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The national anthem is being sung, and one boy in line bounces from foot to foot while others stand perfectly still. His hair shoots every which way out of the headgear he has put on but doesn't need for the anthem. He may not need it for at least another 20 minutes, but he wears it anyway.
From the time the girl sings the national anthem, Ryan Johnson constantly moves.
When the anthem ends, he jumps rope. He crosses the rope as he jumps. He does one foot, then the other. His feet barely leave the ground, like the boxers you see jumping rope on TV.
He drops the rope. He paces. He shakes his head clockwise, then counterclockwise, like a bull preparing to charge. Just watching this hurts your head and neck. Then he violently windmills his arms, so hard you think surely they will fly right on out of his shoulder sockets.
Johnson, who will wrestle for Wawasee in Friday's state finals at Market Square Arena, does all this to warm up, even though his 135-pound wrestling match is several weight classes on down the line.
When the time for Johnson's match arrives, he runs to the circle in the center of the mat to lock up with his opponent. He is so juiced, so jacked, so pumped for his match, he shakes. By then the grappler that some teammates call "Psycho" because of his hyperactive antics is in his comfort zone.
"Ryan's a constant ball of energy," Wawasee coach Scott DeHart says. "We want the kids to break a sweat, get a good warm-up. Ryan goes beyond that. When he gets on the mat, he's wound up and ready to go."
Johnson has found a routine that makes him successful.
"I just try to get myself psyched up," Johnson, a senior, explains. "I like being real loose. I feel better when I go out there hyper.
"It's hard to stand still. I just, I don't know, get ready for it. It gets me up."
The Ryan Johnson sitting on the green bleachers in Wawasee's wrestling room for a Tuesday afternoon interview looks much different than the wild-eyed Ryan Johnson who prowls the mat on wrestling night.
His neatly combed, sandy-colored hair has a razor-sharp part on one side of his head. He wears a red dress shirt with a collar, tan pants that look like Dockers¨ and a watch. He is as clean-cut as they come. He is an articulate young man who makes A's and B's. He talks of his plans to study architecture in college.
This is a much, much different Ryan Johnson.
Johnson has wrestled 12 matches this postseason and won 10. His overall record is 32-6. He earned the right to grapple in the state finals by placing second in Saturday's semistate at Memorial Coliseum.
The best match DeHart has seen Johnson wrestle in three years took place a few weeks back at the Carroll Regional. Johnson, then 29-4, was locking up with a 26-2 grappler from Homestead named Rod Rahebi. Rahebi was ranked 14th in the state.
Sitting in the front row to watch Ryan wrestle Rahebi are his mom, Bridget, his dad, Steve, and Shawn, his only brother and only other sibling. His mom looks relaxed on the outside, but inside, she's probably churning.
Dad and Shawn are a different story. They join Ryan in his zone. They are hunched over, elbows resting on their knees, eyes unblinking. They twist with each maneuver Ryan makes on the mat. At times Shawn ends up kneeling on the floor. Shawn's Notre Dame cap is pulled low over his eyes. They yell, they clap.
Ryan wins 6-5 in double overtime.
"I thought he wrestled a great match against Rahebi," DeHart says. "Look at what Rahebi did to him last year. He beat him twice."
So exhausted is Ryan after this match that he struggles to stand up and staggers over to Wawasee's corner only with the help of teammates.
"That was the first time I've ever gone double overtime," Ryan says. "I did have trouble walking. It was the most tired I have ever been in my life. It was unexplainable. It took everything out of me."
As soon as Ryan beats Rahebi, Shawn leaps up off his front-row seat and bolts over to slap his brother on the back. Dad soon arrives with either Gatorade¨ or All Sport¨ or what looks to be some kind of sports drink and hands it to Ryan. Then he returns to his seat, and only now that Ryan's match is over, does he lean back against the second row of bleachers, cross his legs and fold his arms behind his head.
Now he can relax.
"I'm the most hyper of all," Ryan says. "My dad, he just gets into it because he wants us to do good. He used to coach my brother and me in baseball. My family's been real involved in everything I've ever done."
Shawn attends and plays football at DePauw University in Greencastle. DePauw is southwest of Indianapolis, but Shawn makes it a point to return nearly every weekend to watch Ryan wrestle. If it weren't for classes, he would probably return during the week, as well.
"We're 17 months apart," Ryan beams. "Shawn comes back every opportunity he gets. He's been real good about supporting me."
Mom and Dad make it to nearly every match home and away. Ryan can count maybe two or three times they have ever missed a match.
When asked a few weeks back who would make a good story, DeHart quickly replied, "Ryan Johnson." The reason? "The kid never quits," DeHart said. "I'll take 10 of those kids over 10 multi-talented kids who don't work. Johnson has been fantastic over the last three years."
Last Saturday was a strange day for Ryan. He made it to the state finals, which was great. But he lost his last match of the day, which wasn't so great. And he not only lost, he was wrapped up and pinned in 39 seconds.
Pins aren't as common in championship matches at this level. In 14 weight classes at this semistate, only four grapplers won by pinning their opponents.
"This is pretty exciting, and it's quite an accomplishment," Ryan says of his 10-2 postseason record. "But I was very disappointed in my last match at semistate. It happens."
Turns out the Fort Wayne Komets hockey team - or at least the ice it plays on at the Coliseum - was partly to blame. Workers installed a temporary floor over the ice for wrestling.
You know how Ryan is about his frenetic pre-match routine. Believe it or not, he may not have been warmed up.
"I was all warmed up through warm-ups," Ryan says. "Then it took forever to get to my match. It dragged on and on. I think I got cold there because of the ice. When we started, I kind of backed up because I wasn't ready. I just don't think I was prepared."
The guy who beat him -ÊBellmont's Ben Faurote - is 42-2. Ryan knows Faurote for something else. Ryan's two postseason losses are to Faurote.
They could meet a third time, in the championship match at the state finals.
"It would be," Ryan says, "a good opportunity to get him back."
First things first. Ryan meets Western's Collin Bumgardner, who is 43-4, in the first round.
Funny thing, this winning. Ryan was 22-4 when the regular season ended. Now he's a sectional champion, a regional champion and a semistate runner-up. Winning 10 of 12 matches in the postseason has triggered something in Ryan.
"At the beginning of the season, my goal was just to make it to state," he says. "As the season went on, I realized it was possible to win state.
"It's my last year. I know this is my last chance."
Opponents, beware. Ryan Johnson is entering his zone earlier than usual.
