‘I think I just want to leave it all on the mat’: Joe Burns has gone from being a star wrestler at West Forsyth to wrestling sparingly at Belmont Abbey
Published 12:00 am Thursday, August 8, 2024
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Joe Burns while at West Forsyth. - Kristen Burns
Joe Burns, left, wrestles for Belmont Abbey. - Kristen Burns
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Growing up, Joe Burns just wanted to be included in some group activity.
He found it by wrestling as a freshman at West Forsyth.
Now, Burns, a 2021 graduate of West Forsyth, is about to start his senior year of wrestling in college at Belmont Abbey.
“I never really did any sports and that was just the one I wanted to try out,” he said. “It just kind of happened. Once I was in it, you know, I was kind of, like I was hooked.”
Ironically, he was on the JV teams for the Titans his freshman season, his head coach on the varsity at the time was Jason Hooker.
“My dad was really who got me into it, or got me into the idea of it,” Burns said. “Wrestling, I’ve always thought you never really had to be like an athlete. You could always just work hard enough to get good at it. You know, you didn’t have to be like a natural-born athlete, so I think that’s what got me into it, or what I thought I’d be good at it.”
Up until his freshman season with the Titans, Burns had never even seen a wrestling match.
“I remember the first time I got on the mat,” he said. “I was with this kid who was a junior, I believe. Maybe he was a sophomore that year, a guy named Mike (Dalton), and he went pretty hard on me for my first time being on the mat. So, that was definitely a tough way to get into because…
“But it kind of wanted to make me get good, you know. To get beat up on by a kid that was good made me want to get good, and I think that’s why, you know, that’s why I kept with it for all those years.”
According to Burns, he wrestled at 106 pounds each of his four years at West Forsyth.
“When I started, when I was like ninth (grade) I was like 88 pounds,” Burns said. “It wasn’t all that hard for me (to stay at 106). I was a small guy. But as I got older, you know, I kind of had to learn how to weight manage. And it’s mostly water.”
At that light weight, many times, Burns was having to wrestling against people nearly 20 pounds heavier than he.
“I didn’t win a lot that year, definitely not,” he said. “But it helped me put on weight, you know, to do a sport, you know.”
Although he wrestled on JV his freshman year Burns took a great deal from the experience.
“I think (I did) as good as you could really like expect,” he said. “I didn’t really wrestle that much. I didn’t win a lot of matches, but I had to learn a lot.”
Things changed his sophomore year.
“And then the year after that was, I really got the hang of it more,” Burns said. “And just from then on it was from then on I was just hooked on the sport, I guess.”
Much of his success from then on out was more mental than physical.
“I think it’s more like of what changed in my own head,” Burns said. “(I) was just not being in my own head for like each match because I used to get like really, really anxious for each match. And I think I lost that a bit. And I learned how to handle that more, especially with the anxiousness.”
His sophomore year at West Forsyth, according to ncsasports.org, Burns was All-Central Piedmont 4-A Conference and a state qualifier. His junior year, he was also All-Conference, as well as runner-up in the NCHSAA 4-A regional, and finished Second Team All-State.
“After junior year, like for the whole break, I trained,” Burns said. “I trained every day. Like I just wanted it more. And I worked really hard and then my last year (at West Forsyth) was probably like the best year that I ever had.”
In his senior year in 2021 the season was compressed pushed back because of COVID-19. Because of that, the NCHSAA Class 4-A regional and state championships were held at Glenn. Normally, the state championship is held at Greensboro Coliseum.
Burns won his NCHSAA Class 4-A semifinal match in his senior year at 106 pounds by fall over Cary’s Johnny Ramos at 1:30. In the state-championship match, Burns faced Charlotte Mallard Creek’s Cameron Stinson and Burns lost by fall at 4:16.
“Wrestling at Glenn kind of just made it feel like a normal tournament,” he said. “So, my nerves were like way less. So, I think that helped me a lot because I just went out there and I just like had a good time.”
That’s about the time Burns chose to wrestle in college at Belmont Abbey.
“The recruiting process – I kind of chose to start looking pretty late,” Burns said. “So, Belmont was, I think it was the only school I toured.”
Going to college was a tough transition.
“Being away from home was pretty hard,” Burns said. “I think I didn’t really have the best head on my shoulders at first, but by year two I had a good hang-on. I think it was just weird to be away from my parents who had always been a big part of my life.”
He’s persevered through those challenges and he’s about to start his senior year there.
“Wrestling is a different game in college, for sure, because you’re out on the mat with kids that pretty much come from where you’re from,” Burns said. “Most of the kids on my team all good, so you’re in a room with kids that are all good.”
There was one other thing Burns noticed about wrestling in college.
“One of the things that was weird about being at that school was I haven’t wrestled for that long,” he said. “That’s unique to what of like the guys I know have done because they’ve been doing it since they were like young. So, I guess I was kind of late to it.”
In college, he’s been wrestling at 5-foot-6 and 125 pounds. His plan is to wrestle at that weight this season, but he’s currently 148 pounds, which is something he chose to do.
“I have a feeling I’ll have to move up a weight or maybe two,” Burns said.
According to him, Burns wrestled in four matches his freshman year for the Crusaders. He said he was on-and-off wrestling his sophomore year. He said he barely wrestled his junior season either, but he did participate in practices.
“I guess I’ve just been trying to focus on where my life is, like leading to after school,” he said. “I’ve just been seeing where I wanted to work.”
The plan for his senior season at Belmont Abbey is about the same. He is majoring in math and wants to get a job writing code.
“I guess what I was thinking coming in was that it would kind of be like high school, that I would just gradually climb,” Burns said. “But honestly now I’m just more there to just have like have a good time, like still be a part of the team.
“I still love the sport, but there’s just a lot more important things as I have aged.”
One other thing is that Belmont Abbey hasn’t given up on him.
“They’ve always seen a lot of potential, but maybe been able to really lock in that because of things happening outside of sports,” Burns said. “This last year, I just really want to go in and do like the best that I can, you know, and have a great last year.
“I think I just want to leave it all on the mat, you know.”
