Tyler's triumph; Wasilla senior earns award for overcoming obstacles

WASILLA — Tyler Adams never knew Drew O’Brien.

As O’Brien was capping his Bethel High wrestling career with a state title in 2005, Adams, now a Wasilla High senior, was getting ready for his first season of wrestling at Wasilla Middle School.

But Adams and O’Brien have something in common. Their stories parallel.

Both overcome odds, some believed insurmountable, en route to achieving their greatest high school wrestling successes.

And it’s fitting that Adams is the first recipient of the Drew O’Brien Award.

The award is named for the late Bethel standout who returned to win a 1-2-3A state title as a senior in 2005 after missing his entire junior season when he was diagnosed with spondylolisthesis, a genetic condition that causes the lower part of the spine to slip out of proper position.

Adams also had to overcome a serious health concern. During his senior season, Adams was diagnosed with mononucleosis, missed six weeks of action and needed to see three doctors before he was cleared to return to the mat.

“I’m very proud,” Adams said of the honor. “I do know part of Drew’s story. His back was fused, it was pretty bad. But he was able to push through.”

The award was created by Tom Shelley, a longtime supporter of Alaska wrestling who created and maintains the website akmat.org, a comprehensive resource for Alaska wrestling fans.

Shelley had a connection with O’Brien. Shelley’s son Zach wrestled O’Brien during the final round of the Houston Invitational as O’Brien started his comeback as a senior after a year away from the mat.

O’Brien died suddenly in Anchorage on New Year’s Day 2011, and after learning about O’Brien’s death, Shelley said he wanted recognize the former Bethel standout.

“I guess when I heard about Drew’s death, I started thinking about it,” Shelley said recently.

Shelley contacted Bethel wrestling coach Darren Lieb, ran the idea past him and got in touch with O’Brien’s father, Paul.

Last May, Shelley invited Lieb and Paul O’Brien to his Anchorage home to discuss the idea.

“We came up with the concept, what the award was going to be about,” Shelley said. “We talked about the three of four different ideas we had.”

The goal was to recognize Drew O’Brien, and they kicked around a variety of different ideas. Ultimately, the focus centered on battling adversity.

“We wanted the recipient (to be) someone who had to overcome a series of obstacles presented to them that hindered their wrestling,” Shelley said.

After posting a third-place finish in the 1-2-3A state tournament as a sophomore, O’Brien competed in the Arctic Winter Games in Canada as a member of Team Alaska. During the trip, according to a biography about O’Brien written by Shelley for his website, O’Brien was sent to a hospital with a sore back. After testing, doctors made their diagnosis.

Doctors also found his S1 and L5 vertebrae were 95 percent displaced, leaving only 5 percent of his upper vertebrae on the lower part.

Major surgery — which included the use of titanium brackets, screws and a bone dowel taken from his femur — was needed to fix the problem. The surgery left his spine fused and no longer flexible at that point.

O’Brien spent a month after the operation in a wheelchair and wore a back brace 24 hours a day. His ability to walk was limited, he needed help to accomplish simple tasks and doctors warned him that he could not wrestle again.

With no flexibility in that part of his spine, any major torque could have led to a break and left O’Brien paralyzed from that point down.

But O’Brien was determined to make it back onto the mat, Shelley said.

Adams was also determined to return to the mat as a senior. He won a state title as a junior and was a favorite to repeat, but his final high school season nearly slipped away. Adams was diagnosed with mono after he won his weight class during the North/South Invitational at Wasilla High early in the season, but Adams learned he’d had the illness for a considerable time before that.

Adams said his neck was swollen, it was hard to breathe and he was nauseous and vomiting. Doctors told him he’d already had the illness for at least three weeks.

He was stunned.

Later, Adams learned sharing a water bottle lead to mono, and he was left wondering if he’d even have the chance to defend his state title. It took visits to three doctors, the last an internal medicine specialist, for Adams to be cleared to return. Doctors were worried about his spleen. He underwent a scan of the spleen, and it was determined he was in good enough condition to wrestle.

It was a rough return. Adams had to gain weight and get back into shape.

But like O’Brien, Adams persevered.

He defeated Soldotna senior Auston Tennis to win the 145-pound title at the Northern Lights Conference Championships in late January.

The following week, Adams edged Tennis 9-7 to win the 145-pound title at the ASAA/First National Bank 4A State Wrestling Championships.

The match, which featured a tremendous rally by Adams, was arguably the best of the final night. Adams was trailing 7-2 at one point in the match, but used a pair of near fall points during the final seconds of regulation to earn the win.

“It really was a reflection of his character, the person he is, the strength of his willpower and tenacity,” Shelley said of Adams during the state title match.

Earlier this week, Adams said he still has the same wish, that he didn’t miss any time as a senior.

“But I’ve come to see that this ordeal, this obstacle I have overcome has made me stronger as a person in general,” said Adams, who recently committed to Southwest Minnesota State University to compete for the school’s Division II wrestling program.

Shelley said Adams was an obvious choice for the award and was the clear winner after the voting conducted by Shelley and the group he uses to produces his wrestling rankings each season.

“Tyler was hands down the strongest candidate in the field,” Shelley said. “This year was a pretty easy choice.”

Shelley said the similarities between the stories of O’Brien and Adams can’t be denied, but it may not be the same when akmat.org awards wrestlers in the future.

“This year it just turned out Tyler was similar in the sense he overcame a physical challenge. But that’s not always going to be the case,” Shelley said. “There could be a number of things. It doesn’t have to be sickness or injury. It could be anything in future years. Those obstacles could be anything. They might be poor choices of life decisions that sidetracked them. It could be medical. It could be physical. It could be financial. There are really no boundaries to what the obstacles may be.”

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and follow him at twitter.com/matsu_sports.