TALLAHASSEE, Fl. (WTXL) - Florida High senior Bryan Metcalf never intended to like wrestling as much as he does.
"I was kind of bored out of my mind all winter so I just walked in and said hey coach, want to wrestle!" laughed Metcalf.
"He was a pudgy little sixth grader," remembered head wrestling coach Clay Allen. "He did come in and he worked really hard every single day to become who he is now."
Who he is now? One of the Seminoles best wrestlers as he enters his senior year.
"It's been an incredible story and he's one of those kids that four, five, six years down the road, I'll be able to tell other sixth graders, look, I've coached a kid just like you before!" said Allen. "I promise you, we can get to this point, you just have to trust me."
A state placer his sophomore year, last year didn't go Metcalf's way. But pressure in his final season? No way.
"At the end, whatever happens happens," he said. "I don't feel pressure like what are people going to think of me. What is it going to be like next year?This is it. Whatever happens happens, I'm just going to go out and have fun. I'm ready for a State finals match."
It's been a lot of hard work on the mats to get here, and he's worked equally hard in the classroom, as Metcalf has a 4.49 GPA.
"He embodies everything that we want as a program, from his GPA to his hard work in the room," said Allen.
"Yeah, my mom's a teacher so it's pretty important to her," laughed Metcalf. "It's just kind of an expectation at this point. If I wrestle in college, it's going to be the same way, it's my job."
Success as an expectation. Not bad for a little sixth grader who picked up the sport, just because he was bored.
"When I was in sixth grade, getting pinned in 20 seconds, I didn't think that I would be any good at all," he said. "Coach Allen believed in me and my teammates did and now I'm here."
Here. A senior, with a shot at a State title.
