The Maryland wrestling team, which consists of as many as five grapplers in a weight class, has only one heavyweight: sophomore Youssif Hemida.
While wrestlers in the same weight class scrap in practice to improve their techniques, Hemida doesn’t have that luxury. Working out with teammates means going against someone smaller than him.
Instead, Hemida wrestles with coach Kerry McCoy, a two-time Olympian and NCAA heavyweight champion.
“He’s a big boy,” McCoy said. “It hurts when we wrestle.”
Hemida said McCoy is on the mat “pretty much every day,” and that those practice sessions have yielded promising results. The Mamaroneck, New York, native rebounded from a 2-7 dual-meet record last year by starting 8-5 in duals this season. He’s also 5-1 in the Big Ten, his only loss coming to Olympic gold medalist Kyle Snyder of Ohio State.
After starting the season slowly — Hemida opened up with one win in his first five dual matches — he rattled off seven straight victories before his loss to Snyder. Both he and McCoy attributed the recent success to reflecting on past matches and making adjustments.
“He did a lot of learning last year,” McCoy said. “Now that’s coming into where he’s having success with the things we’ve been working on. He’s just got to continue growing his horizons.”
Hemida cited McCoy’s own success as a large reason he came to Maryland, and it has contributed to his improvement in his second year in College Park. Hemida said McCoy understands the work needed to succeed at the highest level.
“He’s definitely someone that there is a lot to learn from,” Hemida said. “It’s really nice to be able to wrestle your coach, not many guys can do that.”
McCoy has imparted that knowledge on Hemida, who tries to apply his coach’s moves while figuring out what approach works best for him.
“We try to combine the two situations, the two positions,” McCoy said. “It’s about knowing that things he’ll be able to be successful with are some of the things that I was able to do and be successful with, it’s just with bigger, stronger guys.”
Hemida hasn’t tried to copy his coach’s routine, even with McCoy’s success as a wrestler, but he occasionally adds exercises to his own regimen. When McCoy said he used to do push-ups, pull-ups and sit-ups after practice, Hemida started doing the same.
He knows those workouts helped push McCoy to the pinnacle of the sport.
“It’s being my own person, but also using the stuff that got him to where he was,” Hemida said. “I’m going to use that as well so I can get to, hopefully, being a national champion like he was.”
