Collegiate’s Sica gains on competition
Wednesday, February 17, 1999
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BY VIC FULP
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer
Cutting weight is not an issue for Collegiate School’s Steve Sica.
A 16-year-old sophomore, Sica has a 27-2 record and is ranked
No 2. in the area. Making the 103-pound weight class is not a
problem.
"I’ve been hovering around 100 pounds for a year or so," Sica said.
The coaches would tell me to go home and eat.
"It took me some time to grow into my weight, but I don’t have any
trouble with it now. One thing that really helped me was working
with our weight trainer, Skip Johns. He gave me a program geared
to putting on weight. I lifted four days a week in the summer and
fall."
Some athletes run cross country just to keep in shape. Sica runs
cross country, but he can’t do much of anything without the
competitive side taking over.
"I started running just to keep in shape, but whatever I’m doing is
the most important thing at that time," Sica said. "I had a stress
fracture and missed several weeks during cross country. I got back
in time for the district meet, but I didn’t place. I was just glad
to be back."
Sica also played goalie on Collegiate’s JV lacrosse team last year,
but he said he probably will switch to track this spring.
Sica first became interested in wrestling by watching his brother
Chris, now 20, wrestle when he was in high school.
"I just liked it, and he was always beating up on me, so I decided
to try it," Sica said. "Something just drew me into it, and it was fun".
After solving the weight problem this year, Sica got off to a strong
start and has kept the pace.
Earlier in the season, he reached the final of the Hopewell and
Clover Hill invitationals before losing. He won a tournament at
Lee-Davis and captured the Virginia Prep League championship on
Saturday with a pin of St. Christopher’s Peter Hicks in 1:33.
The State Independent Schools tournament is set for this weekend
in Norfolk.
"He goes to two or three camps a year, and he’s in great shape," said
Collegiate coach Wortie Ferrell. "He has the work ethic to keep
himself fit. He lost in the state private schools final last year. He
has a lot of grit and a lot of heart."
"He was running No. 1 for our cross country team when he had the
stress fracture. The doctor gave him the OK to run again the day
before the Prep League meet. He hadn’t been able to run for six
weeks."
In middle school, Sica played football. In one game, in a span of
about 10 plays, he had eight tackles, an interception and recovered a
fumble, Ferrell said.
"He really ought to do well this year during the wrestling postseason,"
he said.
Along with off-season camps, Sica also has done some freestyle
wrestling to gain experience.
"Coming into this season, I just tried to take it one match at a time,"
said Sica, who attended camps last year at George Mason and West
Virginia universities.
"I’ll probably attend a couple of camps again this summer and try to
work in some freestyle," he said. "I saw what I did last year when I
was smaller and my goal is to improve my placements [in the postseason]
this year now that I’ve reached my weight."
© 1999, Richmond Newspapers Inc.