Limitless passion
Ryan Metcalfe
There are plenty of legendary sports tales about athletes playing through injury, but none match the local legend, Terra Linda High senior wrestler D.J. Saint James.
As a freshman, the 135-pound senior suffered the one injury all males fear most, but it didn't stop him from finishing his match or continuing his wrestling career.
"I grabbed the guy for a single-leg takedown and he flipped back and his foot hit me right between the legs," Saint James remembered. "I wasn't feeling to great. I thought I was just kicked and I'll be all right. I wanted to finish the match and it was only after I walked off the mat that I knew it was more serious."
A few hours later he found out just how serious.
"They told me I was getting surgery on my (testicles) and the nurse started to explain to my mom that if I died during surgery, she would be the one to come and tell them," Saint James said. "That's when I started to freak out."
Saint James figured to wrestle the next day, but at the weigh-in that night he was examined by coaches, who told him he should go to the hospital. His testicle had ruptured, and by the end of the night it had swollen to the size of a fist and needed to be removed. His father, Michael, and mother, Diana, took him to the emergency room and the injury was even worse than they had expected.
"From when they first started examining him, they were talking about surgery and I was a little surprised," Diana said. "Right in
front of him they started talking about all the risks. And of course every male who came into the room, we had to witness their cringes even thinking of such an injury."
The fact that a wrestler suffered such an injury during a match is somewhat shocking, but what his coaches marvel at most is that he finished his match and returned to wrestling the next season.
"Often times a wrestler will have an injury during a match and the adrenaline will keep him going, but this was an anomaly," Terra Linda coach Danny Dardon said. "It takes a special individual to continue in light of such an injury."
Dardon became Saint James' coach this year and has been impressed with the senior from the beginning. He worked with Saint James during his freshman year when Mike Gardner was the head coach. He was not present during the famous match, but Gardner was.
"I've seen countless kids get kicked up there and I try to use all of the injury time to let them recover," Gardner said. "Once it goes beyond 2 minutes, you lose the match. His dad was there in the corner and I told D.J. 'You don't look so good, maybe I should stop the match.' But he said, 'No, I can finish.' We had no idea he was hurt that seriously.
"Everyone who has been hurt there knows how bad it feels. For the next 3 minutes, 30 seconds he is not making any moves and I can tell he is in the worst pain in the world. I know D.J. is a much better wrestler than this kid and then somewhere in the last 30 seconds of the match when he was down six or seven points, he gets a burst of strength and takes the guy down and pins him. I think it really speaks to the kind of kid he is. It takes a certain kind of willpower that I don't possess and I don't know many who do. He's tough as nails."
Saint James may not be made of steel, but his love for wrestling runs deep. He never considered giving up wrestling even hours after doctors removed a testicle.
"Wrestling was always on my mind," Saint James said. "The first thing the doctor told me was I was done wrestling and he wanted me to get interested in crew, but I've always wanted to wrestle. I wanted to find another doctor."
Saint James was back at school in a couple of days, though he admits he walked around like a saddle-sore cowboy for a few weeks. While his parents began to research the possibility of Saint James returning to his only sport, his teammates made sure he didn't get far away from wrestling. The seniors insisted that Saint James be taken to all team functions as a scorekeeper.
"That really helped me," Saint James said. "All the seniors came up to me and wanted to help. They didn't make fun of me. Andy Harley even gave me a Valentine's Day card as a joke. All the guys wanted me to come and be their stat guy. I got to hang out with the varsity as a freshman and I wouldn't have been able to do that if I hadn't been hurt."
The Saint James family did extensive research and found that very few wrestlers have had similar injuries, though they were surprised to find that Michael Douglas allegedly injured a spectator in a similar manner at a golfing event with an errant drive.
"Everyone agreed that it was a bizarre accident and the possibility of something like that happening again, and if he really wanted to wrestle it would be all right," Diana said. "I just had to decide if as a parent I wanted to put my child in that situation where he might never have kids or grandchildren from him. My mother even offered to pay for him to go to a sperm bank and have a deposit there until he was done wrestling, but we never took her up on it."
Saint James returned for his sophomore season and though Gardner noticed timid behavior in his first few matches, he said he knew Saint James would be fine after he took his first hit in the groin and he signaled to his coach that he was fine.
"It was an awful thing and one of the lowest feelings I've had in my career to see a kid who offered so much go through such a thing and all the ramifications that it will carry for the rest of his life," Gardner said. "This is such a great sport and he is so good for it, but more than the team I was worried about him as a person. If he had decided not to come back, I don't think there would have been a wrestler in the room who would have thought twice about it. No one pressured him to come back."
Gardner said he has never had a wrestler go through all four years of high school without getting pinned and none have come closer to perfection in this manner than Saint James.
"I got pinned once my sophomore year and I'll never forget it," Saint James said. "It is completely a pride thing for me and I intend to keep it that way. I haven't been pinned in the last two years and I'm not going to let it happen. It is a matter of how bad you want it. If a guy pins you, then he is in control of you and I don't like that idea."
The family has learned to laugh about the situation and so have his teammates, though there is plenty of respect.
"He tried to keep it quiet, but word got out pretty quick and he lived with it and accepted it," teammate Matt Swain said. "He has taken it well. It is funny, but also not very funny, but we laugh at it now. É When I tell the story to people, they all say: 'He still wrestles?! If that had happened to me I'd quit.' But he's still going. I know all the seniors on the team even say they would quit too, but now he is our captain."
Gardner said now there is always some humor, but also special attention when teaching the spear - the move Saint James used when he got hurt. He still marvels at Saint James' ability to laugh and stay so positive after all he has been through. Saint James has learned to handle his unusual injury with his own style.
"It is kind of like an urban legend, and sometimes he will go to parties and kids from other schools will say, 'I heard there is a wrestler at Terra Linda who lost a (testicle),' and sometimes he will tell them, 'It's just a rumor.'" Diana said. "But maybe if it's a cute girl, he'll say, 'I'm that guy.'"
Saint James won the MCAL 130-pound championship last season and made the final 12 at NCS. He hopes to claim the MCAL 135-pound championship Saturday and make the top four at NCS next weekend to get a state berth. He is ranked in the top 10 for his weight class, and no one should think that he has an Achilles' heel.
"I think anyone that is thinking they will try to get a knee in there to intimidate him is going to find out that will just inflame him and get him more ferocious," Diana said. "They would be sorry."
It's hard to think of anything that could intimidate Saint James anymore.
http://marinij.com/sports/ci_3508045
Ryan Metcalfe
There are plenty of legendary sports tales about athletes playing through injury, but none match the local legend, Terra Linda High senior wrestler D.J. Saint James.
As a freshman, the 135-pound senior suffered the one injury all males fear most, but it didn't stop him from finishing his match or continuing his wrestling career.
"I grabbed the guy for a single-leg takedown and he flipped back and his foot hit me right between the legs," Saint James remembered. "I wasn't feeling to great. I thought I was just kicked and I'll be all right. I wanted to finish the match and it was only after I walked off the mat that I knew it was more serious."
A few hours later he found out just how serious.
"They told me I was getting surgery on my (testicles) and the nurse started to explain to my mom that if I died during surgery, she would be the one to come and tell them," Saint James said. "That's when I started to freak out."
Saint James figured to wrestle the next day, but at the weigh-in that night he was examined by coaches, who told him he should go to the hospital. His testicle had ruptured, and by the end of the night it had swollen to the size of a fist and needed to be removed. His father, Michael, and mother, Diana, took him to the emergency room and the injury was even worse than they had expected.
"From when they first started examining him, they were talking about surgery and I was a little surprised," Diana said. "Right in
front of him they started talking about all the risks. And of course every male who came into the room, we had to witness their cringes even thinking of such an injury."
The fact that a wrestler suffered such an injury during a match is somewhat shocking, but what his coaches marvel at most is that he finished his match and returned to wrestling the next season.
"Often times a wrestler will have an injury during a match and the adrenaline will keep him going, but this was an anomaly," Terra Linda coach Danny Dardon said. "It takes a special individual to continue in light of such an injury."
Dardon became Saint James' coach this year and has been impressed with the senior from the beginning. He worked with Saint James during his freshman year when Mike Gardner was the head coach. He was not present during the famous match, but Gardner was.
"I've seen countless kids get kicked up there and I try to use all of the injury time to let them recover," Gardner said. "Once it goes beyond 2 minutes, you lose the match. His dad was there in the corner and I told D.J. 'You don't look so good, maybe I should stop the match.' But he said, 'No, I can finish.' We had no idea he was hurt that seriously.
"Everyone who has been hurt there knows how bad it feels. For the next 3 minutes, 30 seconds he is not making any moves and I can tell he is in the worst pain in the world. I know D.J. is a much better wrestler than this kid and then somewhere in the last 30 seconds of the match when he was down six or seven points, he gets a burst of strength and takes the guy down and pins him. I think it really speaks to the kind of kid he is. It takes a certain kind of willpower that I don't possess and I don't know many who do. He's tough as nails."
Saint James may not be made of steel, but his love for wrestling runs deep. He never considered giving up wrestling even hours after doctors removed a testicle.
"Wrestling was always on my mind," Saint James said. "The first thing the doctor told me was I was done wrestling and he wanted me to get interested in crew, but I've always wanted to wrestle. I wanted to find another doctor."
Saint James was back at school in a couple of days, though he admits he walked around like a saddle-sore cowboy for a few weeks. While his parents began to research the possibility of Saint James returning to his only sport, his teammates made sure he didn't get far away from wrestling. The seniors insisted that Saint James be taken to all team functions as a scorekeeper.
"That really helped me," Saint James said. "All the seniors came up to me and wanted to help. They didn't make fun of me. Andy Harley even gave me a Valentine's Day card as a joke. All the guys wanted me to come and be their stat guy. I got to hang out with the varsity as a freshman and I wouldn't have been able to do that if I hadn't been hurt."
The Saint James family did extensive research and found that very few wrestlers have had similar injuries, though they were surprised to find that Michael Douglas allegedly injured a spectator in a similar manner at a golfing event with an errant drive.
"Everyone agreed that it was a bizarre accident and the possibility of something like that happening again, and if he really wanted to wrestle it would be all right," Diana said. "I just had to decide if as a parent I wanted to put my child in that situation where he might never have kids or grandchildren from him. My mother even offered to pay for him to go to a sperm bank and have a deposit there until he was done wrestling, but we never took her up on it."
Saint James returned for his sophomore season and though Gardner noticed timid behavior in his first few matches, he said he knew Saint James would be fine after he took his first hit in the groin and he signaled to his coach that he was fine.
"It was an awful thing and one of the lowest feelings I've had in my career to see a kid who offered so much go through such a thing and all the ramifications that it will carry for the rest of his life," Gardner said. "This is such a great sport and he is so good for it, but more than the team I was worried about him as a person. If he had decided not to come back, I don't think there would have been a wrestler in the room who would have thought twice about it. No one pressured him to come back."
Gardner said he has never had a wrestler go through all four years of high school without getting pinned and none have come closer to perfection in this manner than Saint James.
"I got pinned once my sophomore year and I'll never forget it," Saint James said. "It is completely a pride thing for me and I intend to keep it that way. I haven't been pinned in the last two years and I'm not going to let it happen. It is a matter of how bad you want it. If a guy pins you, then he is in control of you and I don't like that idea."
The family has learned to laugh about the situation and so have his teammates, though there is plenty of respect.
"He tried to keep it quiet, but word got out pretty quick and he lived with it and accepted it," teammate Matt Swain said. "He has taken it well. It is funny, but also not very funny, but we laugh at it now. É When I tell the story to people, they all say: 'He still wrestles?! If that had happened to me I'd quit.' But he's still going. I know all the seniors on the team even say they would quit too, but now he is our captain."
Gardner said now there is always some humor, but also special attention when teaching the spear - the move Saint James used when he got hurt. He still marvels at Saint James' ability to laugh and stay so positive after all he has been through. Saint James has learned to handle his unusual injury with his own style.
"It is kind of like an urban legend, and sometimes he will go to parties and kids from other schools will say, 'I heard there is a wrestler at Terra Linda who lost a (testicle),' and sometimes he will tell them, 'It's just a rumor.'" Diana said. "But maybe if it's a cute girl, he'll say, 'I'm that guy.'"
Saint James won the MCAL 130-pound championship last season and made the final 12 at NCS. He hopes to claim the MCAL 135-pound championship Saturday and make the top four at NCS next weekend to get a state berth. He is ranked in the top 10 for his weight class, and no one should think that he has an Achilles' heel.
"I think anyone that is thinking they will try to get a knee in there to intimidate him is going to find out that will just inflame him and get him more ferocious," Diana said. "They would be sorry."
It's hard to think of anything that could intimidate Saint James anymore.
http://marinij.com/sports/ci_3508045
