COURAGEOUS WRESTLER: The drive to compete hasn't been dampened by the health problemsSonya Heitshusen Reporter
9:04 AM CST, February 18, 2010
Iowans take their wrestling seriously. Ask any wrestler or coach and they'll tell you it takes tenacity, training and true grit.
Those characteristics are not lost on Roosevelt High School junior, John Cook. John started wrestling in seventh grade. He hasn't won a lot of matches and he won't be wrestling at the state tournament, but he's just as tough, if not tougher, than most of the kids on the matt.
"You know, John's a typical wrestler, " says his coach, Jay Groth. "He works hard. He likes to get in there and get a sweat going."
In many ways, John is a typical wrestler. Just ask him about morning practices. Spoken like a typical teen, he says, "They're probably the hardest, because you're so tired."
At the same time, John is not typical.
"It takes a lot of effort and a lot of hear," says Coach Groth. "Especially in John's situation, where you're battling medical problems it takes more heart than anything."
John's heart isn't the problem. It's his kidneys. John was born with infantile polycystic kidney disease.
"They said he wouldn't live four hours," says his father, Guy.
Guy donated one of his kidneys to John when John was two. The transplant kept John health for five years. Then, his body began rejecting the kidney. While waiting for a new kidney, John kept the older folks at dialysis on their toes, offering them candy and reminding them that his new kidney could come at any time.
"They might call me anytime," John would say. "They could call me right now."
Doctors said the odds of John finding a second match were about the same as winning the lottery. In the spring of 2000, John hit the jackpot.
John's second kidney transplant gave him a second chance to be typical kid. By the summer, John was playing little league.
"I think we've just tried to let him live, do things he wants to do," says his mother, Cyndi.
She says there was no stopping John when he decided he wanted to wrestle, even though his doctors suggested John avoid contact sports.
"I thought it was crazy," says Cyndi. "But he just loved it."
What exactly does he love about the sport?
"I like how you don't have to depend on anyone else," says John. "So you have no one to blame if you lose or win."
John recently won his first high school match, pinning his opponent. John's teammates hoisted him on their shoulders and carried him off the mat to celebrate the victory.
They also honored John with the "Guts Award." John is one of six wrestlers to make every practice of the season. Nothing stopped him from training, not even his body's rejection of the second kidney last spring.
Experimental treatments to stop the rejection failed, but that hasn't stopped John.
His coach says he's learned a lot from John, "He continues to show us that no matter how bad things are, if you love something, just keep working at it and things will work out."
"John has never been a child who said why me," says his father. "He's just gone about life as a regular kid."
A typical kid with an atypical amount of courage.
"There's really no pint to quit because you're just giving up on yourself," says John. "And why do that?"
http://www.whotv.com/news/who-story-wrestler-kidneys-021710,0,7425188.story
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