Far away from home, Newport Harbor High’s Josh George was scared to wrestle last weekend.
This is the same George who had defied odds.
The one who days earlier spoke to two dozen adults during a local YMCA fundraiser of his story, his journey back to the wrestling mat three years ago.
The YMCA helped in his recovery from a deadly bone infection in his right femur. George credited those laps in the pool for allowing him to turn into a 140-pound champion this season as a senior.
He talked about how he was finally going to break through and qualify for the CIF State wrestling championships, which start today and end Saturday in Bakersfield.
George even performed a back flip at the end.
But back then the kid couldn’t walk. George demanded doctors to cut off his right leg after they had no answer why he couldn’t lift himself up. The pain was so severe that George, 15 at the time, said, “I’m going to wrestle at 103 pounds. I don’t need my leg.”
George kept his leg. A long road back. Surgery called for drilling two inches into the femur to hollow out the bone. For 24 hours a day for the next six weeks, a two-foot long peripherally inserted central catheter pumped antibiotics into George through a vein in his arm, going up his shoulder and toward the heart.
“I had to carry around a little machine,” said George, dropping 20 pounds, leaving him at 111, close enough to wrestle at 103.
But remember, George feared that mat last weekend.
This was the stage, the CIF Southern Section Masters Meet at Carter High in Rialto, where the former gymnast would finally propel himself to the state championships.
George wanted no part.
He had just lost to junior Cody Bollinger of Sultana, 14-6, in the quarterfinals, George’s first loss Saturday after going 2-0 on Friday. Newport Harbor Coach Dominic Bulone couldn’t believe it. He had never seen this before from George, not the wrestler starting the season 28-0.
“It really affected him, and that was the first time I’ve seen a loss affect him so much,” Bulone said. “He gave him a good, tough match until the third period. We couldn’t convince him that, ‘Hey, you got to let it go. That’s why he’s [ranked in the top two in the state]. Let’s get the next one back.’ ”
