Cobb Cherokee In The Game High School Sports Magazine

Jeremiah Lutz Etowah High School Woodstock, Georgia by John DuPont photography by SmaX Photography Sponsored by Ed Voyles Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram

In an era when some athletes are celebrated for individualizing their achievements, Jeremiah Lutz is a breath of fresh air. Lutz, a senior at Etowah High School, is soft spoken when it comes to his own feats but he is quite enthusiastic when it comes to his chosen discipline. “Jeremiah is a very shy young man off the mat, except with his wrestling buddies,” says his father, Danny. “There are kids that he has gone to school with for 12 years that have never heard him speak a word. He is a good student a great young man, but he is 100 percent wrestler.”

Though proficient in several forms of wrestling, Lutz is particularly adept at folkstyle wrestling, a style practiced at the collegiate level. One of the sport’s most renowned practitioners of folkstyle wrestling is Kurt Angle, who gained fame as a gold-medal winning freestyler at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta before turning pro. Cael Sanderson is also one of folkstyle’s top ambassadors. Sanderson enjoyed a perfect run (159-0) at Iowa State in an amateur career that ended nearly a decade ago. Now Lutz is among the up-and-comers poised to carry the torch on behalf of the sport. “With folkstyle, you need to know the basic moves and stay in good position,” Lutz reveals. “One of those is a ‘stand up’ - that’s when you’re on bottom and you escape. Another is a double-leg takedown. The double-leg is probably my best move.”

Lutz, who has been closing in this season on 200 career wins (166 so far), already has several state titles to his credit. He is also a three-time (2006-2008) USA Wrestling All-American. “Jeremiah is one of the most amazing wrestlers I've ever coached,” says Etowah head wrestling coach Eric Burton. “His ability to stay calm and hit the moves that gets him a win is extraordinary. Jeremiah has wrestled so long that his experience level is already like that of a college athlete, which makes him a very valuable part of the team as he can help instruct others.”

At age seven, Lutz took up wrestling, following the lead of his older brother, James. The younger Lutz tagged along to practice one day, and when coaches spied the second grader, they convinced him to give it a try. He won just two matches the entire first year, though one of those wins was at the state tournament, where he finished fourth in his class thanks to a small field of competitors. “The one thing that stood out about him that first year was his ‘never quit’ attitude,” says Danny Lutz. “Jeremiah would push himself even as a second-grader. After his second year, he decided that he wanted to train year around.”

By third grade, Jeremiah Lutz began training with private instructor Arturo Holmes at The Wrestling Center (TWC) in Marietta. Holmes and a team of instructors work with selected athletes on a training regimen that includes daily running and calisthenics in addition to wrestling. “Most of the best kids in the state go to Arturo,” says Lutz. “It makes me a lot better going there. He tries to get you to make each move perfect. It’s all about repetition. We’ll spend the whole practice on a move if we have to.”

The hard work has paid off thus far. Lutz won his first state title as a sixth-grader in the 60-pound class. He won subsequent state titles in seventh grade (70 lbs) and eighth grade (84 lbs) while competing for Team Georgia, for whom he wrestles in the summer. As a junior, Lutz grappled his way to the GHSA state title in the 130-pound weight class. “My favorite achievement is winning the title my junior year,” he says. “It was my first high school state championship. In my freshman and sophomore years, I got a couple of third-place finishes.”

Though he missed clinching titles his first two years of high school, Lutz matured as a wrestler in that period. One key moment came during his ninth-grade season, when as a 103-pounder, he squared off against a competitor from Kell High who was taller and stronger. “In the first few seconds, the Kell wrestler grabbed Jeremiah in a headlock and flung him around all the way off the side of the mat,” says Burton. “I was getting worried also because of how aggressive this kid was being. Jeremiah was smaller so he was very technical.” Within moments, the larger competitor had grabbed Lutz’s leg, but after spying an opening, Lutz reached across his foe’s body and grabbed his own free leg while hooking his leg around his opponent in a move called a spladel.

Burton says being in the throes of the spladel is a most unpleasant experience. “Your back side is in the air with your head close to you bottom,” Burton says. “Your hands are free and you can usually see the crowd over your own bottom, but there isn't much you can do to fight it.”

Thanks to the spladel, Lutz emerged victorious that day against Kell, proving that tenacity and strategic execution can overcome a size disadvantage. The maneuver subsequently became Lutz’s “go to” move in big matches. During the state semifinals the following year, he squared off against defending state champion Bazel Partridge of Collins Hill. Partridge had scored several takedowns against Lutz and with a minute to go in the match and trailing by seven points, Lutz called on his signature move once more. “Bazel charged in at Jeremiah a bit carelessly, grabbed his leg and started running him across the mat when Jeremiah threw Bazel into that same spladel,” notes Burton. “I have no clue how Jeremiah did it, but when it ended, Bazel was on his back. Until the day I die, I'll tell you I know Bazel was pinned, but they never called it.”

Despite Lutz’s tenacity, Partridge won that match and went on to defeat Harrison High’s Spencer Richman in the finals. Ironically, Richman (who defeated Lutz at the region tournament that year) transferred to Collins Hill in the offseason, where he stepped into Partridge’s shoes. As fate would have it, the 2010-2011 state final came down to a match between Lutz and Richman. With a minute and a half to go in the final period of that championship match, Lutz seized an opportunity, catching Richman in a cradle.  “Jeremiah put Spencer on his back and sat there for over a minute, holding him on his back,” says Burton. “Jeremiah never pinned him but as he held him there and that clock ticked off, Jeremiah knew he had won and a smile started to grow on his face. It was awesome to see him achieve what he started all those years earlier and to win a state championship. He is my first state champion as a coach and I'll never forget him because of that.”

Lutz’s individual state championship also helped Etowah finish a very respectable 16th out of 46 teams in class AAAAA. It also culminated a junior campaign that also saw Lutz chalk up a school-record 48 wins. He moved up to the 145-pound class as a senior and was ranked 26th at the outset of the season by USA Wrestling. He still works out at TWC three-to-five days per week throughout the year. When his high school team is competing in season, Lutz works out at TWC on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays for two-hour sessions. The mid-week workouts come on the heels of nearly three hours practicing with his team. “Time is the biggest sacrifice, I guess,” says Lutz. “That and the fact that I’ll have to not be able to eat some days when I weigh in. After I weigh in, though, I’ll eat whatever until I’m content. After the match I’ll eat more of it. I really like Zaxby’s.”

When he’s not chowing down on a chicken finger plate, Lutz enjoys going to the movies and spending time with friends. An adventurous spirit, he also enjoys rock climbing and was a regular fixture at Escalades in Kennesaw until giving up that activity in the past year to focus on wrestling.

Lutz competes at styles other than folkstyle. He is a five-time member of Team Georgia’s National Freestyle/Greco Roman National Team. The differences among the styles are subtle, notes Lutz. “You can’t touch the legs in Greco, and in freestyle you can,” he says.

Nonetheless, folkstyle is the main focus these days for Lutz, who wants to continue his craft at the next level. His favorite subject is history though he has an eye on business as a college major. “I really haven’t decided yet what I want to do as a career or anything,” he says. “I just thought that (business) would be a good starting point.” He is particularly interested in competing for Brewton Parker College, a private school in southeast Georgia (Mt. Vernon) that competes in the NAIA. “They are starting up a program there next year,” he explains. “I’m going to go on a visit there soon and I’ve been talking to their coach. I like that it’s a start-up program and that it’s a small school.”

Lutz is enjoying his final high school season by chasing another state title.  He says he is particularly thankful for the support he gets at each match from his father, his mother Gwen, and his sister Amanda. With a 3.2 grade point average, Lutz is certainly on track academically to make his dream of wrestling in college a reality. The ability, says his coach, is already there.

“Jeremiah has the ability to improvise moves which makes him a very dangerous opponent on the mat,” says Burton. “He will do things that are non-traditional moves and you are never quite ready to respond to his adjustments. Also, Jeremiah is great at keeping his grades up and acting in a way that represents our program really well, so it’s no wonder that he is a captain on the team. All around, he is one of the best student-athletes I've ever met.”