Casey Cobb looked at his right index finger in astonishment. It was torn at the tip, the bone protruding, blood gushing.
Moments earlier, he tried to lift a small boulder and roll it down a hill. It seemed harmless. What could go wrong on a May camping trip near the Owyhee Reservoir with a few wrestling teammates?
But the rock caught Cobb’s finger and ripped the skin and tissue to shreds, perhaps hindering his promising wrestling career.
“The half of my finger was gone,” says Cobb, a Kuna junior who’s a No. 1 seed in the 113-pound division at the Rollie Lane Invitational at Nampa’s Idaho Center. “I was more in shock than anything.”
It was awful timing for Cobb, who was readying to train for the July 13-21 Junior National Championships in Fargo, N.D. Doctors had to take pieces of skin from his finger and wrist to permanently replace the wounded area. His finger was saved, but with the injury, he was relegated to the sidelines and fell out of shape.
It showed when the national competition approached. Cobb was knocked out of the 106-pound Greco-Roman championships, then lost his first match in the freestyle championships.
He thought, why am I here in Fargo?
“I didn’t feel like myself,” he recalls. “I was just really frustrated.”
A STRUGGLE TO REGAIN FORM
The frustration was understandable considering his past successes.
Five months prior, Cobb capped a masterful sophomore year inside Pocatello’s Holt Arena. He defeated Hillcrest’s Ky Webb by an 8-0 major decision to win the 98-pound 4A state championship and finish the season 39-1.
Then he went camping — and a fun activity turned into a catastrophic injury.
“It was gruesome,” Kuna sophomore Jake Lords says. “The whole front of his shirt was just covered in blood.”
During his recovery, Cobb couldn’t raise his blood pressure. It was required by doctors, who wanted to make sure the skin graph properly formed.
That meant Cobb couldn’t jog, couldn’t run, couldn’t lift weights.
“They wanted to preserve the end of his finger,” says his father, Adam.
Cobb’s championship form was gone by the time he was cleared to wrestle in June. He struggled to regain his conditioning and endured more injuries (strained right biceps, cracked rib).
He wrestled roughly 22 matches at June’s Team Idaho camp in preparation for July’s national championships, but he still wasn’t himself.
“He kind of had an up-and-down camp,” Kuna coach Pat Owens says. “We got to Fargo, and he still kind of struggled with his conditioning and, I think, his confidence.”
The frustration mounted when Cobb lost his Junior Freestyle opening match. He was on the verge of elimination.
Upset, he text his father.
Cobb, who started wrestling when he was 6-years old, always had the goal to become an All-American. Previous years, he fell short, and now it appeared like he would head back to Idaho without achieving his goal, yet again.
“My whole mental set was kind of off,” Cobb says. “I just kind of had to focus, get the job done.”
From there, he flipped a switch.
Cobb won four straight matches to set-up a battle for fifth place with J. Kohl Tolbert (Utah). In the second period, he used a single-leg takedown, then performed his patented half nelson to earn a pin at the 1-minute mark.
Finally, he was an all-American.
“It was pretty emotional for us,” Owens says. “At that tournament, he just had a breakthrough.
“He was just struggling so much. He couldn’t put things together.
“He really battled back, and placed fifth at a really tough weight.
“I’ll always remember it. It was one of my best memories as a coach.”
Fast forward to today, and Cobb’s accolades keep rolling.
He’s yet to lose a match during his junior season. In December, he won the 113-pound championship at the prestigious, 64-team Tri-State tournament in Coeur d’Alene.
On Friday at Rollie Lane, Cobb had a first-round bye, then posted two pins against Taran Hardwick (La Grande High, Ore., 1:48) and Mike Edwards (Santiago High, Corona, Calif., 5:14).
“He’s on a roll. I expect him to keep it going here,” Owens says.
Cobb, who’s ranked No. 4 in the country among 106-pound juniors by USA Wrestling Magazine national editor Dan Fickel, appears poised to win another tournament as he enters today’s round of 16.
The summer was a challenge, but he got through it — in dramatic fashion, to boot.
“Becoming an all-American, that was kind of my goal, all through my wrestling career,” says Cobb, 17. “When I finally did that, with all this, and overcoming all the challenges, it just gave me a sense of confidence: That I can do great things even when the trails and tribulations appear.”
