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Daprile’s wins power Cards
By TIM CLEVELAND
CANFIELD
Considering what happened at a young age to Stephen Daprile, it would have been easy for the Canfield High senior wrestler to put any thoughts of athletics aside.
When he was 8 years old, Daprile attended a family party at his aunt’s house in which a pi ±ata was going to be burst. Someone took a whack at it with a foam bat, but the plastic top of the bat broke, sending a shard of plastic into Daprile’s right eye.
Enduring seven surgeries on the eye, including one in which the doctor injected the wrong dye that forced a corneal transplant, Daprile has come all the way back to be a force for the Cardinals while wearing a special mask that resembles goggles to protect the eye.
“The mask is for protection to make sure things don’t go wrong again,” said Daprile, who has 20/80 vision in the eye. “If I get hit in the eye again, I could have retinal detachment and a bunch of things.”
Canfield coach Dean Conley said it was ultimately up to Daprile if he was ever going to step on the mat again.
“He’s been fighting that adversity his whole life,” Conley said. “We weren’t sure if he was ever even going to be able to wrestle again.
“His family’s a huge support group. We all sat down his freshman year and asked, ‘Is this what you want to do?’ He said, ‘This is what I love to do.’ ”
Daprile has helped Canfield go 20-1 in EOWL dual matches over the last four years.
Wrestling at 132 pounds, Daprile won his first two matches Friday to move into the semifinals of the Eastern Ohio Wrestling League tournament at Canfield High.
In his opener, Daprile (24-9) earned a pin in 5:27 over Nathan Rasmussan of Grand Valley, Then he took a hard-fought 2-1 decision over Austintown Fitch’s Austin Stevens.
Trailing 1-0, Daprile started the third period on the bottom and did his best to escape, but Stevens held firm. Midway through the period, Daprile was able to earn a reversal for the deciding points.
“I’ve wrestled him a few times,” Daprile said. “He’s a great opponent and I enjoy wrestling him.”
Daprile’s efforts helped Canfield to the first-day lead with 113 points. West Branch was second with 100, followed by Girard (71.5), Fitch (67.5) and Poland (65) rounding out the top five.
“I got fifth last year and third my sophomore year [in the EOWL championships],” Daprile said. “I’m right on track to where I want to be. I really hope I get that first or second spot.”
Advancing to the semifinals at 152 pounds was Howland’s David-Brian Whisler (33-4), who had a pin in 3:03 and a 15-5 major decision in his first two matches.
“It went good, but I kind of got tired because I kind of had trouble making weight this week,” he said. “But tomorrow I know I’ll feel like a whole new man.”
Whisler, a junior, has definitive goals for the EOWL tournament, not only this year but next as well.
“One of my goals is to win it all four years,” he said. “I’ve won it the last two years, so I just want to keep it up. I know only a few people have done it, so it would be huge.”
Mitch Tikkanen (25-6) of Jackson-Milton had a pair of pins at 113 pounds in a combined 6:50 to move on to the semifinals.
He said his goal was to put in some more time in his matches.
“I really didn’t want to go out there and just end it, I wanted to work myself up so I could see what I needed to improve on for tomorrow,” Tikkanen said. “I’d rather go six minutes and be prepared than one minute and go in there clueless tomorrow.”