EMS athlete wrestles with heart
Published 11:45 am Thursday, December 11, 2008
Condition doesn't keep Grau down
By Brenda Sexton
The Courier-Herald
Enumclaw Middle School seventh-grade student Austin Grau wrestles with a lot of heart.
Technically, after surgery as a kindergartner, Austin wrestles with less heart than his fellow teammates and opponents. But that didn't stop the 150-pounder from pushing his season record to 5-0 with a 30-second pin in the Timberwolves' win over Sumner Dec. 13.
“He's an amazing kid and an inspiration to us all,” said EMS assistant wrestling coach and school counselor James Hopper. “His heart has to work twice as hard as the others.”
When Austin was 15 months old, his family physician detected a heart murmur. Later, doctors discovered he had a condition where the walls of the aorta become constricted. It is a potentially dangerous condition, as the aorta is the main artery that carries oxygen-rich blood to the rest of the body.
Austin's been living “one valve down” since.
“I'm stronger than most of the kids,” he said. “I don't notice any difference.”
In fact, EMS coach Rob Christensen, who's been coaching him for the past two years, said unless someone knows they would never detect his heart defect.
“Just the opposite,” Christensen said. “He's shown effort above and beyond what a typical middle school wrestler is expected to give you.
“He's just downright tough. How's that saying go? ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going.' That's Austin.”
To hear Austin tell it, he just didn't want to be denied athletics, so he knew he'd have to work hard.
“It's not going to stop me from doing anything,” Austin said. “I always wanted to be a pro athlete growing up.”
That drive and ambition have always been there, said Deanna Grau, Austin's mother. She said about three years ago her son started exercising faithfully and eating a well-balanced diet. He's also a 4.0 grade-point student.
His doctor gave him the OK to compete.
Last year was tough to watch, Deanna said. This year, “I love it,” she said. “This year I'm more at ease. Knowing there were no changes (in his condition) from the last year, I've been enjoying it more.
“Sometimes when he's staggering, like in long matches where it goes into the third round, and that's not very often, you'll hear people say something, but it's not because he's out of shape, his heart is working harder for him,” she said.
Those instances are rare.
Deanna said her son went in for his annual check up and doctors were amazed at how well he was doing.
“They said you don't see many kids with heart defects like Austin's in such good health,” she said. “He's one in a million. You don't see many cases like his.”
Last season Austin wrestled with the intense White River Junior Wrestling program at 145 pounds. He lost one match in the long season and that was to a multiple national champion.
Wrestling isn't his only sport. He plays pitcher, center field and third base in baseball, and was part of the successful 12-year-old Chinook Little League All-Stars team this summer.
He would like to play football - linebacker and quarterback - this spring if the doctor clears him.
Middle school may be as far as Austin's football and wrestling career goes. He's been told athletics, especially wrestling, would be too intense at the high school level.
“There may be limits,” Deanna said. “He doesn't want to hear it, but he needs to know.”
Right now, the sky's the limit.
“His approach to competition is very healthy,” Christensen said. “Every match he has a smile on his face and he's ready to wrestle.”
Brenda Sexton can be reached at bsexton@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/courierherald.
