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            For the past two weeks, Ashland University wrestler Jacob Bartley (Ravenna, OH/Southeast) has been licking his chops.  Unlike the majority of the population, Bartley wasn’t thinking about sugar cookies, ham and even party snacks, staples of the Christmas-to-New Year’s food festival.

            Bartley was hungry for live wrestling. He had been on fast for a little over a year.

            On Christmas Day, Bartley was medically cleared to begin wrestling. He had been idle since the 2007 Ashland University Harris Open.  Knee surgery buried him on the shelf like a can of unwanted peas.

            So, when the doctors said that Bartley could wrestle on Christmas, he forgot all about holiday treats and began the process of eating up minutes on the practice mat.

            “I was hungry, it was the first time making weight in over a year,” explained the senior.  “Right away I had to cut weight over Christmas and New Year’s.  I had a week.  I think I had four practices before the weekend.”

            Last weekend (Jan. 3-4) in Indianapolis at the Midwest Classic, Bartley helped the Eagles, ranked 15^th in the latest NCAA Division II poll, finish third out of 22 teams. Bartley was the runnerup at 133 pounds. He went 3-1 and didn’t lose until the championship bout where Grant Baker of Central Missouri pinned him in 1:27.

            That tournament performance whet the appetite of first-year AU head coach Tim Dernlan, who hadn’t really seen Bartley in full action before last week.

            “He loves to wrestle, he has a lot of heart,” said Dernlan when asked for his initial impression of Bartley.  “I don’t know if I’ve ever coached anyone with more heart.  He knows one speed – full go.  He doesn’t ever hold back.”

            At the Midwest Classic, Bartley approached every match the same.  There wasn’t much talk about the strengths and weaknesses of each opponent.  Every match, Bartley was facing the same opponent – fatigue.

            “After my first match, it probably took me half an hour to recover,” said Bartley, who won a major decision (12-3) over Anton Prater of Missouri Baptist.  “All my matches, I scored points in the first period and then tried to hold on.”

            “His face was purple,” laughed Dernlan, thinking back to that first win.”

            Because of that coloration, it wasn’t hard for fans to see what Bartley was going through. Dernlan says that as the two-day tournament progressed, more and more fans and coaches made it a point to watch Bartley.

            “After his semifinal match, the coach from West Liberty asked who he was,” said Dernlan.  “The entire arena was watching his semifinal match.”

            Bartley won that confrontation, 17-13 over the bracket’s top seed, Mike Nash of North Carolina-Pembroke.  As impressive and heartwarming as his opening weekend was, the junior knows that he’s going to have to keep getting better to reach the level he wants to attain.

            “It’s not the moves or the technique,” replied Bartley, when asked what his major challenge is at this point.  “I could go and not wrestle for a couple of years and still know the moves and the technique. It’s the weight and the conditioning.  Wrestling, that’s the hardest seven minutes you can go through.”

            As the season goes on and the Eagles prepare for the regional tournament, it’s highly unlikely that Bartley will always be able to get an early lead and hold on.  He says that there are going to be matches he will have to win in the final period, one-point battles that go down to the final whistle. That’s why he’s working so hard on conditioning.  Still, he admits that he’s tempted to hold back from time to time, worrying that too much work could result in a setback to his surgically-repaired knee.

            “I’m trying to be a little careful,” said Bartley.  “I’m coming off a knee problem.  But I have to go up in the room and wrestle.   You have to be in peak condition.  You can’t be in wrestling shape without wrestling.”

            “I think now that he’s in there he’ll go at it like anyone else,” said Dernlan.

            The AU head coach has shown that he’s not like every other wrestling coach Bartley has encountered.  Dernlan was a lower weight class star when he wrestled in high school and at Purdue and he was still competing just a few years ago. He’s provided some new insights – and experiences – for Bartley.

            “Coach has adapted to this program,” Bartley said.  “He knows what it’s like to compete.  We still get Thursdays off and a lot of coaches don’t do that.  He says you have to give your body a break and get your rest.”

            Those rest periods are restricted to the days off, not when the Eagles practice.

            “He’ll grab you, throw you down and show you how it’s done,” said Bartley.

            Dernlan is working to show Bartley several things off the mat.  Bartley is a junior eligibility-wise, but he’s a senior in the classroom. He’s not sure what the future holds. Dernlan has talked with him about not looking too far ahead.  Dernlan’s words are reinforced by the health issues Bartley has endured over the last year.

            “We’ve put the focus on this year,” Dernlan explained.  “We’ll just let him focus on this year.  This is like a second chance for him and he’s real excited about it.”

            “I feel good, I’ve been off for over a year,” said Bartley.  “But this might be my last year. I’ve been wrestling since I was four years old.  It’s draining.  It’s not the wrestling itself, it’s everything else, cutting weight.”

            Whether his career ends this year or next, this much has been established, Bartley is one tough cookie. That’s true whether it’s the holiday season or the wrestling season.

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