North Carolina Wrestling Scout Report

Named for the founder of Regent Sports, a Long Island, N.Y.-based sporting goods retailer and distributor, the NHSCA/Regent Sports Joseph P. Lipman Scholarships are presented to five high school athletes who have overcome the most adversity in their high school athletic careers.

"These five young men and women have worked extremely hard not just to overcome adversity, but to excel in their sport," NHSCA associate executive director Joe Boardwine said. "We are happy to have developed this partnership with Regent Sports, a company that has been a pioneer in the sporting goods industry for well over a half-century."

Following are the NHSCA’s selections as the NHSCA/Regent Sports Joseph P. Lipman Scholarship Award winners for 2007.

Ken Carney, Jackson, N.J.

A key member of a Jackson Memorial High wrestling squad that was voted the No. 1 Team in New Jersey the past two seasons and was nationally ranked as well, Carney, a 160-pounder, has competed anywhere between 152 and 189 pounds when necessary to help his team.

Carney has been a four-year member of the team despite overcoming hardships. Blindness in one eye hasn’t hampered his success. But shoulder surgery following a junior season in which he qualified for the New Jersey state tournament nearly ended his athletic career.

The surgery resulted in four anchors being inserted in Carney’s shoulder. Doctors were unsure the operation would permit Carney ever to return to the mat. After six months of rehabilitation, however, Carney was back in the wrestling room. He finished his senior season with a 38-3 record and the 160-pound state championship, and also served as a valuable workout partner for junior teammate Scott Winston, the only unbeaten wrestler in New Jersey high school history. Carney added to his state championship by becoming a National High School All-American, finishing seventh in the NHSCA National High School Seniors Wrestling Championships in April at Virginia Beach, Va.

"Kenny has been able to compensate for his disabilities without any of his opponents knowing this," wrote Michele Carney, Ken’s mother. Ken plans to begin his collegiate career at a community college as he works toward his goal of becoming a Division 1 All-American at Lock HavenUniversity.

Jason DeLuca, Dillsburg, Pa.

DeLuca started wrestling in the first grade, and was successful from the very beginning. He became the first wrestler to finish unbeaten in Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association junior high competition in the history of the Northern High program.

As a high school freshman, however, DeLuca was hampered by swollen joints that eventually forced him to withdraw from the sectional tournament. Visits to one doctor after another finally resulted in a diagnosis of chronic juvenile arthritis.

DeLuca battled the effects with a variety of medications, including weekly injections that he eventually learned to administer himself. One doctor cautioned him that wrestling would place too much strain on his joints and advised him to give up the sport. The medications made his legs swell to the point where he could not even walk without a cane, with classmates having to carry his books for him through the halls at school. Despite barely being able to walk, DeLuca cheered his teammates on at the sectional, district and state tournaments.

Another doctor finally diagnosed DeLuca with Lyme disease, contracted through a tick bite. A round of intravenous drug therapy allowed him to return to the mats as a sophomore. He holds all of Northern’s wrestling records, winning more than 140 matches in his career. He also became a three-time state qualifier, finished fifth in the Class 3A state tournament at 125 pounds as a junior and earned a scholarship to the University of North Carolina.

"Jason has the character of a real warrior," wrote Fred DeLuca, Jason’s father and a Northern assistant coach. "He challenged himself in school as well as on the mat. His doctors, friends, coaches, and even his parents questioned whether he could ever wrestle again. Athletically and academically, he never gave up."

Dana Hammer, Garden City, N.Y.

Athletics have been a major part of Hammer’s life since she first stepped on a soccer field at the age of five. From the excitement of running up and down the field to backyard practice sessions trying to score on her grandfather, Hammer, who idolizes former World Cup standout Mia Hamm, dreamed of earning a college scholarship and perhaps playing in the World Cup or the Olympic Games one day.

But an injury in eighth grade that was slow to heal revealed a major life challenge: Hammer was diagnosed with Frieberg’s disease, a condition that caused her red blood cells to collapse. Instead of healing normally, the disease caused the tip of the second metatarsal bone on her left foot to die. She was forced to walk down the aisle at her middle school graduation – and on trips to the beach that summer – on crutches. As a high school freshman in the midst of seven months of physical therapy, she had to be a part of the soccer team as manager rather than player.

When she was finally able to get back on the field, other physical ailments followed. Bruised fingers, sprained ankles, a concussion and the discovery of an ovarian cyst were obstacles to overcome. Recently, Hammer suffered a broken nose and a deviated septum when she was struck across the face by a stick at a field hockey camp in Pennsylvania. She faces plastic surgery after she finishes competing on her school’s defending state champion soccer team as a senior next fall.

"Every day, I can’t help but wonder, what could have been? Could I have been an All-American in three sports? Could I have been recruited to a Division 1 school?" Hammer wrote. "I may not have those answers, but one thing I do know is that I am not giving up on my dreams to play sports in college. I now feel I can face any situation positively…everything does happen for a reason."

Erica Olson, Traverse City, Mich.

By the time she was in the third grade, Olson was a member of a YMCA basketball league with dreams of playing college basketball. As a 5-foot-5 high school freshman, she earned the backup point guard spot on the Traverse City West High varsity girls basketball team. She became the starter as a sophomore, and by the end of the season, she was listed by the Detroit Free Press as one of the state’s top 100 players.

In December of her junior year, at a tryout for an AAU basketball team, Olson experienced pain in her hip, which didn’t heal despite four months of rest and rehabilitation. A special MRI administered by a Michigan State University orthopedic surgeon revealed a possible torn labrum. Surgery took place in June, ending her chances for any participation in elite summer camps or tournaments at a key point in the recruiting process. The operation showed no labral damage, but the resulting diagnosis was much worse: avascular neurosis, a condition that causes bones to soften, was discovered in her femur. The treatment was to keep all weight off the femur for six weeks, followed by another MRI. The worst-case scenario: a hip replacement and the possibility of adjoining bones being affected.

Miraculously, however, the pain disappeared last July, a month following the surgery, and the condition resulting in the avascular neurosis diagnosis had disappeared as well. Despite the promise of a Division 1 scholarship having evaporated, Olson returned to the court this year with a new sense of resolve. She earned All-Conference and All-Region honors and will play basketball at Indiana Wesleyan University.

"Erica’s story is truly a miracle," wrote Melanie Olson, Erica’s mother. "She faced an extremely difficult and challenging situation with strength, character and selflessness. People tell her how her story has instilled faith and hope in them and encouraged them as they faced their own challenges. She truly believes that sometimes our dreams have to be altered for a greater purpose."

James Roberts, Wilmington, N.C.

Illnesses and injuries plagued Roberts throughout his athletic career at Emsley A. Laney High, but he overcame them to experience success as a football player and as a wrestler. He was a starter on the wrestling team as a freshman when he was diagnosed with hypertension, or high blood pressure. The condition was addressed with medication and seemed to be corrected.

Roberts was having an outstanding sophomore season when he experienced an adverse reaction just a week prior to the conference tournament, in early February. When he experienced a severe headache during a conditioning drill, he was rushed to the school nurse’s office, where it was discovered that his blood pressure had become elevated to a life-threatening 190/120. A pediatric cardiologist finally put Roberts on new and more effective medication, and despite having lost mat and conditioning time, he qualified for the Class 4A state wrestling tournament.

But an accident at a wrestling camp that summer damaged nerves in his lower left leg. The process of weeks of rehabilitation forced Roberts to miss most of the football season. He finally returned to the gridiron for the second half of the season, but his wrestling season was interrupted for five weeks by a separated shoulder and a severe case of the flu that dropped his weight from his normal 189 pounds to 176. Still, Roberts fought through them, and missed placing in the state tournament by one match.

Roberts finished second in the NHSCA National Open Wrestling Championships last June despite torn knee cartilage. Surgery and rehabilitation again forced him to miss most of the football season. In his first game back on the field, he made a game-saving tackle in overtime, then played two games before tearing cartilage in his other knee, necessitating another operation. Recovering quickly, he had a senior season to remember, going 59-6 with a school-record 40 pins and finishing second in the state tournament. He went on to win one match at the NHSCA National High School Seniors Wrestling Championships.

The NHSCA selects Coaches and Senior Athletes of the Year in 20 boys and girls sports, and sponsors more than two dozen national championship events in 11 sports. The 18th annual National High School Wrestling Championships attracted nearly 2,300 wrestlers from all four grade levels to Virginia Beach, Va., and the NHSCA conducted 16 championship events in Virginia Beach, Va. last summer. The NHSCA, in partnership with the NFL Coaches Association, conducted the National High School Football Coaches Convention in conjunction with U.S. Army All-American Bowl All-Star Game. For a complete list of this year’s programs and events, visit the NHSCA’s web site at www.nhsca.com.

Founded in 1989, the National High School Coaches Association is a not-for-profit 501c3 service organization providing support and leadership programs for the nation’s 500,000 high school coaches and 10 million high school athletes.