After a strong eighth-grade campaign at Lawrence Middle School, Steven Ham III came into high school wrestling thinking he was the man. That attitude got knocked out of him real quick.
“I remember thinking I was the baddest guy alive and I’d beat everyone,” the Lawrence High junior recalled. “My first match I got pinned (by Plainfield’s David Broadway in the Mike Dessino Invitational). I was like ‘Damn!” This was against some buffed senior. I was like ‘Holy crap, I don’t know what to do.’ So it was like ‘OK, that didn’t work.’ I knew I had to keep getting my technique better.”
Ham quickly recovered from that early eye-opener as he responded with a 16-second pin in a Dessino consolation match. He went on to take third place in the Mercer County Tournament at 120 pounds and finish 23-8 with 16 pins. He fell in the first round of districts, but showed his potential that first year.
“He was just starting to learn that season,” Cardinals coach Chris Lynne said. “We had to get him under control. I have to break them and get them set straight.”
Ham has moved straight up the ladder each year.
He came back with a strong sophomore season, going 28-10 with 19 pins; and finishing second in the county tournament and District 21 tournament before losing a two-point decision in the Region 6 first round.
“At regions I basically passed out,” Ham said. “Sophomore year I did very good, I beat a couple state qualifiers. I felt like I could have made it to the states as well. I was winning in my region match but I feel like I wasn’t hydrated enough. I just gave out.”
Ham went from 126 during the season to 120 for districts and he felt cutting weight had an impact. Nonetheless, it was a nice season.
“I actually got really strong my sophomore year,” Ham said. “My arm bars got really good, that was my bread and butter.”
He was definitely improving, but something was missing.
“For those first two years he relied more on his athleticism than his abilities,” Lynne said. “He was just trying to out-physical everybody, but he had to learn to use his talent and use his opponent’s momentum against them. He learned that and now he’s a much better wrestler. He’s much more confident.”
Working on his mindset was also important.
“You almost have to learn to lose before you learn how to win,” Lynn continued. “He was very emotional his first two years. He had issues with his weight control and his emotions. He’d get very hyper. If he had a loss, he couldn’t recover from it. It would take him a long time.”
Over the summer, everything seemed to fall into place for Ham. He stayed with his father, Steven Ham, Jr., in Roselle on weekends and trained at Myland Academy. He worked with a personal coach, competed in the Virginia duals tournament and became a polished wrestler.
Entering the districts, which began Feb. 21, Ham was 28-6 with 10 pins and 14 technical falls. He won the Blue Devil Classic in Ewing and finished second at 132 pounds in the Colonial Valley Conference meet.
“He’s worked very hard to improve his wrestling talent,” Lynne said. “Now when you combine his strength and athleticism with his refined talent, you see he’s having a tremendous year.”
And his emotions are under control.
“This year he’s mature, he’s a team leader, he’s telling other kids how to handle losses and how to go after wins,” Lynne said. “He loves to teach in the room. He’s one of our captains too.”
In looking at how his season has gone, Ham feels a few factors have helped his improvement.
“I just trained the whole summer, I promise you that,” he said. “This year it feels like there’s just been changes all around. I had to change my style of wrestling. I had to tweak my craft. I run every day now and I’ve been keeping my weight in order, working on my technique.”
In tweaking himself, Ham now takes the match to his opponent rather than letting it come to him.
“I only used to be a defensive wrestler, I always used to counter people,” he said. “This year I’ve been working on my attack, my slide-bys and my strengths. I used to just go off other people’s moves.”
There is a reason Ham’s pin totals are down this year, and that is because his technical-fall wins are up. Now that takedowns are worth three points and backpoints are good for four, Ham has a set strategy.
“I’ve just been cutting everyone, I dominate everyone in the neutral position,” he said. “As long as you can’t get to my legs and I have you tied up I feel like I’m unstoppable. I’ve been taking people down and just letting them back up. I love neutral. Any time coach says ‘What position do you want?’ I say neutral. Its worked.”
Ham’s mind was in neutral when it first came to wrestling. He had no thoughts of entering the sport but Steven Jr., a former boxer, thought it might help him with Pop Warner football.
“I was going into Mitey Mite and putting the pads on for the first time,” he said. “I didn’t know how to hit people. I was afraid. My dad threw me into wrestling to get me better at it.”
Wrestling initially “felt like a chore,” but soon “it felt like I was doing it my whole life. I was having fun with it.”
It served its purpose as Ham became a harder hitter and better player in football. But he never thought about being an actual wrestler in high school. His dad, however, became enamored watching his son compete.
“It reminded him of when he used to be a boxer and he fell in love with it,” Ham said. “I started out below average, I didn’t know what I was doing. I was a little kid just running around. But my dad was paying attention to these little kids who were like state qualifiers (in youth tournaments). He talked to the parents and asked them what they did to train. That’s when I started doing club wrestling.”
Ham started in the Robbinsville rec program, then went to CJA in Milltown, Elite in Jackson, Rhino in Morganville and SEPA in Levittown, Pa. before landing at Myland.
While at Rhino, Ham went against Anthony Knox, now a St. John Vianney senior whose opportunity to become a four-time state champion was taken away when he was disqualified from the remainder of the state tournament by the NJSIAA after leaving the bench during the District 25 event. Knox is the nation’s No. 1 wrestler at his weight class.
“He wasn’t the biggest name back when he was just a kid,” Ham said, adding with a laugh, “If I had known he would be this good I would have trained with Anthony every day.”
For a while Ham loved all the wrestling, but soon it became a bit too much.
“I got too overstimulated half of my life, I was being pushed too much and I wanted to take a break,” he said. “It was a little before Covid happened. I just got sick of it. I took a little break in sixth and seventh grade and just didn’t wrestle.”
It was exactly what he needed, as Ham came back invigorated.
“In eighth grade I won almost every match just using the skills I had when I was a kid,” he said. “I just knew more than anyone else. I went into eighth grade and just signed myself up. I thought ‘Hmm, I was really good when I was a kid, let me come back and see how I do.’ I really did miss wrestling.”
He realized upon reaching high school that he didn’t know more than anyone else, and slowly but surely adopted a work ethic that matched his natural ability.
“Over the summer after I almost passed out at regions, I started thinking differently,” he said. “I thought I’ll get better at cutting weight and I’ll eat better. Myland was really what got me to this point. My coach took all my fine points and made me better at them. This year I’m using my athleticism and I’ve started being smarter.”
Lynne considers Ham a physical wrestler. He likes using a “slide by” in which he takes the momentum of the wrestler coming at him, shifts weight and pulls them by and takes them down.
“On the mat he’s very tough with his bars and half-nelsons; his pinning combinations,” the coach said.
As the districts were approaching, both the coach and wrestler felt Ham had the potential to advance beyond regions and reach the state meet in Atlantic City.
“He definitely has the talent to make regions,” Lynne said. “The question is, can he make the next step? Talent-wise, he has it. Is he mentally ready for that? We’ll find out.”
Ham, who noted he “wouldn’t be anywhere in wrestling” without the aid of his dad, felt he was ready.
“I believe so, with all the hard work I’ve been putting in,” he said. “I feel like I can do it as long as I stay focused and don’t slack off from training and don’t get overweight. People underestimate me, they’ll say ‘Oh he didn’t go to states, I got this.’ But I’ve pinned state qualifiers and they don’t even know. They’re like ‘Oh shoot, I didn’t think he was this good.’”
He has spent a strong junior season proving just how good he is.
