Mat skill belies Medina County Hall of Fame inductee Richie Spicel's underdog status

Richie Spicel was always a star on the wrestling mat at Brunswick. The 2008 graduate is still the school's career wins leader with 161 and the only Blue Devil to win two state titles. He is also one of two wrestlers to be a state finalist at least three times for Brunswick. He boasts the 10th-most wins in Medina County history, tied with 2013 Highland graduate Adam Kluk. Despite all those accolades, Spicel's wrestling career was always fueled by being considered an underdog by himself and others. Even as he is set to be inducted in the Medina County Sports Hall of Fame during June 17 ceremonies at The Galaxy Restaurant in Wadsworth, Spicel still thinks of himself as an underdog. "I was never the biggest name, and a lot of people said my freshman year was a fluke," he said. "My biggest accomplishment was always using the underdog or he-got-lucky-card to continuously give me drive. "Still to this day, I love being an underdog and proving to people that with hard work and the determination to be a go-getter, you can really accomplish anything." Spicel turned that underdog mentality into a 130-pound state championship as a freshman in 2005 and a 140-pound title as a senior by pairing it with a burning desire to continuously work toward his goals and a refusal to give in when things got difficult. "He expected to win, and that mental toughness is a big part of his success," former Brunswick coach Mike Koshar said. "He had some God-given talent with quickness and power. When you pair that with his work ethic, you have a two-time state champion and three-time finalist." Even with all of his quickness and power, Spicel remained an underdog in his own mind for one simple reason. That was what worked best for him. After bursting onto the high school wrestling scene as a freshman and topping Massillon Perry's Zach Mizer to win his first state championship, Spicel briefly allowed himself to begin to believe his own hype and rest on his laurels. "Being a high school kid and a Division I state champ as a freshman, it's hard to stay humble," Spicel said. "You have a big head walking around the high school. You feel like you can coast, or you're doing enough, because you're doing a little more than the year prior. "I wouldn't say I walked in thinking I was going to win, but I wasn't training like I had to do more work." Never was Spicel's need to do more work more apparent than at the Medina Invitational Tournament his sophomore year. Coming off a state championship, Spicel got dominated by four-time state placer Thomas Straughn of Massillon Perry, who was on his way to the first of two state championships. Straughn earned a 21-5 technical fall in the 135-pound final and Spicel took the loss as a lesson. "He completely annihilated me and I remember sitting out in the hallway crying," Spicel said. "Winning two state titles is an awesome memory, but the biggest lesson I learned was getting my (butt) handed to me. That brought me right-side up again and humbled me that if I wanted to be the best, there was more work to be done." The loss to Straughn got Spicel back on track his sophomore year, but ultimately a dose of bad luck cost him a true chance at winning his second state championship. Just ahead of the sectional tournament that February, Spicel suffered a bad high-ankle sprain. He battled his was through the sectional and district tournaments to once again qualify for the state tournament, but the ankle injury proved too much to overcome in Columbus, where he went 1-2 but regained who he was as a competitor. Even with the injury, the thought of shutting it down to let it heal never entered Spicel's mind. "In any sport, by the end of the season almost everybody is battling something," he said. "Love for the sport and loving to compete with friends, family, teammates and coaches pushes you." Spicel continues to use the experiences of that season to shape who he is today. In addition to working full-time for his father Richard's home exterior cleaning business, RKS Cleaning Services, he is enrolled part-time at Lorain County Community College. Already possessing associate degrees in marketing and business management, Spicel anticipates earning an associate degree in real estate, as well as his real estate license, in the fall. He continues to strive to provide the best life possible for his wife Staci and stepchildren Rhyleigh, 9, and Scarlett, 5. Going out on top Once healthy again, Spicel returned to form his junior season to get back to the state championship final by with a pair of major decisions early in the tournament, first a 20-9 whooping of Sandusky's Nick Webb and then a 20-7 pounding of Piqua's Trevor Nickolai. After a 7-3 decision over Shaker Heights' Marcel Clopton, Spicel dropped an 8-4 decision to Austintown Fitch's Tony Jameson in the final. Fueled by his second straight season ending short of his goal, Spicel was determined to make his senior season everything he wanted it to be. That started well before the school calendar year. Working long and hard hours over the summer to take on the best competition he could find, Spicel took his preparation to another level. "In his mind it was two disappointing years," Koshar said. "One he was hurt and one he came up a little bit short. I had a talk with him that, 'If you don't get after it, someone is going to snap that title from you again.' It was at that point he pulled the trigger, got hungry and reloaded to get after it." By the time the school year started, Koshar noticed the difference in his star pupil. It was apparent that Spicel was on a mission to finish the job in Columbus at his last state tournament. "In September of his senior year he started wrestling hard," Koshar said. "It was at that point that I said he's going to win another state title. He had the mental and physical part back." Spicel did just that, topping Brecksville's Kyle Lang 4-2 in the final after starting the tournament with the only state tournament pin of his career against Gahanna Lincoln's Andrew Evans in the first round. Both of Spicel's state championship final victories called upon him to perform in the tightest of moments. Lang and Mizer pushed Spicel into overtime before he got the decisive points. Under the bright lights of the state tournament, Spicel went 12-3 and outscored 14 opponents 114-68, recording a pin on the 15th. "He wrestled about 11 months of the year for most of his life, so he was very experienced," Koshar said. "His wrestling IQ was very high. If you told him or showed him something once, he got it." Leader in the room In addition to his athletic prowess and success, Spicel's demeanor and make-up made him the quintessential leader in the Blue Devils wrestling room. When the top performer on the team is also the hardest worker, it motivates everyone to follow that example. "He was a leader through his whole career," Koshar said. "He's been motivating and encouraging those guys all through his four years here. We saw how he made all of those guys better, whether it was actually wrestling them or them doing what he was doing to get extra practices in and do extra work on technique." As much as Spicel pushed his teammates to get better, they returned the favor by motivating him to keep working. "My whole wrestling class that I went to school with pushed me," Spicel said. "The whole team was a driving force right behind me." Competing and working with those teammates kept Spicel at home, even when other schools showed an interest in his wrestling talent in high school. "He came to us and was pretty talented in junior high, so when he got to high school a lot of other schools were interested in him," Koshar said. "He said he wanted to go to Brunswick with all of his friends." New ballgame After graduating from Brunswick, Spicel attended Gardner-Webb, where he placed third at the 2010 NCAA East Regional championship at 141 pounds after redshirting his first season. The transition from high school standout to collegiate wrestler was not necessarily easy for Spicel, but he adjusted to post a 36-22 record in two years of competition. "It's really a wake-up call as soon as you step into a college wrestling room," Spicel said. "It becomes a job, and I can't say I was fully prepared for it." He finished his second season in the winter of 2011 with a 22-12 record, winning the Davidson Open and tying for the team lead with five pins. Eventually, injuries to his right knee took their toll on Spicel and his wrestling career. In addition to his sophomore year high-ankle sprain, Spicel twice separated his shoulder. He also broke a bone in his shoulder at some point without knowing it and had two surgeries on his right knee in college, along with several knee and neck strains throughout his career. Though he would not have given up the time spent on the mat, Spicel says that he's feeling the wounds of his battles on the mat now. "I'm dealing with all of the injuries now at 32 years old," Spicel said. "My body is yelling at me." Gaining wisdom Along with incredible strength, speed and technique, Spicel paired his hard-working mindset with the ability to believe in lessons over losses. Every time he came up short on the mat, no matter by how much, Spicel was able to learn something new and apply it to future matches. That is a mentality Spicel continues to embrace and use in his life. With that in mind, the two-time state champion discussed the lessons that wrestling taught him that he continues to use. At the top of the list is that he has had to work for everything he ever achieved. Second is don't ever quit, but when you are tired allow yourself to rest and recover to prepare for the next go-round. Third, the only person that can limit what is possible is yourself. Finally, he is never alone in what he is trying to achieve. In high school he had his teammates, coaches, trainers and mat partners helping push him to greatness. As an adult those roles are taken by his wife, kids and family. Support system The list of people that helped Spicel become a hall of famer is far too long to mention everyone, but there were people who stood out in their contributions and sacrifices. At the top of that list was Spicel's father Richard, who sacrificed his time, money and energy to help his son get wherever he wanted to go in life and wrestling. "From the time I was 5 years old until I was about 15 and he handed me over to Koshar, my dad was at every practice and gym session," Spicel said. "He was the one paying gas, and he spent as much time in the wrestling room as I did. He never went for a run with me, though. He just watched me run." Along with his dad, Spicel's older brother Tony pushed his sibling to never give up or stop his pursuit of everything he wanted. "When things got real serious in high school, my brother would wake up with me to go to the rec center to get a lift in, a run in or a swim in," Spicel said. "He would help me do extra training at home and set up whole regiments and was a big push." The support of his family was apparent to those watching Spicel, including his coach. "He had a really good, supportive home," Koshar said. "They were all for him being successful in wrestling and understood what it took. They really encouraged and supported him in his wrestling journey." Speaking of Koshar, the fact that he noticed something special in Spicel early helped the wrestler see that in himself. "Mike Koshar believed in me from a young age," Spicel said. "I was coming up to the high school and wrestling since the fifth grade in summer practices and training. He was there and always had the vision of the kind of wrestler I could become." Koshar was not the only coach that had an influence on Spicel. Assistant coaches, trainers and summer coaches like Mike Hewitt and Jim Drago continued to push him when he was outside of the school season. "They were giving up a lot time in their day and a lot of time on the weekends in order to train with the kids, put us through extra practices, go to Florida to wrestle the best of the best," Spicel said. Lasting legacy Spicel's ability to never give up and never stop working led him to accomplish great things throughout his career. From his bookend state championships to all of the victories in between and then his collegiate wrestling career, Spicel went from underdog to top dog. The 2018 Brunswick Athletic Hall of Famer is just now beginning to acknowledge the lasting mark his athletic career has made. "As a younger kid, you really don't think about the long-term impact your accomplishments are going to have on you later in life," Spicel said. "I was recognized by Brunswick a few years ago and these accolades just keep coming. "It's really awesome. At 32 years old, you can forget about the impact your accomplishments had." Contact John Urchek at jurchek@medina-gazette.com.