Wrestling Senior Spotlight: Lou Mascola
10/28/2015 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
By Greg Goldstein, Maryland Media Relations Assistant
Redshirt senior Lou Mascola was not a highly ranked recruit coming out of high school, but he's showing that it doesn't matter what you've done in the past, it only matters how you work to succeed in the future.
Mascola started wrestling when he was just four years old and wrestling has been a constant in his life ever since he stepped onto the mat. He was always looking to compete and improve whenever he got the opportunity, even if it made his life a little more hectic.
“I was probably a little more into it than most younger guys. I traveled around the country and everything,” Mascola said. “I wrestled for the freestyle national teams and it's really been a 365-day sport for me since I was about eight years old.”
His family, especially his dad, has also been incredibly supportive of his wrestling career.
“My dad's been my coach since I was eight years old and he's still one of my main coaches, helping me through the daily struggles in the room and out of the room,” he said. “He's always somebody that's there helping me along with my other coaches.”
Even though he wrestled for a long time and dedicated a lot of his time to the sport, Mascola was not as heavily recruited as some of the other wrestlers on Maryland's roster. But this is something that he puts on himself and not on anybody else.
“I was not a very highly recruited guy because I didn't perform at the state tournament in New Jersey,” the redshirt senior explained. “I didn't do as well as I would have liked to, so I was kind of an under the radar guy.”
He started his freshman year at Maryland wrestling at 141 pounds. Mascola finished his first year winning 10 matches, but he also lost 12 times as well. Going into his sophomore season, Mascola put on some weight and wrestled as a 149 pounder and went 12-13 and came in fourth place at the ACC championships. This was not particularly encouraging for the wrestler, but Mascola's next season truly tested what kind of wrestler he wanted to be.
Mascola used his junior season to redshirt and adjust his wrestling style to a heavier weight (157 pounds), but it also gave him the motivation to work his hardest and set himself up to have a special season as a redshirt junior.
“Leading up to last year, I thought that I always had the talent to compete at the national level, I just never had really put it all together,” Mascola said. “I guess last year I just started putting in a lot of extra work in the offseason and before and after practice, I think that was the difference from last year to years prior, and I think maturing and growing up and understanding what's important made a huge difference. I just realized out of the 18 years of my life that I had been wrestling, that I only had two years left, it kind of hit me that I needed to be doing more than other people to get different results.”
All the extra work did eventually pay off for Mascola, as he qualified for his first NCAA Championships at 157 pounds, while also winning two matches in the NCAA's, including upsetting fifth-ranked Cody Pack from South Dakota State 10-9 in the second round.
Mascola said that this was a great experience and that it really boosted his confidence knowing that he could compete with the best wrestlers in the country, but he does not want this to the peak of his wrestling career at Maryland, he has even greater expectations for this upcoming year.
“The goal is to be at the top of the podium,” Mascola said. “I expect to be an All-American. I just want to get as high on the podium as I can and not take things for granted.”
Head coach Kerry McCoy expressed a similar sentiment when talking about what he though redshirt senior was capable of this season.
“We expect him to get on the podium as an All-American this year and be in the hunt for a Big Ten title,” McCoy said. “It's just one of those things where we just want him to go out there and wrestle his best. If he goes out there and wrestles his best, good things will happen.”
The head coach also expects Mascola to assume a leadership role, which is why he named him a captain for the 2015-16 season.
“He's matured a lot and taken a leadership role,” McCoy said. “He's made some hard decisions keeping guys accountable. He's really stepped up and made some big decisions that show that he's ready for that role, so it's definitely moving in the right direction.”
Another thing that sets Mascola apart is his unorthodox wrestling style. McCoy expressed that not only does it make the redshirt senior unique to coach, but it also makes for very exciting matches.
“He's got a very unorthodox style,” said the coach. “He kind of wrestles wide open and does some things that just only he can do, stuff that we can't teach, stuff that we can't really say 'do this, do that', he just does it and we just kind of look at each other and laugh. But he's very disciplined, very methodical, going to the areas that he likes to go to, but he'll always pull something out that we weren't expecting. Expect anything and just be ready for an exciting match.”
While Mascola is excited for what this season will bring and how he can improve, he also understands that this is his last season. He appreciates the great lessons and values that he has learned from being in the wrestling program and he knows that all of his these experiences will help him after graduation.
“The commitment and dedication to the sport and the time that you put into it is something that will carry over to post graduation,” he said. “I have learned to just give 100 percent effort into everything you do and if you do that you're going to be successful. That kind of mentality is going to be something that I take with me. Going through the grind and overcoming obstacles is something that I will take with me.”
Defying expectations is something that is a great challenge for many athletes, and McCoy would like to see nothing more than to watch Mascola come full circle and finish his last season with a storybook ending.
“When you get a guy who's not a highly recruited guy, highly ranked guy, and they come in and perform at a high level, you know it works and you know your developing a good program,” McCoy said. “That's the whole goal; to get a guy from down here to up there and he's definitely showing proof that you can do great things here and that it doesn't matter what you did in high school if you have the right attitude and put in the work. If he gets to become an All-American, it will be a great story.”
Mascola has certainly come a long way since joining the Maryland wrestling team, and while he knows that he has exceeded many peoples' expectations, Mascola knows that there is still work to do and that his story at Maryland is not finished just yet.
“I've had a lot more confidence in my ability this year than in the past few years and I think making it to the NCAA's and winning a few matches last year has opened up my eyes to what I am capable of.”
