Connor Tolley thought he was done wrestling.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga junior heavyweight started having seizures last year. He had made some changes in his personal life - "It was something I shouldn't have been doing," he said - but early in the 2017-18 season, the seizures re-emerged and he was sidelined.
"They said I might not wrestle again," Tolley said last Sunday after the Mocs won their home finale against Gardner-Webb. "It was a real emotional time of my life. I'd spent so much time and energy coming back and changing my life, and for that to happen, I believe it was part of God's plan to keep me working harder."
Tolley was out for more than two months trying to figure out what happened. During that time, the lack of knowledge and information about what was going on scared him most.
"Sometimes in as much as 50 percent of the cases, they're not going to be able to figure out what's happening, so I was really scared - I wasn't really concerned about wrestling; this was my life," Tolley said. "I know a lot of people have seizures, but I didn't know what caused it. We think we've figured out some stuff and I've made more changes, so hopefully they won't come back again."
It was only a couple of weeks ago a doctor at Vanderbilt Medical Center cleared him to wrestle. Tolley returned Feb. 4 in a home dual against Appalachian State, dropping a two-point decision. In his second match back, he pinned Gardner-Webb's Lathan Bumgarner in 5:48 for his second pin of the season and helped UTC improve to 7-7 overall and 5-1 in the Southern Conference.
"Two weeks ago the guy's not wrestling," UTC coach Heath Eslinger said last Sunday. "When you see a guy invest, you want them to reap the reward of it, and that dude stayed the course. It's not about his performance. It's about him having a chance to do what he's earned.
"Win or loss, I'm grateful that he's getting to run out and be a part of our team, but it was a pretty darn good performance."
With the seizures seemingly under control for now, Tolley can join his teammates in focusing on today's regular-season finale against Campbell (8-7, 5-1) in Buies Creek, N.C., and then the SoCon tournament March 3 in Charleston, S.C.
But he is also able to look back and see how far he has come, considering how "scary" he believed his circumstances were.
"It felt so good because when I came back, I was struggling with confidence because I'd been out so long. It took a little bit to get my confidence and my conditioning back. Today I felt good. I didn't feel too tired or anything like that," Tolley said last Sunday. "To be able to push myself through the whole match, it really brought my confidence up, and I'm excited for the next month of wrestling season.
"I feel like I'm back to where I was before the seizures started happening."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.