DAILY PILOT HIGH SCHOOL MALE ATHLETE OF THE WEEK:George scores big reversal

When it’s time for Josh George to rise from the wrestling mat, there’s no need for the referee to lift his arm.

George is already a winner. Just being able to walk again is something the Newport Harbor High wrestler doesn’t take for granted.

In March 2005, George, playing video games, let the controller go and tried to lift himself up. He couldn’t as one of his legs gave out.

In a way, it appeared to George that not only was the game over, but so was his athletic career.

The former gymnast, who used to twist his physique with ease before flipping and landing a perfect score, couldn’t even see himself walking again.

In so much pain, his mother Carla took him to the hospital, where doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Tests for a fracture and cancer came back negative.

Doctors thought George was faking it.

Until George spoke up, asking his mother in front of doctors, “How much does my leg weigh?” His stunned mother, not knowing, said probably like 20 pounds.

“Then cut my leg off,” George demanded. “I can wrestle at 103 pounds and I will dominate.”

Hearing a 15-year-old wanting his leg severed prodded doctors to pursue further tests.

Doctors soon learned George had a bone infection in his femur. Within five days George underwent surgery.

“He could’ve died if [the doctors] waited any longer,” Carla said. “I was really concerned because he was in serious pain.”

George accepted the throbbing if it meant he could stand up on his own.

Carla said doctors drilled two inches into George’s femur bone, hollowing it out. For the next six weeks and for 24 hours a day, pumping into George were antibiotics through a peripherally inserted central catheter.

The PICC, inserted through a vein in George’s arm that went through his shoulder and toward the heart, measured two feet long.

The only length George cared about was how long it would take to recover.

“Wrestling is all I thought about,” George said.

That’s all George could do while being home schooled. Ordered by doctors not to run or lift from April to September, he swam. He wanted to make a splash in his varsity tryout.

All healed, George returned to the mat his sophomore year. Newport Harbor Coach Dominic Bulone sized up the newcomer, knowing him through George’s older brother, Victor, a wrestler.

Victor didn’t have to describe his brother to Coach. Bulone knew what he had.

“A firecracker,” Bulone said.

George lit up teammates, claiming the 130-pound spot in the lineup. But like a cheap firecracker going out early, George needed something to keep the sparks going.

“He was young and intense, and he would get up by eight or 10 points after the first period,” Bulone said. “But then he literally would flame out and the opponent would catch up to him. He would just hold on for dear life.”

George wrestled like every match was his last. He attacked until his body didn’t allow him to. He learned conserving his energy throughout the match would be to his advantage.

Results soon came, and the guy who couldn’t stand up on his own found himself after time expired towering over opponents.

George went 29-13 with nine pins and 128 total near fall points. More importantly he placed sixth at the CIF Southern Section individual meet. He would be Newport Harbor’s lone wrestler out of five to accomplish the feat.

George, always pushing himself, downplayed the season, saying “I had a better record at 29-4 as a freshman.”

Whether he wins or loses, George amazes his mother with his ability to juggle wrestling with school, where he earns A’s and B’s, and playing the trombone for the school band. His brother teases him about the band — even on George’s birthday.

George turned 17 on Tuesday, the day after Christmas. While on the phone, Victor heckled George. Before the two would grapple if a joke hit too hard.

But George now can’t go after Victor, who graduated last year and is a construction worker and gymnastics coach.

When the two were on the same team, Bulone said George surpassed Victor, a 125-pounder, when it came to technique, desire and talent. A year older and with the way George is wrestling as a 135-pound junior, he improved to 14-2 after two wins last week, Victor would have no shot.

“I didn’t know what his problem was, but we did have to get separated during practice a few times,” George said. “It went back and forth. I’d take him down and he’d put me down.

“I hit him a couple of times on accident, and then he’d take a cheap shot.”

At least George could stand up for himself.