“I just put a brace on and I was like ‘Let’s Go!’”
When Caiden Johnson tore his ACL on the football field as a junior, it wasn’t just his football career that was in jeopardy. It was also his return to the wrestling mat that seemed bleak.
Still, despite the uncertainty of his future as a student-athlete, the Edison High School senior remained determined to come back strong. Slowly, but surely, Johnson tackled the rigorous recovery process that was required in the following months. With each sign of progress, as the weeks went by, the two-sport student-athlete gained more confidence.
Although he was unable to return to football, even with his tireless dedication, Johnson still focused on returning to wrestling. When wrestling season arrived, however, Johnson was still not 100% recovered. But the senior wrestler had made enough progress at that point to at least try to compete.
“I just put a brace on and I was like ‘Let’s go,’” the Tigers’ student-athlete said. “I was basically operating with like 75%. I wasn’t able to move how I want to, I wasn’t as explosive as I needed to be.”
That 75% was still enough to carry Johnson to the CIF State Championships and overcome the intense matches he experienced in the 220-pound bracket, where he finished seventh.
“The one that stands out the most would be the match in the blood round,” Johnson said. “I won it in overtime. That’s the match where if you win, you place and if you don’t win, you don’t place. I barely pulled it off. I just had to go.”
In the midst of the heated match, Johnson relied on the voices of the people who had supported him throughout his recovery process.
“It was kind of crazy,” he said. “I looked in the stands and I saw my coach who was like ‘you gotta go.’ And it was like 15 seconds left and I had to tie the match up. It had to go over time, man. It was crazy.”
Johnson, who has been wrestling since the seventh grade, also focused on the lessons he has learned through the years.
“I felt pretty prepared,” the star wrestler said as he reflected on his run in the state championship. “I just kind of had to trust my training. I put in so much work. It just comes natural to me, like ‘Down by two, Oh OK I gotta go.’”
Johnson advanced to the round of 16 in the 220-pound division before he narrowly lost to Nolan Frank from Elk Grove.
“In the end, I took 7th. The only person from Fresno Unified to place, the only person for my team to make it there in like four or five years,” the Fresno athlete said.
With his senior year now winding down, Johnson is looking back at some of his most precious memories as a student-athlete.
“The bonds I made with my teammates, going out there performing, the bond I made with the coaches and stuff, just all of it,” he said.
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