Marine, wrestler named USMC male athlete of the year

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (AP) - It’d be hard to surprise Bryce Saddoris on the wrestling mat.

As the all-time winningest wrestler in the more than a century of the sport at the Naval Academy and the top-ranked 145.5-pounder by USA Wrestling, the 27-year-old Saddoris has seen it all while wearing the singlet.

But being named the U.S. Marine Corps male athlete of the year was unexpected for Saddoris, a captain and supply officer stationed at Camp Lejeune.

“I’m honored because I know there’s a lot of great applicants and other Marines who were also successful. So it’s something I don’t take lightly,” Saddoris said.

Saddoris, who was a silver medalist in the Pan American Games in February and hopes to make the U.S. Olympic team, said he had just finished working out and was in the sauna when he received a text message from USMC coach Jason Loukides congratulating him.

“I was like, ’Coach, what are you talking about?’” Saddoris said.

Loukides told Saddoris to check his email. So Saddoris “jumped out” of the sauna and found an email notifying him he’d been selected.

“My dad called me. I had told him,” Saddoris said. “When I got home and I told my wife, she was real excited. She was like, ’I’m the first one to find out, right?’ I’m like, ’Oh, yeah. you’re the first one,’ until my dad calls and he’s like, ’Did you hear about that?’”

That Saddoris earned the award may be surprising, but perhaps it shouldn’t have been.

Not only was he a four-time state champion at Spring Creek High School, but Bryce Lee Saddoris led his team to three straight state titles before graduating in 2006. One of six children, including four sisters, Saddoris said his mother, Susan, was behind his getting into wrestling.

“My mom needed me to do something more constructive than destructive or else I didn’t know if I’d make it to high school,” he said.

“It’s something that I’ve been passionate about my entire life,” he said. “If somebody had told me 10 years ago that I’d still be able to continue wrestling I’d probably look at them a little weird because I never expected to be able to continue this far.”

Beyond that, Saddoris, like so many others who hit the mat, loves that his hard work and dedication “directly” reflects how he does in competition, which included a record-setting career at the Naval Academy.

The 5-foot-7 Saddoris won 147 matches, eclipsing the record of 141 set by Matt Stolpinski (2005-2008), whom Saddoris said is now a Navy Seal. No one else has ever had more the 127 wins at Anapolis. Saddoris, who won 78.6 percent of his matches, also wrestled the most matches in school history (187) and his 43 wins as a sophomore were one shy of the single-season record.

He was also a two-time All-American and a four-time NCAA qualifier, one of six to achieve that. His best finish in the NCAAs was sixth.

“That (most wins in school history) is one of those honors I don’t take lightly just because of the great athletes and the great military members going through that school that did wrestle, some of the toughest guys I’ve ever met,” Saddoris said.

For all the work he’s put into the sport, however, Saddoris said there was one moment that he wondered if it was time to retire. At the 2015 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, Saddoris had a chance to make it to the finals but lost 5-4 to Algerian Tarek Aziz Benaissa.

“That’s my first tournament that I’ve been pretty down after a loss because I was so close of reaching the pinnacle of my goals,” he said.

So it was back to the mat.

“When it comes to competing I’m pretty, just not level headed, but mentally tough to be able to take the pressure of being the guy that everyone wants to beat or having that target on your back,” he said. “I do want to be the guy in the spotlight. I do want to be the guy everyone’s looking to, saying, ’Hey, that’s what it takes to be a champion.’”

The pressure will only build as Saddoris, who is in his second year on the U.S. World Team, tries to make the Olympics. The team trials are in April in Iowa City, Iowa.

Can he make the Olympic team? Loukides has no doubt Saddoris can.

“The big thing is first your goal is to get to be where you’re good enough to make the Olympic team. He’s already there,” Loukides said.

While there are plenty of questions facing Saddoris heading into next year, a huge one is whether he’ll still be a Marine by the summer. There’s a chance he won’t be.

Saddoris could be taking off his captain bars because he has yet to earn “career designation,” which all officers must achieve to remain a Marine.

“I was not selected to be career designated so there is a possibility I could be accepting the Marine athlete of the year while I’m on my terminal leave, basically being a civilian,” Saddoris said.

On the surface, it seems odd that Saddoris hasn’t been career designated. Loukides, who is retired from the Army, said “part of that … is my fault.” The reason, he added, is he and others perhaps didn’t present the full range of what Saddoris has meant to the Marines to those considering him for career designation, which includes working with not only Marines but area high school and younger youth who are wrestlers.

That, Loukides said, raises the number of contacts for recruiters, whom he added were “just thrilled.”

“He’s an incredible ambassador for the Marine Corps, for the United States,” Loukides said. “He’s traveled all over and built relationships. He’s just the ideal representative.”

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Information from: The Daily News, https://www.jdnews.com