Chris DeBien’s 2014-15 wrestling debut was delayed, but the Cleveland senior hadn’t been forgotten.
Prior to making his season debut at the Soddy-Daisy Showdown in early January, DeBien hadn’t wrestled a match. Despite his 0-0 record, tournament officials had not forgotten him and felt justified in according him a No. 1 seed.
Never mind that the 132-pounder was coming off ACL surgery in June. He was a three-time state champion — Cleveland’s first — and he had been beaten only six times (two in in-state competition). He scored bonus points in each of his tournament matches — a pair of pins, a technical fall and a major decision — seemingly none the worse for wear and showing no signs of the injury-forced layoff.
The rehab and recovery time took their toll, however.
“I’m sure he was really upset when it happened,” Cleveland coach Jake Yost. “He missed (summer) nationals and then a large portion of his senior season. Once school started he was so impatient to get back.”
“He couldn’t do anything. He was lost,” said Eric Phillips, his father and former coach and now Cleveland’s athletic director. “He tried to get heavier into his books, and he helped others learn the sport of wrestling.
“It was good for him when he found he couldn’t train all the time. It was a real hard time for him, but if he questioned the injury it wasn’t ‘Why did I start wrestling?’ or ‘Why did this happen to me?’ but rather ‘When can I get back to the sport?'”
The injury and subsequent surgery changed nothing in the eyes of Heath Eslinger, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach.
“Chris is a winner — a winner in every phase of his life,” said Eslinger, who signed DeBien in November.
From a wrestling standpoint, the UTC staff liked the fact that DeBien has shown he can beat the best in the country.
“That’s what separates him from other good kids. He’s shown he can be great,” Eslinger said. “From a personal standpoint, he’s my kind of kid. He does the right things, has a great moral compass; he’s a great student and he knows already my expectations for him.”
They can be no higher than those DeBien has placed on himself. He began thinking of four state titles after winning his first as a freshman 106-pounder. The next year Wilson Central was making noise, and his second title was as much for the team as for himself.
“We blew them out of the park team-wise,” he said of Yost’s first year as Cleveland’s head coach. “I don’t remember so much about who I beat. It was more camaraderie on the team than me as an individual.”
He pinned his way through the tournament and repeated that feat a year ago as Cleveland won another state title and he was voted the Class AAA outstanding wrestler.
It may have been because Phillips limited Chris’s offseason time in the sport, especially when he was younger.
“I never signed him up for a tournament, and he came in at a disadvantage because I didn’t let him go to all the tournaments,” Phillips said. “I remember one day he lost seven straight matches, but he just kept coming back.”
Phillips was told when Chris was a seventh-grader that he would be the best to come through Cleveland.
“Others saw it long before I did. I saw this sweet, loving kid and they saw something else,” the father/coach said.
Others saw an athlete who was driven and dedicated, a self-motivated youngster dedicated to training, learning and most definitely winning.
“He’s one of the hardest workers in the room and has been since he was a freshman,” Yost said. “He’s a good leader — by example and through encouragement — and he’s the kind you can count on to make good decisions.”
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.