The only thing William Vera knew about wrestling was the WWE's version, where outlandish characters are as liable to grapple as they are to hit each other with steel chairs. So when then-Bryant coach Pete Maliarakis approached him three years ago there was immediate confusion.
"I didn't know what a point was," Vera said. "I didn't know what wrestling was at all. It was funny because I asked my coach, 'Are there any chairs involved?' I didn't know anything about it."
He ended up learning pretty quickly. Vera went 5-2 that first season, but lost just one more PSAL match thereafter and won the PSAL individual title at 135 pounds over the winter.
On Monday night, he was honored with the PSAL Wingate Award, given annually to the best senior in a given sport at a ceremony at St. Francis College in Brooklyn. Vera was also the one of the first recipients of the Become Your Own Dream wrestling scholarship, which puts $1,000 toward college.
"It's amazing and I'm very grateful, because [the scholarship] opens many doors," Vera said. "I don't come from a lot of money and that really helps me a lot."
He was equally honored to earn the Wingate. Back during his freshman season, after Maliarakis discovered Vera working out in the gym instead of going to lunch like his classmates, Bryant's team captain at the time spoke about the Wingate Award and its prestige. On the way to St. Francis College on Monday night, Vera phoned his old friend to tell him he was thinking about the speech he heard three years ago.
"I never paid it much attention then," Vera said. "He told me what a great honor it was to have it."
It was current coach Fred Dreier who told Vera about the scholarship. He will use it next year at Mount St. Vincent, where Vera will be part of the Riverdale school's first wrestling team.
After college, he has thought about training in mixed martial arts. He attended a wrestling camp in Somers, N.J., with current UFC star Urijah Faber and has followed the former World Extreme Cagefighting champion's career since then.
"A lot of people told me that, 'why don't you do MMA?'" Vera said. "Who knows? I watch it on TV. I love it."
And he knows now: no steel chairs necessary.
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