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A menace on the gridiron, Meeuwsen begins rise on wrestling mat

By Rich Palzewic
Sports Editor


SUAMICO – Bay Port junior Max Meeuwsen has been menacing opposing offenses on the football field for two years, but his recent rise on the wrestling mat has been nothing short of remarkable.

The Fox River Classic Conference defensive player of the year this past fall for the Pirates’ football team, Meeuwsen is currently ranked in the top 10 in the Division 1 heavyweight wrestling division.

Despite being undersized in nearly every match he wrestles, the 6-foot-1, 230-pounder is currently 15-1.

Included in that record are Battle on the Bay and Fond du Lac Invite titles.

“Last year, I thought I was going to have a heart attack because I was so nervous before every match, even JV ones,” said Meeuwsen, who wrestled at 220 last season. “This year, like in football, I am much calmer. I look out to the mat before a match and see guys who are usually 50 pounds heavier than me and think to myself, ‘I should not be able to win with how big this guy is,’ but anything seems possible now.”

Being lighter does have its advantages, as Meeuwsen is quicker than his opponents and feels his cardio is a strength in matches which last longer than a few minutes.

What’s even more amazing, before last season, Meeuwsen had never wrestled before and hadn’t even watched a high school match.

“Honestly, I had no idea what I was doing last year – the moves, how to score or any technique at all,” laughed Meeuwsen, who admitted he would be in trouble if a 285-pounder was able to get on top of him during a match. “My coaches have done a great job teaching me things, and I’ve worked hard with my strength and putting on weight. Last year, I was right about 200 pounds. I used to play basketball, but I knew I wasn’t going to excel there. so I thought wrestling was a good option.”

Meeuwsen said coming into this season, he could have wrestled at 220, but he’d like to keep weight on for football.

He doesn’t have any real expectations going forward with his wrestling, but Bay Port head coach Brad Shefchik has nothing but praise for his heavyweight.

“Max is a really hard worker,” said Shefchik. “He’s not the type of wrestler who will wrestle in the offseason – his focus is elsewhere – and that’s fine. He has a short window – a few months each season – to improve. He is very athletic, strong, has a great work ethic and is smart. He asks a lot of good questions and has the ability to make changes quickly. We’ve had kids come in as freshmen and be able to compete by the time they were upperclassmen, but to come in as a sophomore like Max did with no experience and compete right away, it’s pretty rare and amazing.”

As for football, Meeuwsen was an honorable mention all-state pick from his defensive-line position and has already garnered interest from Division 1 programs Navy and Iowa.

The Pirates have won 27 straight FRCC games and show no signs of slowing down.

Bay Port has made it to the state quarterfinals in each of the last three seasons and will be one of the best teams in the state in 2019.

“I went to an Iowa and Navy game this past season, and it was phenomenal,” said Meeuwsen, who had 18 sacks and 65 tackles during his junior season. “They are two very different programs with different atmospheres. It was cool to go from playing in a high school game to seeing what might be a possibility in the future. This past season was a little bit of a surprise to me – I  didn’t expect to get the conference player of the year with so many good players on defense.”

According to Meeuwsen, he doesn’t have any immediate plans to commit to a college and is going to enjoy his junior wrestling season and look forward to his senior year – and hopefully, stay injury-free.

“I don’t want to look too far ahead,” he said. “Since I’ve never been around a whole lot on the wrestling mat, I don’t know what I should be shooting for. My coaches give me ideas, but I’m not sure what’s going to happen. I will keep working hard and hope for the best.”

Max is the son of Ben and Darci and has an older brother, Quinn, and a younger sister, Ella, who placed ninth last year at the WIAA Division 1 state track and field meet in the high jump as a freshman.

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