Pride and prejudice: Central's Fletcher still son's No. 1 fan

View larger image Central wrestling coach Scott Fletcher and and his son, Zach, watch a match in Stephens City last week. Zach Fletcher wrestles for Sherando at 152 pounds. Dennis Grundman/Daily Recommend This Print This Get E-mail News Alerts Buy Photos/Page Reprints * Breaking News If local news is breaking and you know about it: * Call Us: 800-296-5137 * E-mail Us * Upload Your Photos

By Jeremy Stafford - jstafford@nvdaily.com

STEPHENS CITY -- Central wrestling coach Scott Fletcher wore a smile of dual meanings on his face, at once expressing an extravagant pride and an ironic frustration.

He had just witnessed his son Zach, a 152-pound senior wrestler at Sherando, fall to Millbrook's John Sharp, 11-5, in a meet on Jan. 19.

"He didn't wrestle," Scott Fletcher said, his voice smudged with a hint of agonizing over Zach's loss. "He didn't wrestle like I know he can -- like he knows he can -- and he knows it.

"He's much better than that, he shouldn't have lost that match."

To Zach Fletcher's credit, it was at least an entertaining match. Amidst a chorus of sideline counsel from his father, Sherando coach Pepper Martin and the Sherando assistants, Zach Fletcher countered each of Sharp's takedowns with an escape and entered the third period in a manageable 9-3 deficit. When his son scored a takedown, Scott Fletcher nearly burst onto the mat in a roused fervor.

It was quite an intriguing sight to see Martin, Zach Fletcher's high school coach, calmly gesture Scott Fletcher, Zach's lifelong coach, to the side.

"Pepper understands," Scott Fletcher said. "He understands that I try to back off, but it's hard for me not to be a coach and be a dad.

"When [Zach's] on the mat, I'm a coach, I'm coaching ... and when he's off the mat, I'm the dad."

It's a peculiar situation Zach Fletcher admits he doesn't necessarily mind being in, having his father coaching him one way, and Martin coaching him another.

"Everyone's got their own style -- not everyone's gonna agree," Zach Fletcher smiled.

Indeed, Zach Fletcher has enough to worry about -- namely, the long metal rod extending through his right leg -- without having to concern himself with the contrasting coaching styles swirling around him.

Which is precisely why Scott Fletcher's ironic smile bore that smidgen of pride, even after his son's loss.

"I know a lot of dads say how proud they are of their sons, but I tell you what, when I say it, it's from my heart," Scott Fletcher said. "I don't know too many dads that have the feeling I have for my son, as far as what he's accomplished and the young man that he's developed into -- I'm just so proud of him."

Here's what Zach Fletcher has accomplished: born with a club foot, the Sherando senior started wrestling when he was 6 years old, then backed off from the sport when he was 10. During that four-year span, Scott Fletcher kept a wrestling mat in the spare bedroom of his house, and he coached his son and a handful of other young local wrestlers -- Jake Crawford (Millbrook) and Gage Swartz (James Wood), to name a couple.

But at 10 years old, Zach Fletcher had already grown weary of the sport. He stopped wrestling, though for a time he still observed the wrestling practices his father held at home. Zach Fletcher picked up football and baseball along the way, and proved a wall at linebacker and a talent at catcher.

"I really liked them a lot," Zack Fletcher said of his newfound sports. "Then the leg stopped growing."

Because of his short right leg, what he boasted in power he lacked in speed. By the time he reached middle school, coaches began favoring fleet-footed athletes, and Zack Fletcher soon gave up both sports and turned back to wrestling.

"I couldn't run very fast," he said, "and in wrestling you don't have to be fast to win, you just gotta work hard, so that's kind of why I went back to it."

At wrestling tournaments, Scott Fletcher said, spectators expressed an astonishment that his son's technique hadn't quelled during his sabbatical from wrestling.

Prior to this season, Zack Fletcher had a procedure done to extend his right leg. Here's how it worked: doctors cut away at his fibula and interposed a rod with a double-sided ratchet into his leg. For about three months, he twisted the ratchet in his leg -- his foot played the part of the handle -- and each series of twists lengthened his leg a few millimeters at a time.

Screws at the base of Zack Fletcher's knee form marble-sized bumps under his skin.

"When you've been around that kid, when it's all said and done about him, I'm gonna look back at the time when he was here, and I'm gonna really miss the kid," Martin said.

"You have the utmost respect for a kid like that: you get kids in the wrestling room that complain about every little ailment, and then you have a kid in there who has a rod and six titanium screws screwed into his bone, and he's never complaining at all."

With the leg-lengthening surgery behind him, Zack Fletcher is enjoying his most accomplished season yet. As of last week he had a 22-6 record with 13 pins, the attainment of which Zack Fletcher attributes to his work ethic in the wrestling room. And Scott Fletcher becomes nothing short of ecstatic when he's able to take time away from coaching at Central to watch his son wrestle in the final few meets of his career.

When he can't watch, Scott Fletcher often finds someone to video record his son's matches; but that's hardly an adequate replacement for actually being present at the meets, both to aid his son as a coach and appreciate him as a father.

"We've had a lot of hurdles we've had to overcome, and we've dealt with them and went on," Scott Fletcher said. "He's probably dealing with it a little better than I am in most cases.

"I just can't be more proud of him as a father."