Chance McClure rallies his athletics around one concept his dad conveyed to him early on in life.
“Hard work beats talent and talent doesn’t work hard,” McClure said. “That’s something my dad (Chip McClure) taught me. Just keep working hard and good things will come.”
McClure, 16, already has accomplishments that speak to his principled work ethic, which coaches praise as remarkable.
The Commerce High School sophomore enters the Class A Traditional Wrestling Tournament on Friday as the only undefeated competitor in his 220-weight class and a favorite to repeat as individual state champion. He is undefeated this year with a 44-0 record and is expected to advance to the finals for a clash with St. Francis High School’s Mark Mongell (39-1), the defending state champion in the weight division.
Last year, McClure won the 189-pound division title, a feat he truly appreciated sometime after the fact. His hand being raised in victory is something he wants to savor again and again and again, if possible.
“It didn’t hit me for awhile. But I realized I have three more years I can do this,” McClure said, of his unexpected title as a freshman. “To have that feeling three more times, I am going to push towards it and do whatever it takes.”
His first big decision of the season involved weight. McClure, who naturally weighs a little more than 200 pounds, decided not to thin down as he did last year to compete in the 189-pound class.
Currently weighing around 195, due mainly to his conditioning throughout the season, McClure said his choice to join the 220-class puts him at a strength disadvantage at times against heavier competitors.
He counters this setback with more focus on footwork — his steps and those taken by his opponents.
“I have been wrestling for a long time, I see the way the way their feet are, a certain pattern of movement,” McClure said. “I watch the pattern, shoot on the pattern. It’s a technique that you pick up when you’re a little kid. It all adds up.”
Commerce coach Kendall Love attributes McClure’s rapid success in the sport at the high school level to his incredible drive during practices as well as his early exposure to competition.
McClure, who started wrestling at age 6, is a product of the youth programs introduced in Commerce more than 10 years ago. Dozens of children now learn the sport as part of club and middle school programs, which Love expects will yield more talent of McClure’s caliber in the near future.
The coach referenced McClure’s footwork as a skill that has become natural to him, largely because of his many years competing. This quickness makes him a very difficult 220-pounder to confront.
“He wrestles up at 220 like a 130-pounder would. Not many big guys will shoot in,” Love said. “Big guys have trouble defending it. He’s a lot quicker on his feet.”
As six of McClure’s teammates succumbed to season-ending injury this year, he has carried on, pinning many of his opponents in mere seconds.
Love does not worry the relative lack of competition will jeopardize McClure’s ability this weekend because of the wrestler’s conditioning.
“With a lot of folks, you would. But he works so hard,” Love said. “He can go six minutes wide open.”
He might need to this weekend.
McClure is expected to advance to the state finals, which are scheduled 4-6 p.m. at the Arena at Gwinnett Center on Saturday. (The first round for Class A is at 11 a.m. Friday and the semifinals are 7 p.m. Friday at the arena.)
His expected competitor, Mongell, placed in a prestigious national meet in November and will be a tough challenge, if the pair meets.
“Those are possibly the best two upper weights in the state, regardless of class,” Love said. “So it should be them in the finals, and it should be a good match.”
Wrestling is a different kind of sport, one in which you don’t have to be “a great athlete to excel in a great way,” McClure said.
“(Winning) a dual match, one team verses another team, you feel like you’ve done something for everybody. It’s a great feeling to help everybody,” McClure added. “But when you do something great for yourself, after all that hard work that you put into it, it is a feeling like no other.”
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Five Commerce High School wrestlers will join McClure in competing at the Class A Traditional State Tournament at the Arena at Gwinnett Center this Friday and Saturday.
Coach Kendall Love congratulated each on their top-four finishes at last weekend’s sectional meet in Telfair County, which qualified them for the competition.
He also commented on the challenges Cody Legg, Greyson Cochran, Trent Reddish, Thomas Sweeney and Brian Whitfield will face in their weight divisions.
• Cody Legg (39-6) is considered as a favorite in the 113-weight class. He has a “great shot if he wrestles his best,” Love said. Legg has wrestled against – and beaten – all the wrestlers in his side of the bracket except the first competitor he meets, Ross Waters (27-18) of Holy Innocents.
• Sophomore Greyson Cochran (29-12) will face Kannon Madden (47-1) who competes for Bremen High School in the 145-pound weight class. Madden is the favorite in the class, Love said. “Cochran has his hands full in the first round. He has a good shot at placing in the tournament,” Love said.
• Freshman Trent Reddish (40-7) “has a great shot at making the finals if he wrestles his best,” Love said. Wesleyan’s Brent Hornbuckle (21-12), an opponent Reddish could face in the semifinals, has already lost to Reddish twice in the wrestlers’ 152-pound weight class.
• Senior Thomas Sweeney (33-11) will face a “tough freshman” in the first round when he meets Hayden Cook (28-7) from Darling High School. But the favorite in the 170-weight class is Telfair County’s Zak Pitt (65-1), who beat Sweeney during last year’s state tournament, Love said.
• Senior Brian Whitfield (24-14) “put himself in a good position” by winning sectionals last week in his 195-pound weight class, his coach said. But Whitfield still faces a tough opening match in Holy Innocents’ Charlie Rousseau (33-13). The favorite in the field, however, is Gordon Lee’s Cory Jewel.
