In most sports, athletes want to weigh in as big as possible: to be the largest, strongest hulking mass of athlete that they can be by the time they line up against their opponents. For wrestler Jeremy Sherman, this desire came with a limit – one that may as well have been written in stone.
As a wrestler, Sherman had to ensure that he stayed within his weight class, meaning at no time before a match could his weight exceed 126 pounds. Sherman had to walk a fine line – become as strong and fit as possible but at the same time dial it down occasionally to ensure that he did not exceed his weight limit. For Sherman, this meant falling into a well-worn routine.
“On a day before a meet, I would usually end practice about two pounds under, go home and eat dinner, and then be right on weight for the morning,” Sherman said.
In order to maintain such a precise routine, Sherman credits staying focused each day, whether or not there was a meet the following day and whether or not wrestling was even in-season.
“The path to victory isn’t glamorous – It’s monotonous, exhausting, and painstaking,” he said. “I got better as a wrestler and as a person by working as hard as I could every single day.”
And better Sherman did get. While he is the first to admit that as a freshman wrestler he took his “ fair share of beatings” on the mat, Sherman worked hard in order to catch up to other wrestlers who had the advantage of years of experience of middle and elementary school wrestling. This hard work manifested itself through hours spent in the weight room, running around the indoor track – often in a full sweatsuit in order to help him make weight- and practicing year round with a local wrestling club.
However, Sherman recalls that improving was a slow process – as he admits, he didn’t win very many matches early on.
“Even though I didn’t start winning for a while, it was rewarding to see hard work pay off in the form of incremental improvement. For me, it was more than a sport; it was a lifestyle,” he said.
All those extra hours spent honing his craft did eventually pay off, and this year Sherman enjoyed a tremendous senior campaign, placing 5th at the Class LL Championships in his weight class (126 pounds), a weight class Sherman says comes with a reputation as one of the state’s toughest. This qualified Sherman for the State Open tournament, in which wrestlers from all state classes (S, M, L, and LL) compete against each other for the title of best in the state.
At the Open, Sherman, the 17th seed heading in, had a remarkable run, eventually taking 8th. This came by way of an upset, in a match that Sherman does not hesitate to classify as “career defining.” Sherman was up against Charles Kane of Fairfield Warde, hot off a Class L state title and undefeated for the year. Trailing 2-1 with just eight seconds remaining, Sherman beat the buzzer and took Kane down to the mat, scoring two points and eking out with a 3-2 victory.
In addition to triumphs on the wrestling mat, the Columbia University-bound Sherman is also a star in the classroom. Again, it is Sherman’s commitment to hard work that sets him apart from his classmates.
“Two qualities that set Jeremy apart are his perseverance and hard work,” said Michelle Morse, Sherman’s Authentic Science Research (ASR) teacher said “He worked harder than most of my other students and persevered to find a lab in which to do his research.”
Sherman’s topic was studying Alzheimer’s disease; for him, one of the greatest joys with the project came from being able to integrate what he had learned in statistics with his scientific research by using several statistical processes to tabulate and analyze the data he collected in the lab.
In addition to the project, Sherman is also a budding energy bar entrepreneur. He created his own bar – fittingly named the J–Bar – when he couldn’t find a suitable pre-match snack for the carbohydrates he needed. Sherman designed the recipe himself. He concedes that a combination of peanut butter and bananas is involved. although any other specifics of the secret formula are a closely guarded secret.
Sherman is the first to admit that he was no wrestling prodigy – it was only through his determination to succeed that he was able to finally begin winning.
And so, between the mat and the classroom, Sherman has served as a living example of the phrase “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”
“Jeremy was by far, without a doubt the hardest working guy on the team, and it was really great to see that hard work really does pay off,” wrestling teammate Jake Santo ’14 said. “I’ve wrestled with Jeremy for at least 2 seasons out of the year since my freshman year, and he’s been a great role model of hard work in wrestling and just a great friend overall, on and off the mat.”
