Max Wessell of Boulder High School gets his armed raised in victory at the Colorado State Wrestling Championships. Photo by Cliff Grassmick, Boulder Camera

The advantage was obvious.

Max Wessell had fought confidently through the semifinals on his way to a state championship in Colorado high school wrestling. The 17-year-old Boulder High senior was under the bright lights at the Pepsi Center once again in the finals. His opponent, a tough senior from Ponderosa High, shot for a body lock. Max saw it coming and "Wham!"

The advantage that was so obvious? Judo.

Riveted on the action was USA Judo's president, Lance Nading, who'd watched Wessell from the time he started judo as a kid.
 
"Max just threw him so hard with a beautiful ippon throw, and the crowd just went crazy," Nading said. 

From there, Wessell nailed a quick pin and it was over in just 54 seconds. The championship was his.

Max's dad, Leonard "Buck" Wessell, was watching from the coach's chair. As Max executed that harai goshi, "you could see the smile on his face," Buck said. "When you do a nice throw, it is effortless. It is a beautiful thing."

"I'm just so pleased that he would end his high school wrestling career with a judo throw," Buck said.

Max Wessell is the first to credit judo. 

"It adds a whole other factor. It catches a lot of wrestlers by surprise," he said.

The Wessells, all of them, have another huge advantage in competition - each other. Together they have taken turns leading and following through life, from the dojo to the wrestling arena, back and forth.

Take a look at Axel Wessell. A freshman at Boulder High School, he just turned 15 on the same day he placed at Regionals in Colorado wrestling. So he's not far behind his brother in competition … or maybe he's ahead.

Axel, said his dad, had a great season, successfully blending judo, a lot of o-uchi and ko-uchi garis, inner reaping throws, into his own hybrid wrestling style. And, to his great advantage on the mats and tatamis, Axel started wrestling far sooner than his older brother. 

"He's got a greater wrestling background than Max did in ninth grade,"  their dad said.

Wessell, Sr. has certainly followed, too. All three started judo when they were four years old. Buck recalled coaches like Dr. "Doc" Dennis McGuire, president and co-founder of Northglenn Judo Club, as early leaders in his own development on the tatamis.

Buck Wessell's passion has always been for judo. He wrestled as cross-training to benefit his judo. And, father like son, when he was in high school, Buck blew out his knee fighting for a shot at the Colorado state championships. 

Max blew out his knee last year in finals - few would forget the image of Max's father carrying his son from the mat, Max's face streaming with tears of pain and frustration. The father's high school injury, though, kept him off the mats much longer than his son, in a knee brace for the rest of his high school career.

"I never went back to wrestling, just stayed with judo," said Buck Wessell.

When his son Max got interested in wrestling in the 8th grade, Buck followed suit and now he's an assistant wrestling coach at Boulder High School.

Of course, no one leaves the judo behind. That was evident in the finals at the Pepsi Center on February 20th when Wessell took down his opponent with harai goshi, the sweeping hip throw. 

"He went for the body lock and I used my judo experience to turn it on him … I threw him straight to his back and I pinned him from that throw," Wessell said. "Judo adds a different, diverse technique. And it's a technique that not a lot of wrestlers have learned."

But it's not a secret - quite the contrary, said Nading. 

"What would be great is if lots of wrestlers started studying the martial art," he said. "We'd put out better judokas, and better wrestlers. There's a lot of crossover."

Nading saw the terrific advantage in Max Wessell's ascent that probably began with his father, who became a longtime supporter of judo from the Olympic level to the local club. He founded the Boulder Judo Training Center, once headed by U.S. Olympian Brian Olson and still by Sherrie Phillips, a one-time Olympic alternate who currently serves as USA Judo's director of marketing.

In 2007 and 2008, the young men travelled with their father over three continents studying judo, using online homeschool programs for their education. That's how dedicated they were to the sport.

For Buck, recalled Nading, it wasn't just financial support, it was time … all the time, "judo, judo, judo." Buck frequently worked out with his sons. So, for the Wessell boys, the training in the dojos began long before either set their cross-hairs on a state championship in wrestling.

"Unfortunately for judo, I think his (Max's) priority right now is wrestling," Nading said.

Max recalled that, like his father, he started wrestling to supplement his judo. But then the judo he'd studied for years, he found, was a terrific supplement to the wrestling.
 
"I realized that judo was a big tool in wrestling," Max said.
 
Somewhere at some point, the wrestling became his driving passion. It wasn't long before Max began to consider a state title. His father says that in Max's sophomore year, after losing in state tournaments (while vomiting blood from a serious case of the flu), his son decided that he'd need to eat and sleep wrestling if he was going to win a state championship. That decision took a lot of time away from judo, and a lot of other things in life.

In fact, said Max, the decision to pursue judo so intently, and then a state title in wrestling, meant that everyone in the family would sacrifice - including his mom, Amy.

"She was really supportive throughout the whole thing," Max said. "She made it possible for me to wrestle on that level. She was a great mom, understanding all that I had to give to the sport."

When Max began applying to colleges, he found that wrestling was far more marketable than judo among college recruiters. Wessell decided last year that he would attend Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa, on a scholarship. Lehigh is a school, Wessell said, with a rich heritage of wrestling and strong academics.

In Wessell's case, Lehigh was confident that Max would excel and the university was eager to get him on the roster, Nading said.

Max is quick to credit success in wrestling to his judo. He's also quick to credit his dad. 

"Growing up with my dad has definitely been an inspiration for me, wanting to excel and do as well as a I could."

Max said he will stick to wrestling through college but that he'll probably return to judo after school, perhaps for an Olympic run. Of course, you never leave it behind. And, in the meantime, if you're looking for the Wessells around town, check the local dojos. Buck said you'll find them there, working on their judo, working on their wrestling.

This article is reprinted with permission from USA Judo