Before he began to discuss his extraordinary experience with scholastic wrestling, Wyomissing sophomore Jackson Himmelberger made one thing perfectly clear: He is not alone.
Himmelberger has been blind since birth and began wrestling with the Spartans’ junior high team in seventh grade. He has grown to love the sport and enters his first year on the Wyomissing high school varsity team with a fervent passion and an eagerness to continue developing his skills on the mat.
“My experience isn’t the only one; there are many,” Himmelberger said. “I have a couple friends who wrestle around here in the state, who are either blind or have very limited vision.
“I was told by many people that wrestling is actually one of the best sports for blind people. And that’s because not only do they have rules to help, but there’s very little that needs to be modified to make it work. It’s not like a total overhaul.”
According to Himmelberger, one of the biggest technical differences that blind wrestlers experience is the fact that they must remain in contact with their opponent from the start of the match. Essentially, matches between blind wrestlers differ from traditional matches in that they start with both contestants in contact with each other in the center of the ring, rather than beginning spatially in their respective corners.
“The only really major thing is you have to stay in contact with the person, which in normal wrestling, is not how it works,” Himmelberger said. “It does (factor in). We’ve had to restart drills (in practice) because they’re not staying in contact. That happened a lot more last year because a lot of the wrestlers were newer. It got better later but it happens.”
Jackson’s father, Jack Himmelberger, served as an assistant coach for the junior high program while Jackson was on the team. With Jack Himmelberger’s support and guidance, Jackson has been able to navigate other challenging circumstances that are presented while competing.
“The main issues recently have been more of being at a tournament and I need to make sure that I know when I need to go up,” Jackson Himmelberger said. “And my dad comes to those and comes around but we can’t always do that because there’s work and he’s probably more busy than I am.
“So we’ve been looking into it because high school wrestling has way more tournaments and they’re also further away and they’re also longer. So we’ve been looking into trying to get an aide that can do what he helped me with as he helped coach for the junior high team.”
As his high school wrestling unfolds, Jackson’s teammates and coaches have been immensely supportive. He practiced frequently with the team as a freshman. According to Wyomissing athletic director and wrestling coach Frank Ferrandino, it did not take long for Jackson’s teammates to adjust to working alongside Jackson.
“It’s a learning curve for everybody,” Ferrandino said. “After a few practices, all of his partners all understand that when you break contact, you grab him and move him back to where we were starting. And Jackson does everything everybody else on the team does.
“One of his teammates will take him through everything that they’re doing and they kind of all start working together really, really well. A practice or two into it, they get used to that there’s no breaking contact and when it happens, they stop, they reconnect and keep right on going.
“So it’s really at the end of the first week (of practicing with consistent contact) there’s no breaking anymore. That’s just the way they do it.”
Wrestling at 101 pounds, Jackson Himmelberger said he has improved since he began wrestling in junior high. Despite not winning many matches his first year of junior high, Jackson has won matches as his strength increases.
“Things have been going great with it,” Jackson Himmelberger said. “I’m glad that I’m part of the team and it’s been going really well. We’re starting to get my strength and conditioning classes to work and we’re trying to get that stuff set up.
“When it comes to wrestling it’s been going well. Like last year, I got like four or five wins, which is pretty good compared to the year before that one when I would maybe get one or two.”
For Jackson Himmelberger, having coaches utilize strong vocal communication has been key, as he learns the moves in practice through active listening. His junior high coaches, Elisha Gaylor and Kevin Quinter, as well as his dad, have been a tremendous help.
“One of my junior high coaches, coach Eli, is really good at helping me out and making sure that I get everything down,” Jackson Himmelberger said. “Even when we were doing open gyms he would come and show me moves that were better for me. Because there are certain moves that I can kind of do, but they’re not the best with a visual impairment. Like a sweep single is one where you have to grab their leg and trip them down.
“I’m probably going to end up messing up if I do it in a match, especially with them actively defending against it. So it’s better that with the moves he helps work with me, he tries to just make sure that I know them and that I can do them. Especially with pinning combinations, I’ve been getting a lot better with those and I can pretty much do all of them.”
Ferrandino echoed Jackson’s comments, praising the work of the junior high coaches as well as making a point to show the determination Jackson possesses.
“All of our junior high coaches have been phenomenal, including Jack, explaining what the demonstration is,” Ferrandino said. “Then either a coach will do it to him or with him so he can feel it or his partner will go first and do it, and then when they switch he has an idea of what happened to him and what he is now going to do. That has worked really well because he’s learned quite a bit in the last year and a half.
“The number one attribute for any wrestler is toughness. We discovered early on with Jackson being completely inexperienced at wrestling that he was tough. So when you have that inner toughness, it’s easier to teach wrestling skills too. And over the years, he’s developed quite a bit of toughness.
“He’s late to the game. Most kids started in second and third grade. He picked it up last year and already is starting to have success, and a lot of that is because he’s tough.”
For his father, a sport that helps heighten self-esteem as much as it does athleticism should undoubtedly translate into a rewarding experience for his son.
“It’s been great for him; it’s a confidence builder,” Jack Himmelberger said. “I think if you can go through life wrestling, then everything else seems easier.
“It’s definitely creating that toughness, like coach (Ferrandino) said, and after a while of doing this in high school he’s going to know what he’s capable of doing. I think that definitely goes a long way.”
Source: Berkshire mont