Second chance success

Garret Johnson candidly admits he let a college wrestling career slip away and with it the opportunity to shine as he once did at Medical Lake High School.

Johnson's doing his best lately with the second chance he's been given by wrestling - and winning - on the world stage for Team USA.

He just returned from a couple of weeks in the Adriatic Sea community of Porec, Croatia. There Johnson won his 130 kg weight class in Freestyle at the Annual Veterans World Championship. In non-metric terms that's about 290 pounds. And just for the fun of it, because he was there anyway, Johnson finished third in the Greco Roman competition.

It's a wrestling discipline about as foreign to Johnson as the cuisine he experienced when not wrestling at the Sports Hall Green Laguna.

"The food was very interesting, okay, a lot of fish and a lot of liver," Johnson said. "I didn't particularly care for the liver, but I tried it."

Winning aside, it was the experience of performing in the singlet with USA on the chest that made a lasting impression of Johnson.

"I've never wrestled competitively internationally so this is definitely a thrill," Johnson said. "I was stoked out of my mind."

Johnson was joined by wife Bethany and other family members. The group covered the over 5,000 miles on flights from Seattle to Frankfurt and then Trieste in Italy before cars took over and got them to Porec.

"It was really awesome getting to have them there rooting for me," Johnson said.

This was Johnson's first trip to Europe since high school when he was part of a tour to Poland. He earned that opportunity with a stellar career as a Cardinal where he won back-to-back-to-back state titles between 2002 and 2004.

The most recent venture was born earlier this year when Johnson won his weight class at the U.S. Open Championships in both Freestyle and Greco this past April in Las Vegas. Following those successes, Johnson was approached by a member of team USA and invited to wrestle in Croatia.

For Johnson this rebirth of a passion for wrestling has all been on a very fast track. It was just this past February when he returned to the sport in which he last competed in 2008 while at college.

From state champ at Medical Lake, Johnson landed at North Idaho College for two years and later at Great Falls University. That's where his focus faded. "I partied a lot," Johnson said. But he's been sober 15 years.

Like many, Johnson began the journey with the Medical Lake Mat Maulers, a Little Guy Wrestling program. Both programs provided funding assistance for their proud graduate.

"That's what the money is for and it was so great to be able to assist him with his expenses," Wayne Terry, Mat Maulers founder said. "We now have helped the world champion."

Johnson, 38, not only won in his weight in Division A (age 35 to 40) but the team captured a gold medal by topping Iran and Kazakhstan.

"We scored almost double the team who came in second," Johnson said.

While he would love to perform closer to home, don't expect this event to be contested anyplace except Europe. The compact nature of the continent and the ability to travel conveniently means it stays relatively put Johnson's focus, when not doing his day job for Spokane County in community resources, is to continue his wrestling rebirth with an eye down the road. "I am considering the Senior Olympics," he said, noting that's about three years into the future. Johnson's considering "Doing some Pan Am stuff in Central America."

Of the many memories Johnson took away from his most recent competition nine time zones away was the nature of the sport.

"Wrestling fans are wrestling fans, no matter where you go," he said.

- Paul Delaney is an award-winning sports writer at the Cheney Free Press. Email him at [email protected].