MT. VERNON — He was full of attitude when he first started, his coach said. And not the good kind.
During PJ Sterrett’s freshman year, he displayed a little bit of overconfidence when he stepped onto the wrestling mats, said Chad Masters, Mt. Vernon’s head wrestling coach.
So one day, he took a moment during practice to feed him a little humble pie. From that day forward, his outlook, his demeanor and his mindset changed for the better, Masters said.
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Today, Sterrett is captain of the team and is acknowledged by his teammates as a natural leader and one of the most skilled wrestlers on their roster. The 182-pound senior has surpassed 100 career varsity wins — an unexpected milestone that makes him reflect on just how far he’s come in four years, Sterrett said.
And it all came to that fateful practice his freshman year, Masters said, chuckling as he remembered the day. Masters had him drilling against one of his toughest seniors, but he’d told the older student to take it easy on Sterrett. Sterrett was turning up the heat, showing off to the rest of the team as he maintained the top position. Then Masters looked at the senior in the eye.
“I said, ‘Finish him,’” Masters said. “Then he was up, and he instantly flipped him on his back.”
Masters said he immediately took a fuming Sterrett out into the hallway outside the wrestling room. By the end of his high school career, Sterrett needed to grow, Masters had told him.
“I said, ‘In three years, I need you to be that guy,’” Masters said. “‘I need you to be a leader.’ And ever since then, he’s embraced it. This sport will humble you, and that was the moment he stepped up.”
And in the years that followed, he proved exactly what he was capable of, Masters said.
Sterrett has logged 105 career wins, including 22 wins and just 3 losses this season heading into Thursday night’s match against Pendleton Heights. He was hoping to have reached 100 wins by the end of the year, and he got there before 2019 began.
His individual accomplishments aside, Sterrett said it’s been equally exciting to watch his team grow to become one of the best teams in the conference.
During his freshman year, Mt. Vernon’s wrestling team wasn’t exactly a force to be reckoned with, Sterrett said. But just four years later, they’ve become a team that other schools are truly wary of, he said.
“You can see the fear in their eyes whenever we arrive on the mat together,” Sterrett said.
They’ve left a lot of blood, sweat and tears in the school’s wrestling room, Masters said. Sterrett agreed; he’s going to leave a lot of memories in that place. He’ll miss the grind, the conditioning, the friendships. He’s going to miss the moments after a match when he collapses on the team’s bench, exhausted from the fight, and his teammates crowd around to smack him on the back, he said.
But what will he miss most about wrestling after graduation? The grub after making weight, he said.
“The best part of this sport is the feast after weigh-ins,” Sterrett joked. “Either that, or the fact that girls really dig wrestlers.”
Sterrett has spoken with a few universities about playing football, including Mt. St. Joseph, he said. Masters said they’ve reached a point in the season where as a coach he can just sit back and admire how much his seniors have grown over the course of their careers, and he can’t wait to see where Sterrett goes next.
“Whatever he chooses to do, he’s going to find success in the future,” Masters said. “He’s just a kid that I can count on, and I’m really proud of him.”
