Mike Wojcik Benefit
October 16, 2008 12:50 PM | General
By Steve Stone for MSNsportsNET.com
October 16, 2008
Mike Wojcik Benefit |
When: Saturday, Oct. 18 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. Where: WVU Wrestling Pavilion (located behind the WVU Coliseum) Why: Benefit former WVU wrestler Mike Wojcik, who was seriously injured in an ATV accident |
How Can I Help? |
By attending a free wrestling clinic to offset the Wojcik family's medical bills. |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University wrestling team will conduct a free clinic for former Mountaineer wrestler, Mike Wojcik, on Saturday, Oct. 18, from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. in the WVU wrestling room. The event will be catered by Chick-fil-A, and everyone is encouraged to attend to help one of WVU’s own who was seriously injured in an ATV accident.
The clinic is not only to benefit an enthusiastic, goal-oriented human being who exudes the ultimate dedication for the Mountaineer wrestling program. It is also to help Wojcik and his family offset the cost of his extensive medical bills, as the 24-year-old was without health insurance at the time of his accident on Sunday, Aug. 10. Donations are encouraged.
Wojcik’s ATV accident resulted in three broken ribs, collapsed lungs, a broken clavicle, facial fractures and minor cuts and bruises. Worst of all, the Old Bridge, N.J., native is suffering from severe head trauma, and recently suffered a stroke.
“Presently, he is in a minimally conscious state, which means he moves his arms – more so his left arm and his left leg than his right arm and his right leg. He suffered the stroke and the brain injury to the right side of his brain,” Rich Wojcik, Michael’s father, said. “We think he hears us, but we don’t know if he understands. He’s going through some intense rehab now in which he has a physical therapist and an occupational therapist and they work with him everyday.”
Wojcik was originally placed at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, Pa., but was transferred to a Rehabilitation unit in New Jersey (the name will not be mentioned due to the fact that Wojcik is not allowed visitors at this time). His response levels remain very low.
“So far, they think he’s slowly starting to respond to command, but not consistently. He cannot speak yet, he’ll just stare at you and sometimes he follows you if you move from one side of the room to the other,” Rich said.
“But basically he is unresponsive. The doctors think he can hear us, but since he has severe brain trauma, they are not sure if the brain can filter out unimportant noises. In his condition, they feel he is unable to do that yet, where all the noises are bombarding him at once and he can’t distinguish who’s talking to him.”
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| Mike Wojcik holds his Bachelor's degree proudly amongst the WVU All-Americans in December 2007.
Submitted photo |
It is evident how much of an impact Wojcik has on his family and friends. His father marvels at how ambitious he is and how he always tries to do things the right way by raising the barometer.
Another attribute of Wojcik is his great athleticism. Always driven to reach the apex of whatever sport he pursued, Wojcik never let anything get in his way of doing the things he loved.
“Since he was little he has always been an athlete. He enjoyed extreme sports, including wrestling, and he couldn’t get away from extreme sports, and he loved motocross and all that stuff,” Rich said. “He rode a bike at two-years-old, and was always very active.”
“But wrestling was his passion. He got into it in eighth grade, and one of his goals was to become an All-American. He picked West Virginia because we went on a tour and met Coach Turnbull and met Greg Jones’ older brother, Vertus. They really impressed us when they told us about the program, and it just clicked for Michael. He decided he was going to go there. He loved it.”
WVU Head Coach Craig Turnbull and Assistant Coach Greg Jones, a three-time national champion, have had a profound impact on Wojcik and his family. As he was pursuing his Bachelor’s degree in physical education and health – which he accomplished when he graduated in December 2007 – Wojcik always made routine visits to practices to chat with both the wrestlers and the staff, as well as take part in practice.
“He still liked going to the wrestling room, watch the kids work out and fool around with them,” Rich admitted. “Whenever someone needed a partner to work out with, he’d work out with them just to be a part of the team. He was an active competitor. For a year and a half he did that.”
Wojcik’s wrestling career was cut short prior to his junior season when he sustained a neck injury. An operation at Ruby Hospital followed, where doctors inserted a steel plate in his vertebrae to stabilize his neck.
The career-ending injury never wavered his love and devotion for one of the most grueling sports in collegiate athletics. Division I wrestling has a habit of churning out athletes who not only bond on the mat, but form a brotherhood away from it that can last a lifetime.
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| Wojcik relaxes with family members, including his brother David (right), at the beach.
submitted photo |
Wojcik found that bond with his teammates and with the WVU program, and it was never more apparent than when his sister, Lori, visited him at the rehabilitation center with a signed WVU wrestling singlet from all of the current wrestlers.
“When my daughter was up visiting him a couple weeks ago, she told him how coach Turnbull had the wrestlers sign a singlet for him. When she told him this, he made a face like he was about to cry. He had tears streaming down his cheeks. She called us right away and told us how focused he was at that moment,” Susan Wojcik, Michael’s mother, said.
“It was the first true connection he made with wrestling, and my husband and I couldn’t get up there quick enough.”
Despite lying in bed, unresponsive to many of his surroundings, Wojcik was able to muster every ounce of energy he had to elicit his most emotional reaction since the injury. The moment was recorded in a rehabilitation journal used by the staff, and when they read to him about the signed singlet again, he reacted the same way.
After Wojcik’s graduation at WVU, he was determined to find employment somewhere and become a physical education teacher. The moment of receiving his degree was a thrill for him and his family, and a fitting position opened up at Carl Sandburg Middle School, where Wojcik attended from sixth to eighth grade.
“He couldn’t wait to graduate. He wanted to get on with his career, and always wanted to teach,” Rich said. “It was unbelievable because he graduated in December of 2007 and kicked back for a while and worked part-time for a construction company to make some money. He went on an interview to become a Phys Ed teacher, and there was an opening at the school he went to. There were over 400 applicants interviewing at that position.”
The numerous applicants that Wojcik was up against would seem like a daunting task for anyone. But as ambitious and determined as Wojcik was, he also possessed the confidence that he could accomplish anything if he wanted it enough.
Rich Wojcik also noticed that any tension that Wojcik might have had prior to the interview was eliminated after his son put things in perspective.
“I said, ‘Mike, are you ready for the interview? Are you nervous or scared?’” his father asked. “Mike said, ‘You know what nervous is? Nervous is going up against Greg Jones.’
“And remarkably, after the interview, he comes back with a big smile on his face and says, ‘Guess what Dad. I got the job.’ They hired him on the spot. Usually you have to go through the Board of Education, but they hired him on the spot. It was great.”
It all goes back to the way Wojcik was raised when he was younger. He was always prompted to do something, and never let anything stand between him and his objectives. If there ever was – and still is – a model for motivation, Mike Wojcik fits the description.
Such a tremendous characteristic can be hard to find, but Wojcik’s father always admired his son’s hard-working ways.
“He was always a hard-worker. I never had to tell him, ‘Mike, you’ve got to go work out, you got wrestling practice’ or ‘get up for school,’” Rich said. “I never had to push him, he was always pushing himself. He’d get up at four or five in the morning and run four or five miles. He always was goal-oriented. He had goals set up that he wrote down, and had them pinned up in his room and said, ‘This is what I want to do by this time’ and ‘This is what I want to do by that time.’
“A couple of the goals he reached early in his life. It motivated him, and going to West Virginia motivated him. When there was tough competition, he always rose to the occasion. Now he was among All-Americans at WVU, where as in high school it’s different because you can stand out when everyone else is on a second tier. He rose to the occasion.”
Wojcik’s competitiveness was always on display. He competed hard in wrestling practice, endured everything he could during workouts and was diligent in earning his degree. But one moniker came to Rich Wojcik’s mind when thinking of how competitive his son is.
“I remember one time someone told me that they asked Michael, ‘Would you rather be a big fish in a small pond or small fish in a big pond?’ They were steering him toward a junior college so he would have a better chance to compete (at wrestling).
“He said, ‘No, I want to be a small fish in a big pond.’ I said ‘why?’ Mike said, ‘That way I can say that I swam with the best.’ That was his attitude; he just wanted to be a competitor.”
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| Wojcik smiles with his family, including Rich, Susan and Lori, outside of the WVU Coliseum.
Submitted photo |
The outpour of support for the Wojcik family has been tremendous. Several fundraisers have been held to raise money for the deep medical costs that have accompanied Wojcik’s serious injury.
A fundraiser at T.G.I. Friday’s in Hazlet, N.J., helped to raise nearly $14,000 in aid. The Mike Wojcik 3-Mile Walk-A-Thon was held on Saturday, Sept. 20, at Wojcik’s newest employer, Carl Sandburg Middle School.
Even Lex Hair Salon is getting into the act on Sunday, Oct. 26, in the township of Old Bridge, N.J. A cut-a-thon that features $15 haircuts will go directly to the Wojcik family.
“The friends and the township that we live in, they’ve been really great. It’s unbelievable to think what they have done for him. They’ve organized fundraisers and walk-a-thons with the whole township involved,” Rich said thankfully.
The contributions made by the surrounding community have given the Wojcik family something to be grateful for. The overwhelming support is just what Rich, Susan, Lori, and Wojcik’s brother, David, need to get through the tumultuous times.
“The friends he has are amazing,” Susan said. “We never knew how loved this kid is. We knew he was great, but we never knew how many others felt the same.”
As for whether his family can attend this weekend’s clinic, the answer is still up in the air. But Rich and Susan have promised that they will do everything they can to make the 6 ½ hour drive and thank all the supporters who have helped make the most out of a very difficult situation.
“I would like to. It all just depends on whether I can get off from work, which shouldn’t be a problem,” Rich said of attending Saturday’s clinic. “I would like to be there and personally thank coach Turnbull, Greg Jones, and some of the wrestlers who I’ve gotten to know through Michael.”
