There were plenty of familiar names when it came to the All-American ledger for the state of Texas at the U.S. Marine Corps Junior National.
Then, there was Damian Bodiu.
The Keller High School product ended up taking 7th place in the 285-weight class at the Greco-Roman Junior Boys bracket, earning his first All-American stop sign in his first trip to Fargo.
Bodiu, who will be a senior this fall, was not even an UIL state qualifier this past high school season. He posted a 35-8 record for the Indians and took third at the District 2-6A meet to move on to the next round. At the Region 1-6A meet, he went 2-2 and his season ended.
His run in Fargo was probably even more improbable.
He lost his first-round match to Camden Williams from Indiana and was a loss away from an 0-2 debut. Bodiu won six in a row and finished with a 7-2 record.
“It was tough just thinking about it because if I lost, I’d be out, so I just kept that in the back of my head,” Bodiu said. “So if I lose, I’m out, so it was basically life or death because I needed this. I wanted to be an All-American in at least one of them (Greco or freestyle) so bad. I just told myself I needed to be aggressive and I just needed to win to fight my way back.”
Coach Travis Clark said that Bodiu, being a relatively unknown grappler, maybe helped in that long journey back in the consolation bracket.
“People underestimated him; we set a game plan and he stuck to that game plan,” Clark said. “We just adjusted minor stuff after every match.”
Bodiu mixed in falls and tech falls on the way to a medal.
He beat Tyce Cole from Florida by a 14-5 tech fall to stay alive. Then a win over Ohio’s Logan McClellan by a pin in 1:11. Then, facing Lance Clelland from Virginia, Bodiu won by a pin in 47 seconds.
A pin in 21 seconds over Bryce Watkins from Pennsylvania followed. In consolation sub-quarters, Bodiu beat Ryder Balkema from Michigan with an 8-0 tech fall.
In the blood round, a pin over Wisconsin’s Preston Krueger secured a medal for Bodiu.
The win streak ended with a 9-0 tech fall loss to Jeremy Marshall from Illinois. Marshall won his next match and ultimately finished 4th.
Bodiu didn’t get to wrestle his last match in Fargo as Noah Larios of California forfeited.
He said much of his success in matches came from baiting the opposition, letting them go for their underhooks, and then making his move.
“That’s how I won every match,” Bodiu said. “I just threw them straight to their back and pinned almost everybody.
Clark, with a vast amount of experience in Greco as a wrestler and a coach, knew a lot of the foes that Bodiu would face would be doing double unders or over unders.
‘He baited every single one of those guys into thinking they were safe and once you get those arms locked out, there’s nothing you can do,” Clark said. “We kind of took the dark side of Greco and that was our focus going in because we wanted to shock-and-awe and that is exactly what we did.”
Freestyle fallout
Bodiu’s All-American run came after an early exit in the freestyle bracket.
He lost his first-round match there as well, a 12-2 setback against Darion Bitz of North Dakota. Bodiu won the next two, by a pair of pins.
The tournament then ended with a loss by a pin.
“I think the big thing, you know, going 2-2 in freestyle, athletes have two options at that point,” Clark said. “They can stay down on themselves or they can bounce back strong, and you know he definitely bounced back strong. I know the kid that beat him at the Texas State tournament; they were set to clash, and the kid actually lost, so he had to beat the kid that beat the kid that beat him. No matter what happens, we just got to show up the whole time. After every match, we would talk: here’s the pros, here’s the cons. I’d tell him to find somewhere quiet and just refocus.”
Building up Bodiu
Bodiu said that he was excited to become an All-American and some of it was because of Clark’s coaching.
“I’ve known this man for three years and he’s turned me into a machine,” Bodiu said. “He started teaching my brother and he brought me here and it’s just been hard work ever since. Just work, work, work, work. I’m so surprised at the jump I made.”
It was a chance encounter at a Lifetime Fitness that set up Bodiu with Clark.
Giulian Bodiu attended high school in Canton, Michigan, and is currently wrestling at Findlay University in Ohio.
Giulian Bodiu worked with Clark in the offseason and now his little brother has followed in those footsteps. Giulian Bodiu set a new program record for pins in a single season this year for the Oilers with 18 and his 40 pins in his career are tied for the most in program history.
His work put in this offseason with Clark at Clark Grappling turned him into the 96th All-American that Clark has coached since 2015.
However, this one is pretty big for Clark — who is also the Euless Trinity head coach — since Bodiu is only the first boys Fargo All-American and the sixth ever to do so for Clark.
“We’re just talking to the kids and he’s doing pictures with them,” Clark said from his gym in Southlake. “I think we said 83 kids in his bracket. You know, five months ago he wasn’t even a state qualifier and since then he’s a Folkstyle All-American and now a Greco-Roman All-American. So it just shows the hard work he’s put in over these last five months. He’s showing up; he’s doing his extra work. He’s coachable and that’s the big thing. After every match in Fargo, I was watching from here and I was sending messages like, “Hey, do this, don’t do this.” But just the fact that he can take a text message and apply it towards his next match says a lot about him.”
Clark said part of the growth for Bodiu was tied to training with Ben Wise from Haslet V.R. Eaton, who beat him in the UIL district meet earlier this year.
Wise, who has signed to compete in wrestling and play football with Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls, was a Texas USA Wrestling freestyle finalist. Bodiu made the Texas USA Wrestling Greco-Roman finals.
“They showed up every single day,” Clark said. “They just made sure they were doing what they needed to do to reach their goals.”
Bodiu, who also plays football for Keller, would juggle both sports this summer.
He said a normal day this summer was going to football workouts, followed by wrestling, then lifting weights and then back to wrestling practice.
Clark said following the Texas USA tournament, Wise and Bodiu focused only on jiu-jitsu and gave wrestling a break for a few weeks.
Clark also helped set up a training session with four-time international gold medalist Kaylynn Albrecht for Bodiu.
The Bryon Nelson product has been part of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials and has trained in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center.
Looking ahead
Bodiu plans to continue wrestling, with the next ig tourament being the Brian Keck Memorial Preseason Nationals in West Des Moines, Iowa, the last week of October.
He will also be juggling his duties as a defensive lineman for the Keller football team. The preseason scrimmage is set for Aug. 20 against Mansfield Summit before playing at Burleson on Aug. 28 for the start of the Texas high school football season.
Entering his senior year, Bodiu will turn his focus on finding a college to wrestle at next season. Clark said that Bodiu could consider a college that has a Greco program or an RTC where he can continue it.
“He just has a knack for it,” Clark said of Bodiu, who didn’t wrestle Greco-Roman before this year’s Texas USA Wrestling state meet. “You know he puts in the work. That’s what I keep telling people, like he puts in the work every day. Nothing will be given to you. You want it, but it’s not guaranteed. You can do everything exactly right and still come up short. But, with all the right pieces, like he’s had a great coaching staff and they just want to see kids succeed or at least create opportunities for them to succeed.”
