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By Jay Spivey

For the Clemmons Courier

Injuries don’t often define the person, but they often define an athlete, no matter the sport.

That can be said for junior Anthony Zahn of the West Forsyth boys wrestling team. He’s been riddled with injuries his whole career dating to a knee injury he suffered in middle school.

But now, Zahn is facing the harsh reality that his career might be over because of shoulder injuries to both arms.

“It’s super-disappointing,” he said.

It all goes back to Zahn’s freshman season with the Titans. He had a severe injury in the NCHSAA Class 4-A individual wrestling championships. Wrestling at 106 pounds in the quarterfinals in 2023, he lost to Lumberton’s Trevelian Hall by an injury default at 2:22.

“It had broken my right shoulder,” he said. “…That was a long rehab. It actually took me out my whole sophomore year.”

According to Zahn, he had shoulder surgery in March of his freshman season. A fluke injury kept him out all of his sophomore season.

“It was preseason,” Zahn said. “And two days before our first tournament I had torn it (right labrum). I had broken it in the state championships. And then I had fully recovered and had been cleared to go on the mat, and then two days before our first match I had torn my labrum.”

The doctors told him a sobering story of how his shoulder was reinjured.

“They were like, ‘It could’ve been related (to previously breaking his shoulder), just from the healing.’ They were just like, “it’s just a very unfortunate series of events.’ They were like, since the trauma I had on my shoulder it could’ve been that, and that could’ve just helped tear it.”

The torn labrum in his right shoulder occurred in November of 2023.

“It was a huge heartbreaker,” Zahn said. “When I found out I was out for the season I was distraught, like I was so. I was beating myself up a lot because I’m letting the team down, and like, I’m not going to be there for them. Because we had no returning starting varsity (wrestler). Well, we had like two returning starters. And so, we don’t have many people to lead the team.”

The trauma he was facing just seemed to escalate. He also had to face that Jason Hooker resigned as the head coach after Zahn’s freshman year, and was replaced by Timmy Allen. Allen left last spring, and Hooker, who had stayed at West Forsyth as a PE teacher, came back as the head wrestling coach.

“There was not a lot going on right now,” Zahn said. “And especially with a new coach coming in it was just a lot of stress. And I was really beating myself up, like I’m letting everyone down. And it just tore me apart.”

The doctors elected not to perform surgery on Zahn’s torn labrum, but he did go through months of rehab and a cortisone injection.

“It was hard to accept that there was no quicker options, but at the end of the day it’s my health over the sport,” Zahn said. “I did (the rehab) from November (2023) until, I think February (2024).”

The rehab was three times a week with flexibility, mobility and weight training.

“I could barely move my shoulder, actually,” Zahn said. “So, I could barely get it past my head. They said it was very close to a frozen shoulder. There was a lot of scar tissue, actually.

“It was really bad and it really hurt just trying to move it. And so, with the cortisone injection that they gave me it actually like, I forgot what they said, but they broke it down and it gave me that small hump I needed to get through.”

Despite missing all of last season, Zahn tried to be the best teammate he could for the Titans.

“I tried to be at practice as much as I can,” he said. “I showed up to tournaments. I helped coach. I just tried to be around the team, you know, and try and be there.”

Coupled with Zahn’s injury, West Forsyth was grieving with the news that Allen was diagnosed with kidney cancer and missed much of last season.

“It was kind of crazy because we had a new coach come in. He wasn’t really there and he was out. So, we had, we were comfortable with the coach that was there, Coach Tony (Hairston),” Zahn said. “Since he was there the previous year (with Hooker) everybody was comfortable with him. Everybody liked the way he worked and liked the way he ran practices.”

Throughout all of last offseason, Zahn worked to get ready for this season.

“I was in the gym as much as I could,” he said. “But I was just really focusing on getting my strength back in it and just really working it out.”

While rehabbing his injured shoulder, it was announced that Hooker was coming back to replace Allen, who had resigned to teach at North Davie Middle School.

“It made me relieved because it was like, we’ve got a good coach. We know how he works, we’re all comfortable with him.,” Zahn said. “And it was really reassuring.”

With all the changes in the structure of the Titans’ wrestling team the past couple seasons, adjusting was imperative.

“I think it was good building year for the team,” said Zahn of the team, which didn’t reach the NCHSAA Class 4-A boys dual-team playoffs. “Since last year we’ve grown a lot. And I feel like this year taught us a lot about our team and where we need to work, and what we really need to improve on.

“I think even though we struggled in a good amount of areas we do a lot of good now.”

However, Zahn performed well this season, wrestling at 120 pounds. According to him, he finished 14-1, losing just in the Southern Slam this past December in the Southern Slam in Taylors, S.C. to Barrett Clayton of Jefferson High School in Georgia after a 9-5 decision, according to flowrestling.org.

“It was a struggle,” Zahn said. “The dude was the Georgia state finalist. And again, I was sick. It wasn’t a great loss…I put a hard fight into it.”

That was a stepping for the rest of his season.

“I try not to let losses affect my negatively,” Zahn said. “But I like to learn from my losses. Every loss that happens I re-watch that match and I try to figure out what I did wrong and learn from (it).”

According to Zahn, his shoulder was about 100 percent this time last year, but disaster recently struck again.

“Actually, I just got the news that I’d most likely torn my left shoulder,” he said.

The injury came before Christmas at practice.

“So, we (his family and himself) went to a few doctors,” Zahn said. “The first doctor thought it was my ribs. He thought it was my ribs and I dislocated one of my ribs. But nothing came up on that X-ray. He said that I should be fine and nothing else should get hurt.”

He continued to wrestle throughout this season.

“I would go out and wrestle and fight, but every time I wrestled, I felt like it kept on getting worse and worse,” Zahn said. “And I could barely practice at that point either. It just hurt to practice.

“And so, we went to get a second opinion and the doctor was like, it’s most likely a torn labrum (in his left shoulder).”

Hearing the news was hard to stomach. He did, however, wrestle in a handful of duels last month.

“That was a crazy gut-punch because that takes me out for the rest of the season,” Zahn said. “I just hype myself up, you know, and like I can do it. I’ve got to do this for my team. It’s not about me hurting. It’s about the team winning.”

Because of his previous results, Zahn is seeded No. 3 in next week’s NCHSAA Class 4-A Midwest Regional.

“I don’t even think my parents are going to let me in,” Zahn said. “I don’t think (I’m going to wrestle) because I have an MRI February 12 and regionals is February 13.”

Whether he has to injury-default or not, Zahn said he will be there.

“I’ve got to be there for my boys,” he said. “I might just go in as a scratch.”

This injury might entail surgery as quickly as possible with about a six-month rehab, according to Zahn.

“I’m going to try to (wrestle) next season,” he said.

If he chooses to wrestle next season as a senior Zahn knows his limitations.

“Everybody is going out there hurt,” he said. “Everybody has something wrong with them.”

If all goes to plan with the shoulder surgery and rehab, Zahn knows that next season will be his last as a wrestler.

“I mean, it’s a lot of emotions,” he said. “Like a super-long ride. The sport has been in my life for basically all of it. So, said that is coming to an end, but happy that I got to experience it.”

One possible outcome is that this season could be his last without being able to wrestle as a senior next season at West Forsyth.

“I mean, I like to be as realistic as I can,” he said. “I have taken that into considerabilty. And if that really is the case and I can’t wrestle next year I will probably graduate early and join the Air Force.”