Going to the Mat

Cal State Fullerton wrestler T.J. Hill doesn’t remember many details about the day when, at age 7, he left his mother, older brother and sister and moved into a foster home.

“All I know is that one day when I came home, there were cops at my house, and I took off running,” Hill said. “They didn’t catch me for like four hours.”

He isn’t certain why police were there or why he had to leave his home.

There were some difficult times for Hill growing up in Flat River, Mo., a small community about 75 miles south of St. Louis that has since been renamed Park Hills. But wrestling brought direction and stability to his life.

Hill started to wrestle after moving into the foster home. Wrestling became his passion, thanks to support he received from a club coach and his family in nearby Farmington.

Today, Hill is regarded as one of the world’s top junior freestyle wrestlers in the 110-pound division. He won the Junior World Championship last August in Sydney, Australia, and his goal is to compete in the Olympics someday.

Hill, a 4-foot-11 1/2, 120-pound freshman, has had to adjust to the rule differences between freestyle and college wrestling as well as the move up to 125 pounds, the NCAA’s lightest division.

“The college rules are sort of sissified,” he said, giggling a little. “You can’t slam people down, stuff like that.”

Hill finished third in the Pacific 10 Conference championships at UC Davis in February, which qualified him for the NCAA championships, beginning today in St. Louis.

“Wrestling has done unbelievable things for him,” said Jim Krause, Hill’s first coach at the Mineral Area Wrestling Club in Farmington.

“He was wild as a buck when his foster parents brought him to one of our practices for the first time. But he was a natural for wrestling. He absorbed everything we taught him. He found something he was really good at.”

Hill said two other children living in his foster home wrestled, and he became interested because of them.

Hill said he lived in the foster home for five years, then was returned to his mother for several years before he started high school in Farmington. At that time, Hill moved in with Krause and his wife.

Krause’s sons coach the high school wrestling team at Farmington--Mark is the head coach and John is his assistant--and Hill quickly became a standout.

Hill was a Missouri state champion four years in a row, winning at 103 pounds as a freshman and sophomore, 112 as a junior and 119 as a senior. His high school record was 151-3. After losing those three matches as a freshman, he won 122 in a row.

“His last two years, nobody even scored on him,” Mark Krause said. “He had the highest number of wins in state history and was one of the most dominant high school wrestlers we’ve ever had in the state.”

Hill wrestled for Jim Krause’s club team during the summer, competing against many of the nation’s top juniors. He finished fourth in the world junior age-group championships in Moscow in 1996, seventh in 1997 in Helsinki, Finland, and second in Las Vegas in 1998 before winning the title in the 20-and-under division last summer in Sydney.

Hill planned to attend Hofstra a year ago. He went there, but didn’t enroll when he was not approved to compete by the NCAA Clearinghouse. Then, after a friend moved to Fullerton, Hill joined him and told Fullerton Coach Ardeshir Asgari he was interested in wrestling for the Titans. As a partial qualifier, Hill wasn’t eligible immediately, but he took the SAT again last fall, earned a qualifying score and became eligible in the second semester.

Hill credits Jim Krause, whom he calls “my dad” because of their strong relationship, for his development--on and off the mat.

“He showed me what I needed to do,” Hill said. “He’d get me up in the morning and help me with my grades. He helped me get going in the right way. Before him, I didn’t have any strong male influence in my life.”

Hill said his father and mother separated early in his life.

Hill remembers doing things on his own at times as a youth. “My mother worked a lot,” he said. “I’d skip school sometimes. But, finally, I learned what I had to do to get to where I wanted to be.”

Hill is looking forward to competing in the NCAA tournament, particularly since it will be in his home state.

Krause said he and his sons plan to attend the tournament all three days.

Hill is ranked 20th nationally in his weight class by the Amateur Wrestling News.

“If he wrestles to the best of his ability, he should do fine,” Asgari said. “But there are some days when he wrestles like he doesn’t know how to wrestle. Most of the time, though, he’s awesome.

“In the Pac-10 meet, he lost his first match to [Nathan] Navarro of Oregon State and had to go into the consolation round. But then he came back and beat Navarro and won the consolation championship. If he wrestles like he did in the second match against Navarro, he’s capable of beating anyone in his weight class.”

Asgari said Hill’s strength is not college-style wrestling.

“He’s much better in freestyle,” Asgari said. “His speed and his size help him more there. He’s small enough to get under people. He’s also strong for his size. That means a lot in freestyle wrestling. And, in freestyle, he can compete at 119 pounds.”

Asgari expects Hill’s improvement to continue as he gains experience.

Hill plans a return to freestyle competition at the U.S. Open national championships in Las Vegas in late April. The top six in each weight category qualify for the Olympic trials.

Hill’s chances for success in open international competition were hurt by the elimination of two lower weight divisions after the 1996 Olympics, forcing him to move up to 119.

Asgari said Hill’s lack of experience in open competition will also be detrimental this year, but Hill said he is willing to be patient. “I expect to be competing until at least 2012,” he said.

And after that?

“There’s always the WWF,” he said.