Nokomis junior Quinton Richards keeps adding to his impressive wrestling resume
By Pat McDonald
Nokomis junior Quinton Richards cruised to the 152-pound championship at the annual Atlantic Invitational back in late December. While that statement will probably not surprise anyone in the Maine wrestling community, the standout's "celebration" after one of his wins during the title run was certainly not commonplace.
After he got his hand raised following a victory, Richards didn't celebrate or show any kind of emotion. The first thing he did was go up to his opponent and give him advice on a way to avoid a move that Richards had just used to beat him. While that might not be a common response after picking up a win, Richards had a simple explanation for it.
"If you're wrestling better kids, you're going to become better — iron sharpens iron, steel sharpens steel," Richards said. "You always want to get better so if I get my competition better, it's going to push me to get better."
Richards is on a constant quest to become a better wrestler, which might scare some wrestlers around Maine since he already has a state championship on his resume.
"You have to keep the pace up, keep going with it … you've got to have the good workout partners and all that," said Richards on his mindset entering his junior campaign.
"You've just got to be an all-around better athlete than what you were before, show an improvement because you don't want (people) to be like 'oh, you topped out your sophomore year.' You've got to get better and better and better."
One thing Richards has done to make sure he continues to evolve and improve as a wrestler is hit the road to find tougher competition during the offseason.
"I usually put a lot of work in during the summer, going out of state," said Richards, who has traveled to Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia for tournaments.
"It's a whole different ballgame because those kids have been training since kindergarten … they are on top of it and you can't make any of those little mistakes like hesitation, you've got to keep going forward and keep moving. When you take a loss, you can't dwell over it."
Richards has won tournament titles at Wells, Noble and at his home tourney so far this season, but the junior has his sights set on some much bigger prizes.
"I want to win (regionals), states … I just want to take it a tournament at a time. I want to get New Englands, that's a big thing, but I'm going to say I'll settle for third or fourth (at New Englands)," said Richard, who admitted that he didn't handle his first trip to Providence very well.
"Last year I got too hot-headed. I think I went 2-2, but I kind of put too much pressure on myself to take first and then I didn't."
Richards is looking to continue to build up his high school resume — and put his name in the conversation with some of the best wrestlers to ever hit the mat in Maine.
"I want to be the next one," said Richards. "Everyone talks about them, so I want to be put up on that pedestal with those guys. Cody Hughes, Brett Gerry, Brad (Beaulieu), Cody (Craig), they are all great wrestlers, and I want to make sure everyone knows that I'm up at that level."
— Pat McDonald is the Sports Editor of the Journal Tribune in Biddeford. He can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.
(Photo Credit: Jason Gendron)