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John Ryan “JR” Sedovy’s success on the wrestling mat is as much a reflection of his personal work ethic as his upbringing in the Rockbridge County wrestling community.
A 2020 graduate of Rockbridge County High School, Sedovy wrestles at 197-pounds for Washington and Lee University and was the Old Dominion Athletic Conference runner-up in his weight class last month. A W&L junior, he started wrestling when he was 5 by going to camps at Virginia Military Institute. He said that his father, John, always had a strong interest in the sport since college, so he encouraged him and his older brother, Christopher, to try it.
JR said the Sedovys are more of a baseball family, though, so much so that his parents chose Ryan for his middle name, after Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan.
Thinking back to how he developed a passion for wrestling, JR remembered his dad sitting him down at one tournament growing up.
“My dad’s like, ‘All right it’s your last chance. You want to win this tournament?’” JR recalled. “I just dug deep, and I won.”
In wrestling, there are several ways to win matches. JR prefers to wear down his opponents, and he likes to use his endurance both mentally and physically to win matches with little time left. He began to craft this style in middle school when he really started to fall in love with wrestling.
“It was like a familial kind of environment,” said JR.
For JR, when he wrestled at Lylburn Downing Middle School, a lot of it was about fun, and he again had the opportunity to wrestle with his older brother, Christopher.
“We won some, and that was awesome,” said JR. “I was invested in it.
ontinued from page A11 But, you know, it wasn’t like the most serious thing in the world. I did it. I enjoyed it.”
JR said he did not really become serious about the sport until he began wrestling for Aaron Bruce at Rockbridge County High School. Bruce, who became the Wildcats’ head coach when JR was a sophomore in the 201718 season, coached RC for the rest of JR’s high school career.
Bruce, who retired from coaching last year, was ranked a top 12 wrestler in the country when he was a student at Liberty University in the early 1990s. Prior to coaching the Wildcats, Bruce coached at Virginia Military Institute.
Under Bruce’s guidance, JR really started becoming competitive. As a freshman, JR had won some, but he was not as strong as many of his opponents. Most of the matches he would win would come from him outlasting his opponents.
JR did not let his opponents’ strength intimidate him, and Bruce wanted to hone in on Sedovy’s ability to work harder and outlast his opponents.
“He understood the sport very well,” said JR of Bruce. “He knew how to talk to people at that age and inspire them to work hard.”
JR said Bruce helped him craft his “system” of writing, which means his style of trying to win matches. It came down to refining what JR had already been doing for years growing up.
“I finally developed a system,” said JR. “It made sense and was working for me. I started to win more and more matches against better and better people.”
JR qualified for the Class 3, state tournament as a sophomore. Although he went 0-2 at the state tournament, qualifying helped him build more confidence going into the second half of his high school career.
“Junior year was a big jump,” said JR. “I was developing. I was kind of hitting my stride. I felt really, really good.”
Another former VMI wrestling coach, Chris Stretkowicz, joined Bruce’s staff and helped JR train against another style of wrestling that made him more well-rounded. JR chose to run cross country in the fall season of his junior year to help get in shape for the season that winter. He had also been lifting consistently so he was ready to have a good year. JR was named captain of the wrestling team as a junior.
“I wanted to impress on the younger guys what Bruce had impressed on me,” he said. “Trying to think of wrestling as like a microcosm of being a good person, doing the right things, working hard, preparing for things, doing your best, and you can, all that kind of stuff.”
JR finished his junior year with a record of 41-10 at 170-pounds, earning all-state honors by placing fourth in the state. This was when W&L started to take notice.
Growing up in Lexington, JR always knew about W&L and liked the idea of being close to home. JR said when he visited, he felt like the team was similar to what he had experienced in high school and middle school -- a family.
JR said his senior season at RC did not finish how he hoped at the state tournament, going 1-2 there, but he still finished with a season record of 36-9. He said he would have been more upset if he did not already know he was going to continue wrestling at the next level.
But then COVID-19 hit in 2020, and that shook up everything for JR and wrestling. He was not able to compete in any matches his whole freshman year. His sophomore year at W&L was a lot like JR’s freshman year of high school. He won some, but there was a size and skill adjustment that took time to get used to.
This year, JR was named ODAC athlete of the week in late November and was a W&L scholar-athlete, but he wasn’t able to achieve his goal to qualify for the NCAA Division III National Championships. Sedovy said missing nationals was “really tough,” but he hopes to make nationals his senior year.
“The result is the result,” said JR. “I want to qualify for nationals. But I think the way to do that is to focus on preparation.”
