BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. They call themselves “The Fab Five.”
Maybe the nickname isn’t particularly original, but it is sincere and accurate: a quintet of talented athletes at Rahway (N.J.) High School who bonded together to keep themselves out of trouble and fulfill their athletic dreams. Early on, they identified their possibilities and their pitfalls while growing up in a less-than-perfect suburb about 15 miles southwest of Manhattan.
Four of them including NC State wrestler Darrion Caldwell are succeeding at the highest level of college athletics, thanks to that bond they developed during their sophomore year of high school.
“I was definitely not headed in the right direction,” Caldwell says. “People were telling me, You have great ability, but you need to know when to hang out with your friends and when to stay away from them.’ They told me I needed to find a new crowd to surround myself with.
“Luckily, a lot of the guys I was with who were getting into trouble too, they all turned out to be fine athletes as well."
Earl Clark, a 6-8 forward on the basketball court, is the second-leading scorer for Louisville. Ishmyl Johnson, after a year of playing prep school football, sat out this season at Michigan State but is expected to be a contributor next year. Andre Neblett, also a defensive tackle, is a two-year starter at Rugters, where he was second on the team this season with six sacks.
Caldwell, coming off an impressive championship at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational 10 days ago, is making a bid to become the Wolfpack’s fifth NCAA champion in wrestling. He sports a 15-1 record and is ranked No. 2 in the nation in the 149-pound weight class in two of the three major college wrestling polls.
That leaves Christian Johnson, who Caldwell says is the most athletically gifted of the bunch. But he is not competing anywhere. He's in jail for armed robbery after allegedly knocking off a Dairy Queen.
It was a situation that devastated his best friends. But they are also deeply empathic to his situation: Johnson lost his mother to drugs before he was five; lost his father before he was 10; was raised by his uncle and step-mother, who married after he was orphaned. And the friends knew he was looking for a way to support his infant son.
“He had the worst possible family situation,” Caldwell says. “But, honestly, he probably had the most talent of all of us. He just had a really tough life. He has always been there for us, and we have to be there for him. None of us have perfect backgrounds, but they are my boys, and I will always support all of them.”
Caldwell talks to Johnson at least once a week, just as he calls, e-mails or text messages the other three members of the group at least once a day. They are still Five, whether they are all Fab or not.
“When we all heard about what happened, you could hear in everyone’s voices that we were all heartbroken,” Caldwell says. “What it does for me, is pushes me to be a better athlete. I know I have to take full advantage of my opportunities, to help fulfill his dreams and mine, and the other three dreamers out there.”
Caldwell, identified early by Wolfpack head coach Carter Jordan as a potential All-America and national championship contender, came to NC State because he liked the family atmosphere. He formed a similar group of friends with Ryan Goodman and Joe Caramanica, two other northeast natives who are also nationally elite wrestlers.
“It didn’t take some kind of genius to see that he could be a national contender,” Jordan says. “It’s like looking at Mount Everest and saying That’s a tall mountain.’”
Caldwell had a sensational freshman season for the Wolfpack in the 141-pound weight class. He was one of five Wolfpack
wrestlers to win individual ACC championships, leading Jordan’s squad to the team title. But he also earned both the ACC Freshman of the Year and the ACC Wrestler of the Year award, the first athlete in conference history to win both awards in the same season.
In the NCAA Championships, the unseeded Caldwell pinned No. 10 Kenneth Hashimoto of Northern Colorado in just 28 seconds. He then beat eighth-ranked Andy Simmons of Michigan State with a medical default to advance to the third round.
In perhaps the most exciting match of last year’s championship, Caldwell and top-ranked and unbeaten Ryan Lang of Northwestern combined to score 16 points in the match’s first 100 seconds, on three takedowns and two near falls. Caldwell was actually leading the match against the eventual national runner-up, when he got caught and pinned.
He’s heard about that match a thousand times since then, Caldwell said, but he has never seen a replay of it, even though the match has been viewed more than 30,000 times on YouTube.com.
“Seeing myself on my back is not something that I want to watch,” Caldwell says. “But it always sits in the back of my mind.”
Caldwell has been no less spectacular as a sophomore, even after he moved up to the 149-pound weight class. He had a string of nine consecutive matches decided by pin or technical fall. Unfortunately for Caldwell, he was on the losing end of one of those matches, losing his lone match of the season to then-No. 12-ranked Will Rowe of Oklahoma.
It was just another reminder to Caldwell that he can’t always be so aggressive. He’s not particularly fond of the “pin or be pinned” reputation he has developed nationally. So he’s trying rein in his wild side.
“I think he's learned to be more patient and understands that he doesn’t have to pin everyone in the first 50 seconds,” Jordan says. “It’s been something we've worked on. You have to wait for things to come to you.
“In the Vegas tournament, we tried to teach him to wrestle a seven-minute match and raise his wrestling IQ a little more. He stayed disciplined and he did what we told him. He cut it loose in the semis and the finals and it was really fun to watch.”
He beat second-ranked Josh Cherulla of Michigan 12-3 and third-ranked J.P. O’Connor 8-6 to win the title at the nation’s second-largest tournament, after the NCAA Championships.
The supremely confident Caldwell is not surprised by his collegiate success, even in the early stages of his career. He goes into every match knowing that he will win.
“I never think I will win or believe I can win,” Caldwell says. “That leaves a little room for doubt. I know I will win every match I am in.”
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
