KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Perhaps it was fitting the final opponent Max Rosario faced last year was the one that stood in his way for a trip back to state.
A lot has happened since the Park Hill South senior beat Raytown’s William Mayfield in the championship of the 170-pound class at the Blue Springs South Tournament last January.
He won the match and improved to 29-6 on the season.
It wasn’t out of the stretch of the imagination to pencil in Rosario for a second straight trip to the state tournament. As a sophomore at 160, he went 1-2 at the state tournament.
Getting ready to compete in the Class 4 District 4 meet last year, Rosario got hurt in practice.
Instead of vying for a chance to return to state, he was sitting at his house with his knee in a brace after surgery fixed a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
“I had surgery on Feb. 14 (2019) and I was sitting on my couch in pain and not being able to move around,” he said. “Now I can move around and wrestle. It feels good. It is my last year so I am giving it everything I got.”
CODY THORN/Citizen photo
Park Hill South’s Max Rosario, right, battles Raytown’s William Mayfield during a match in the Class 4 District 4 tournament on Saturday, Feb. 15 at Staley High School in Kansas City.
Rosario posted a 4-1 mark in the Class 4 District 4 meet that wrapped up this past Saturday and ended with an 11-3 major decision over Liberty North’s Vince Restivo in the third-place match. He methodically built a 2-0 lead, then 4-0, 6-0, 6-1 and 8-1.
In the match that sent him to state, he faced off against Mayfield again and picked up a 12-3 major decision over the Raytown grappler.
After beating Mayfield last year in the Blue Springs South tournament, Rosario got a forfeit win against North Kansas City and then didn’t wrestle again.
Rosario had a sprained medial collateral ligament that he had been taping up but during a live drill, the ACL tore. He said it twisted while trying to escape having his leg trapped.
At first he didn’t know what the injury was and he said in the initial moments after he moved it and his knee felt fine.
With about seven minutes left in practice, his knee gave out.
“That was the end of the season,” he said.
About 3½ months after surgery, Rosario was back to normal and was able to suit up for this season.
He said the knee feels good and doing squats, lateral movements or pivots aren’t an issue.
“It feels like new, doesn’t feel like I tore it at all,” he said.
He will enter his final state tournament with a 35-11 record and should have an outside shot at earning his first state medal.
Regardless of the outcome, however many matches he gets at Mizzou Arena will be the last ones for the two-sport athlete, who also played football at Park Hill South.
He had offers to continue his wrestling career at the collegiate level from a handful of NAIA schools, Rosario decided this would be it.
He will head to the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg with hopes of starting a career in aviation as a commercial pilot.
Rosario opens with a match against Lafayette Wildwood’s Tommy Hagan (34-9) in the first round at state Thursday night. He will then face the winner or loser of Derick Buda-Smith of Fort Zumwalt North (39-3) or Charles Adams from Ray-Pec (31-10), both seniors.
If Rosario can get through to the semifinal, he could see Aidan Johnson of Staley, who beat him at districts, again. Johnson’s 41 wins is the most of any wrestler in the 170-pound division.
“After my final match at state, hopefully I can place, but I tear up a little,” he admitted of the sport he had done since he was 6 years old. “I wrestled my whole life and to think it will come to an end.”