Munoz Grapples With Adversity
Warsaw senior overcomes heart condition, concussion
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Anthony [email protected]
After reaching the regional round as a freshman, then semistate as a sophomore, his career was derailed during Christmas break of his junior year.
Sporting a 15-3 record as a junior, Munoz was forced to step away from the sport after he began to have problems with his heart.
“Every time I wrestled, after a while, my chest started hurting,” Munoz said Wednesday afternoon before practice. “I thought it was something bad, because it kept getting worse and worse.”
Describing it as a sting in his chest, which also led to a shortness of breath, Munoz went to see a doctor, who described his heart as being ‘overworked.’
“They didn’t really know much about it, so they told me to take a year off,” he said. “I took a year off, and it was fine.”
While he may have been cleared to get back on the mat, his parents weren’t in as big of a rush to see him back out there.
“At first, they thought I shouldn’t wrestle, because, what if it happens again?” Munoz said. “I told them I feel fine.”
And he’s wrestled better than fine.
Wrestling in the 120-pound class, Munoz has gone 26-4 this year and will face South Adams senior L.J. Moser (28-1) in the opening round of the 75th annual IHSAA Individual Wrestling State Finals at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis Friday night.
With a win Friday, Munoz would return for Saturday’s 9:30 a.m. quarterfinals and perhaps beyond.
“This South Adams kid is beatable,” Warsaw coach Justin Smith said. “He only has one loss on the season, but he is beatable. We’re working to Munoz’s strengths to get him ready.”
According to Munoz, his strength is his feet, and it’s something he’ll apply to the upcoming match.
“I’m probably going to shoot on him, try to get as many points as I can on him, then keep him down,” he said.
With a strategy in hand for advancing at the state finals, it’s difficult to believe his run could have ended before it even began.
In the week of practice leading up to the Jan. 19 Northern Lakes Conference Championships, Munoz hit his head on a teammate’s hip, causing a concussion.
The concussion forced him out of the conference meet, and threw his status for the following week’s Plymouth Sectional up in the air.
“You never want a senior to end his career because of injury,” Smith said. “He had the concussion before NLCs, so he wasn’t able to wrestle conference. We were wondering if we’d get him back for sectionals, because if he was out for sectionals he was done. We were thankful to get him back up in the (wrestling) room in time for sectionals.”
At the sectional, Munoz captured the 120-pound title, defeating Culver Academies junior Kayla Miracle in the title bout.
Last year, Miracle made Indiana wrestling history by being the first female to reach the state finals, doing so at 106 pounds.
However, at 120 pounds, Munoz was able to defeat the two-time sectional champion 6-3.
The following week at the Rochester Regional, Munoz and Miracle met in the title match once again, with Munoz winning again.
“It’s tough to wrestle someone twice,” Smith said. “That second match is usually going to be a harder match, but he was prepared for that.”
The regional title got Munoz back to the Merrillville Semistate, where he finished his sophomore season.
This time around, Munoz opened up with two pins, then a decision, putting him in the championship match against Lowell freshman Drew Hughes, who’s ranked third on indianamat.com at 120 pounds.
Pitted against the one-loss freshman, Munoz came up short.
“Munoz got in on him, but the kid had good hips and was able to counter the shot, then get on top to use his legs and power half,” Smith said.
Despite the loss, Smith is still pleased Munoz will go to state as a runner-up at the Merrillville Semistate.
“It’s arguably the toughest semistate of the four,” he said. “You had eight state champions come out of that semistate last year. We were really happy with his performance.”
At state, Munoz, who’s ranked 19th at indianamat.com, will take on the site’s 14th-ranked wrestler in Moser, but then again, Miracle is ranked 12th and lost to Munoz twice.
But outside of Moser, Munoz will also need to conquer the atmosphere of the state finals.
“It’s going to be a new experience for him, so we want to get him down there early,” Smith said. “We want to allow him to walk around the arena a little bit and kind of get his bearings. Just make him understand, that at the base level, he needs to treat this like any other match.”
Talking about treating it like any other match is one thing, but actually doing so may be tough for someone who’s been waiting for this moment for a while.
“My whole goal, for four years, has been to make it to state,” Munoz said. “This is my last year, so I had to make it happen.”
And Smith is eager to see what Munoz can do in his final competition.
“He’s taking advantage of the opportunity he has,” Smith said. “He’s a senior, he’s got one more week of wrestling and he’s going to go out and get that match on Friday night, then we’ll see what happens on Saturday.”[[In-content Ad]]
Latest News
E-Editions
After reaching the regional round as a freshman, then semistate as a sophomore, his career was derailed during Christmas break of his junior year.
Sporting a 15-3 record as a junior, Munoz was forced to step away from the sport after he began to have problems with his heart.
“Every time I wrestled, after a while, my chest started hurting,” Munoz said Wednesday afternoon before practice. “I thought it was something bad, because it kept getting worse and worse.”
Describing it as a sting in his chest, which also led to a shortness of breath, Munoz went to see a doctor, who described his heart as being ‘overworked.’
“They didn’t really know much about it, so they told me to take a year off,” he said. “I took a year off, and it was fine.”
While he may have been cleared to get back on the mat, his parents weren’t in as big of a rush to see him back out there.
“At first, they thought I shouldn’t wrestle, because, what if it happens again?” Munoz said. “I told them I feel fine.”
And he’s wrestled better than fine.
Wrestling in the 120-pound class, Munoz has gone 26-4 this year and will face South Adams senior L.J. Moser (28-1) in the opening round of the 75th annual IHSAA Individual Wrestling State Finals at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis Friday night.
With a win Friday, Munoz would return for Saturday’s 9:30 a.m. quarterfinals and perhaps beyond.
“This South Adams kid is beatable,” Warsaw coach Justin Smith said. “He only has one loss on the season, but he is beatable. We’re working to Munoz’s strengths to get him ready.”
According to Munoz, his strength is his feet, and it’s something he’ll apply to the upcoming match.
“I’m probably going to shoot on him, try to get as many points as I can on him, then keep him down,” he said.
With a strategy in hand for advancing at the state finals, it’s difficult to believe his run could have ended before it even began.
In the week of practice leading up to the Jan. 19 Northern Lakes Conference Championships, Munoz hit his head on a teammate’s hip, causing a concussion.
The concussion forced him out of the conference meet, and threw his status for the following week’s Plymouth Sectional up in the air.
“You never want a senior to end his career because of injury,” Smith said. “He had the concussion before NLCs, so he wasn’t able to wrestle conference. We were wondering if we’d get him back for sectionals, because if he was out for sectionals he was done. We were thankful to get him back up in the (wrestling) room in time for sectionals.”
At the sectional, Munoz captured the 120-pound title, defeating Culver Academies junior Kayla Miracle in the title bout.
Last year, Miracle made Indiana wrestling history by being the first female to reach the state finals, doing so at 106 pounds.
However, at 120 pounds, Munoz was able to defeat the two-time sectional champion 6-3.
The following week at the Rochester Regional, Munoz and Miracle met in the title match once again, with Munoz winning again.
“It’s tough to wrestle someone twice,” Smith said. “That second match is usually going to be a harder match, but he was prepared for that.”
The regional title got Munoz back to the Merrillville Semistate, where he finished his sophomore season.
This time around, Munoz opened up with two pins, then a decision, putting him in the championship match against Lowell freshman Drew Hughes, who’s ranked third on indianamat.com at 120 pounds.
Pitted against the one-loss freshman, Munoz came up short.
“Munoz got in on him, but the kid had good hips and was able to counter the shot, then get on top to use his legs and power half,” Smith said.
Despite the loss, Smith is still pleased Munoz will go to state as a runner-up at the Merrillville Semistate.
“It’s arguably the toughest semistate of the four,” he said. “You had eight state champions come out of that semistate last year. We were really happy with his performance.”
At state, Munoz, who’s ranked 19th at indianamat.com, will take on the site’s 14th-ranked wrestler in Moser, but then again, Miracle is ranked 12th and lost to Munoz twice.
But outside of Moser, Munoz will also need to conquer the atmosphere of the state finals.
“It’s going to be a new experience for him, so we want to get him down there early,” Smith said. “We want to allow him to walk around the arena a little bit and kind of get his bearings. Just make him understand, that at the base level, he needs to treat this like any other match.”
Talking about treating it like any other match is one thing, but actually doing so may be tough for someone who’s been waiting for this moment for a while.
“My whole goal, for four years, has been to make it to state,” Munoz said. “This is my last year, so I had to make it happen.”
And Smith is eager to see what Munoz can do in his final competition.
“He’s taking advantage of the opportunity he has,” Smith said. “He’s a senior, he’s got one more week of wrestling and he’s going to go out and get that match on Friday night, then we’ll see what happens on Saturday.”[[In-content Ad]]
Have a news tip? Email [email protected] or Call/Text 360-922-3092