing! These kids were absolute machines, insanely fast and technically near-perfect.

Now, you might ask what happens to the elite few who are somehow able to place high in the New Englands? They move on to the ultimate tourney, the nationals. I have never been to a national tournament, but I did watch some videos of nationals matches. These kids are so good it is just incomprehensible. Each match is like a game of chess, with each wrestler thinking several moves ahead, creating an exquisite dance that I could never hope to be able to fully appreciate. It blows my mind to think that for each weight class, there is one wrestler who actually wins the whole tourney, though of course that has to happen. But what doesn't have to happen is that a wrestler would completely dominate all of his opponents all the way to the championship. But it did happen. And that wrestler's name is Jordan Oliver. At the 2008 Senior National Championships, he completely steamrolled over the entire 130-pound weight class on his way to the title. Here is a video of him completely destroying his opponent in the senior finals. Think about it. The kid he is beating is the second best wrestler in that weight class in the country. Totally tubular!