Nottingham High School wrestler Devion Stokes hopes to be at the top of the 220-pound weight class this season. (Photo by Suzette J. Lucas.)
If guts, dedication, desire and a high threshold of pain count for anything, Devion Stokes has a pretty good future ahead of him.
In a nutshell, the Nottingham High School junior’s yearning for a berth in the Region 7 wrestling tournament was so great that, as a sophomore, he was willing to take a chance on losing a finger to achieve it.
The bad news is, he lost out on the region berth. The good news is, he didn’t lose the finger. The bottom line is, Stokes showed the kind of courage and determination that can separate the good athletes from the great ones.
“The kid,” Northstar coach Jason Marasco said, “is unbelievable.”
To set the stage, Stokes developed a hangnail on his right ring finger during the end of the regular season, and eventually ripped it off. By doing that, he opened a wound and bacteria set in.
Stokes was in the midst of a strong first year on the varsity team, having taken second in the Mercer County Tournament and carrying a 22-8 record and second seed into his District 25 quarterfinal match with Trenton’s Tahir Henry.
All Stokes had to do was match his seed or go one spot lower, and he would advance to the regionals with a top-three finish. The first obstacle was Henry.
However, the finger began to hurt and, as time went on the pain began to increase. When Stokes came to practice two days before districts, Marasco took one look at the finger and sent Stokes to the doctor, who prescribed antibiotics for an infection.
When Stokes showed up at Northern Burlington High School for the start of districts, Marasco’s eyes popped out. The medication wasn’t working.
“His finger was fatter than a piece of kielbasa, it was turning colors,” the coach said. “I said ‘You gotta get to the hospital.’ He said ‘I’m wrestling.’ I said ‘You’re gonna have to chop your finger off. I get it, I won’t be mad if you leave and just forfeit.’ I knew he had beaten the kid from Trenton earlier in the year and if he wins that he’s in the semifinals. When you know you can beat a kid, you want to go out there and you want to get to regions as a 10th-grader.”
That was Stokes’ mindset. He went out to battle Henry, and it was like walking into a hurt locker.
“It was probably the hardest match I ever wrestled,” Stokes said. “The pain was just unbearable. My finger was all sorts of colors. I was like ‘dang!’ and it was in my head I might have to get this finger cut off. But I wanted to go to regions so much, that I cared more about that than my finger.”
Henry cared about it too, but for different reasons as he gave it a little extra attention.
“He noticed it was bad, I really could not hide the fact how much the finger hurt,” Stokes said. “I couldn’t grab him, and he just kept grabbing at it. It was just a sharp pain when he grabbed it.”
Stokes lost the match and quickly headed to the hospital. Fortunately, doctors only had to shave a slight tip off the finger. Now, there is only a little bit of numbness.
As for learning his lesson, don’t bet on it. Asked if he were faced with the same decision again, Stokes said “I would probably do the same thing and try to get to regions.”
That’s an attitude that Marasco or Stokes’s mom, Candi, might not be too thrilled about. At the same time, it shows the hunger that Stokes has to succeed.
He certainly displayed it on the football field this fall, as his play on the defensive line was a highlight during a tough 2-8 season for the Northstars.
“It was pretty rough, we had our share of losing,” Stokes said. “The younger guys improved our focus, and we got better at the end of the year. I know all the juniors from this year want to come back and try to get a state title. All the losing this year just gave me the drive to want to win in wrestling.”
Stokes never got on the mat until his freshman year at Nottingham. He felt it looked like it was “interesting, a fun thing to do.” That wasn’t the advice he got from other people, who told him how much hard work and discipline it takes.
That was all Stokes needed to hear.
“I tried out, I liked it, and I wanted to challenge myself,” he said. “The way they were saying it, this was the hardest sport you can do, So I was like ‘All right, let me try it out!’”
And, was it the hardest thing he could do?
“Coming in my freshman year, I wasn’t really used to that kind of conditioning,” Stokes said. “Now my body is used to it, it’s easier to do. I wasn’t used to physically trying to take someone and putting them on their back, but it got easier.”
Marasco feels that Stokes’s biggest advantage is his strength, which was enough to get him to the MCT finals last year while he was still trying to learn technique.
“It’s not even that he’s that good, he’s just so strong, he’s got extra muscle,” the coach said. “He’s just hard to move, and he actually started to work hard. I got in his face about working hard. He started to realize how good he could be and started putting in the work. He’s believing in his moves now. He now has a handful of moves he works on and rolls kids over. He’s a beast. I don’t even know if I can turn him now.”
Marasco is setting the bar high for Stokes this year. The veteran coach feels he should reach the finals of every tournament he is in, and is looking for the junior to be a district and county champ. The problem right now is he needs to drop some weight to get down to 220, where he plans on wrestling for the postseason. At the season’s outset, he will probably wrestle at heavyweight.
Like his coach, Stokes is setting high goals for himself and his teammates.
“I want us all to go to states as a team,” he said. “I want us to do as best as we can, some of our lineup has been working hard during the off-season trying to get better. We’ve been going to camps, lifting in the weight room. We’re stronger, getting some technique. And me personally, I want to go as far as I can, maybe go to states, try and get some colleges looking at me.”
They might look at him for more than just wrestling, as Stokes was one C away from making the honor roll last year, and had all A’s and B’s when Marasco last checked on his grades this year.
“I’m working to get all A’s, but it’s hard,” Stokes said.
Asked what drives him in the classroom, it’s as much about the expression on Candi’s face as it is about the future.
“Not only do I want to go to a good college, my mom also influences me with that stuff,” he said. “I want to see a smile on her face whenever I show her my grades.”
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