University of Minnesota Athletics
Always in Your Corner
11/19/2015 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
In an Oak Park and River Forest High School classroom on the western edge of Chicago, a room full of seniors, including current Gopher freshman Larry Early III, needed ideas. Their latest assignment challenged them to find a cause, market a fundraiser, and raise money. Early immediately recalled a photo he stumbled upon the day before on social media and had his idea.
"It's coincidence. I saw this little boy on social media. He's was a little boy but he was also a wrestler, so I had a connection" with him, said Early. "I thought, `Well, why not fundraise for a wrestler?'"
In many ways that little boy, a four-year-old from near Tampa, Fla., was a typical young wrestler. Greco Roman Bouzakis was born into a wrestling family, a fact that may seem obvious by his name alone. His father was an extraordinary high school wrestler in New York who also wrestled at Clemson. All four kids in the family wrestle. Greco has been a wrestler from his first day on Earth.
All wrestlers face challenges. The sport demands more from its athletes than any other. But it's the specific challenges that Greco faces that make him more than a typical young wrestler. Shortly before his third birthday, Greco was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma, or DIPG. Only about 300 patients annually, almost all children, are diagnosed with DIPG, which is a tumor at the top of the spinal cord that attaches to the brain.
"It's usually a diagnosis that's 100 percent fatal," said Greco's father, Troy. "They gave him six months to live originally."
It's in his battle with DIPG that Greco continues to show he's anything but typical.
"He has lived for over two years" since his original diagnosis, said his mother, Toni. "His oncologist still insists he's not out of the woods. He still has DIPG and his prognosis is the same. ... [but] we believe he is not going to be the typical DIPG patient."
Research funding for DIPG is limited, both because it's relatively rare and because the prognosis for patients is so dire. Tumors associated with DIPG often grow rapidly, causing complicating symptoms to worsen quickly. They are also among the most resistant to chemotherapy.
With permission from the family, Early's fundraiser idea came to life. With a growing social media following due to his success on the mat, Early shared Greco's story with his friends and followers and encouraged them buy Team Greco t-shirts and support the cause.
The Team Greco t-shirts are part of a larger fundraising and awareness effort led by Troy and Toni. The organization brings junior wrestling teams to major tournaments around the country with a mission to teach young wrestlers to overcome challenges by focusing on something bigger than themselves.
Early's experience getting to know Greco perfectly fits that mission. His mindset shifted as he continued to work on the project. "It changed from getting an `A' in the business class to actually feeling for Greco personally."
With the fundraising project complete - he earned an "A" for his work - and his high school classes wrapping up, Early would soon be graduating and moving away from home. He would be starting summer school once he arrived at the University of Minnesota and competing in national tournaments. Amidst all of those changes and commitments, Early stayed in touch with Greco and his family.
"We just got to know each other. We contacted, we texted, we emailed," said Toni. "We stayed in touch because there was a connection there."
Any opportunity to watch Early wrestle, via streaming online video, meant Greco and his family were fixated on the screen, cheering on a friend they had never met face-to-face.
"We were thrilled to watch him. Greco was cheering for him," Toni said. "We were all cheering for him ... it was so fun."
Early took Greco's admiration seriously. When he failed to defend his Illinois state title, falling in the finals to an opponent he had previously defeated, he knew the small wrestler who is one of his biggest fans was watching. He felt like he had let Greco down. With that feeling fresh in his mind, Early looked ahead to a major summer tournament.
"I was going to wrestle at Fargo (in the prestigious junior nationals) and that feeling gave me great inspiration to go wrestle [and] basically wrestle my ass off," said Early. "I was going to wrestle and I was going to win."
As one of the nation's highest-ranked wrestler in his weight class and a coveted college recruit, Early was a recognized contender to win the national freestyle title at 152 pounds by the time he arrived in Fargo last summer. With Greco and the whole Bouzakis family watching back in Florida, Early put on a dominating display, allowing a total of just 16 points to his opponents in seven matches on his way to the junior national title.
Early received the tournament's traditional trophy, an octagonal plaque popularly known in the wrestling community as a stop sign. A stop sign is one of the greatest prizes a junior wrestler can possess. Before he stepped to the top of the podium on the Fargodome floor, Early already knew what he'd do with this precious piece of metal and wood.
"I sent my stop sign to Greco. He and his family didn't know it was coming but I sent it off to them," Early recalled. His rationale for giving away a prize that wrestlers spend countless hours training and sacrificing to earn was simple. "Everyone knows I won the tournament. I don't need that stop sign. It's just physical. But it means everything to him."
The gesture was not lost on the Bouzakis family. Since it arrived, it's been prominently featured in their home.
"When you walk into our house, it's on display," said Toni. "We have a sitting room with a round table and it sits in the center. ... We were always hoping one of our kids would get [a stop sign] one day. We never dreamed it would be the tiniest guy."
At that time "we just knew this is the guy on TV that we watch wrestle. This is the guy that won the big award. This is the guy that's our friend," said Toni. "That's who [Greco] knows Larry as - our friend, his special buddy."
"I knew he loved wrestling and loved watching it. He watched me at state and all of my matches this year," said Early. "We would Skype every now and then, so I had seen him and talked to him and everything, but never in person."
This friendship shared between an entire family and a college wrestler was certainly unique. The ties between them had grown quite powerful without anyone in the Bouzakis family ever standing in the same room as Early. There had never been a handshake or a hug between them. Until last weekend... in Troy, N.Y., of all places.
Just as the two had been brought together last spring, coincidence brought them together for their first in-person meeting. While the Gophers were in Troy to compete in the Northeast Duals, one of Greco's older brothers was competing in a junior duals tournament next door. Knowing the schedules would overlap that weekend, the Gopher coaches brought Early on the trip. He didn't weigh-in or compete to preserve his redshirt status, but he worked out with teammates in exchange for the opportunity to finally meet a family to whom he has meant so much.
On Saturday afternoon, as the Minnesota lineup drilled in a wrestling room at a local school, Toni and Greco quietly walked through the doors and sat down in a corner near young wrestlers watching the practice. There was a brief break in the action. Early recognized Toni and Greco from across the room and jogged to the edge of the mat, crouched down and scooped up Greco.
"It's nice to meet you," Early said as he pulled Greco close, the two exchanging smiles that stretched like broad sails against the wind.
"It melted my heart when I saw him and he hugged me," Early said, looking off as he relived the moment. "That was amazing, seeing him with a big smile on his face. And his mom's face especially. I know it probably means more to her than him because he's so small and probably doesn't comprehend everything. She has been so grateful for me and I feel blessed that I'm in this position to do something because I'm an athlete, to do something big because of where I am. It's just amazing."
Greco turned five today. His parents were once told he wouldn't live to see four. His young life has been a series of rare events, from his DIPG diagnosis to his ability to fight the disease and continue to thrive. His relationship with Early is typical for Greco because it's atypical. Strangers less than a year ago, the two are now forever in each other's corner.
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