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All-State And
A State Champ
STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
W
ell, that was fast.
Jackson Ross can
hardly believe his
sports career at Novi Detroit
Catholic Central High School is
over.
“It’s crazy. It seemed like four
years went by in a blink of an
eye,” Ross said Sunday, about
24 hours after the senior fin-
ished third at 215 pounds in the
Division 1 individual wrestling
state tournament at the Palace
of Auburn Hills.
Ross earned All-State honors
for his finish, making him a two-
time All-State wrestler. He was
sixth last year at 215 pounds.
The top eight in each weight
class are All-State.
A week before this year’s indi-
vidual state tournament, Ross
helped Catholic Central win the
Division 1 team wrestling state
championship with a 35-22
victory over Davison on Feb.
25 in front of a huge crowd of
Catholic Central fans at Central
Michigan University’s McGuirk
Arena.
“Our fans filled about half of
the arena,” Ross said.
Ross pinned Davison’s Colton
at tight end and defensive end
Cunningham in 1:43, giving
for the Shamrocks and a team
Catholic Central (31-1) a lead it
captain as a senior. He will con-
would never lose.
tinue his football career at Hope
Catholic Central’s win over
Davison (26-4) avenged losses to College in Holland, Mich.
Ross is a rarity at Catholic
the Cardinals in the state quar-
Central, an all-boys
terfinals in 2015 and
ABOVE:
Catholic school. He’s
semifinals in 2016
Jackson Ross
Jewish.
after the Shamrocks
celebrates after he
The Brighton resident
won three straight
pinned his Davison
has fit in perfectly ath-
state championships
opponent in the
letically and academi-
from 2012-2014.
Division 1 team state
cally. He has a 3.7 grade
“If I had a choice,
championship match.
point average and is a
I’d pick winning a
student leader.
team state champi-
His determination to succeed
onship over an individual state
was never more evident than
championship 10 times out of
last weekend at the individual
10,” Ross said.
wrestling state tournament.
“It’s great being able to cel-
After beating Portage
ebrate a team championship
Nothern’s Dominick Wilson 9-1
with your teammates and com-
in his opening match, Ross lost
munity. When you win a match
5-3 to eventual state champion
at the individual state tourna-
Ben Cushman from Flushing,
ment, you’re only benefitting
yourself. You’re not helping your who went 56-0 this season. It
was the closest match Cushman
team.”
had in the individual tourna-
Last fall, Ross helped the
ment.
Catholic Central football team
With his dream of a state
make it all the way to the
championship dashed, Ross
Division 1 state championship
had to regroup quickly and win
game against Detroit Cass Tech
his next match in the so-called
at Ford Field in Detroit.
“blood round” or else he’d be
He was a three-year starter
eliminated from the tourna-
ment. He also could not be All-
State.
With all that on the line,
Ross defeated Oxford’s Byron
Schlickenmeyer 3-1.
“I went to the tournament
expecting to win a state cham-
pionship,” Ross said. “I would
have felt terrible if I left there
without at least being All-State,
so I had to take care of business
after my loss.
“After the match [against
Schlickenmeyer], it felt like a
weight was lifted off me.”
Ross won his next three
matches after beating
Schlickenmeyer, including a
pin of Westland John Glenn’s
Jawaun Peete, ranked No. 1 in
the state in the weight class,
in 1:39 and a 7-6 victory over
Monroe’s Zack Kramer in the
third-place match.
Ross finished the season
with a 29-10 record. That’s par-
ticularly impressive because of
Catholic Central’s brutal sched-
ule.
It’s tough to be an All-State
wrestler. It’s particularly tough
for someone like Ross, who
didn’t start wrestling until he
was a freshman in high school.
“There’s so much about the
sport I still don’t know,” he said.
“But I learned that if you work
hard, you can succeed.”
Ross is quite comfortable
about the next stop in his ath-
letic and academic career.
“Hope College feels like a
perfect fit for me, where I can
be the best version of myself,” he
said. “Football will be a prior-
ity there, of course, but it won’t
consume my life. Academics
will come first, as always.”
Ross said he also seri-
ously considered attending the
University of Dayton in Ohio
and Valparaiso University in
Indiana and playing football at
those institutions. He also was
thinking of trying to make the
Michigan State University foot-
ball team as a walk-on.
Ross does not participate in a
spring sport at Catholic Central,
so he’ll be focusing on academ-
ics totaly until he graduates
May 21. •
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stevestein502004@yahoo.com.
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March 9 • 2017
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