High school wrestling: Sport all a family affair for Colby Singletary, brothers, father

Is it OK to paraphrase Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” when writing about high school wrestling?

Well, when dealing with royalty, family dynasties, and inheritance to thrones, why not?

Here goes: The truck’s the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

***

Casey and Nikki Singletary had already raised two state wrestling champions in sons Cody and Chase. But the third boy, Colby, was proving to be a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma (that’s Churchill, not Shakespeare. But they’re both British, right?).

Anyway ... 

“We had to take a different approach with Colby,” Casey said.

More:Southwest Florida Sports Awards: Singletary, Dempsey take home top honors

More:Prep wrestling: Palmetto Ridge's Colby Singletary joins brothers with state championship

* * *

On Sunday night, Palmetto Ridge junior Colby Singletary (spoiler alert) sat in his “hooked up” Ford F-350 truck talking wrestling.

The gleaming white truck is big and impressive and can haul a lot of weight. But it is not as big and impressive as his family’s accomplishments in the sport, and whatever tonnage it can pull is a fraction of the load the 6-foot-2 Colby had to bear last February.

Colby, the youngest of the three Singletary boys, is the defending Class 2A 182-pound champion. On Saturday, he buzz-sawed his way through the Border Wars tournament in Fort Walton Beach. It was an interstate affair, pitting wrestlers from Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana. Colby pinned all his opponents in the first fall on his way to the tournament’s 182 title.

But last February, at the 2A state 182 final, Colby was anything but a buzz saw. He was a “To be or not to be” sophomore, caught between wrestling and football, mostly football, and with no sweet ride, and carrying the enormous burden of upholding his family’s wrestling legacy.

Dad Casey was a state runner-up at 160 for Barron Collier in 1990. Oldest brother Cody won a state title for Palmetto Ridge at 103 in 2008. Middle brother Chase won two high school state titles — as a seventh- and eighth-grader — at Pembroke Pines-Somerset Academy a few years later.

Chase wrestled his freshman year for the Bears before moving onto Blair Academy in New Jersey, one of the country’s top prep programs. There, Chase became the nation's top wrestler his junior and seniors years. He is now a redshirt heavyweight at Ohio State.

So ... though his truck has the fortitude to pull boats, it could not carry the great expectations Colby faced as a Singletary as he took the mat for last year’s 182 final.

“Colby had big shoes to fill,” Casey said. “His brothers did their thing. With Colby, when he puts his mind to something, he does it. But getting him to act is like pulling teeth. But once he’s there, he's fine."

With Cody, Casey brought him to a few bulldog tournaments and the kid was hooked. "It was a matter of let's see where this goes," Casey said.

With Chase, he gripped onto Casey's leg as he took Cody to practice. "I told him if he wanted to go to practice, he would have to do everything everyone else was doing. The first time you don't do it, you don't come no more.

"Colby, well, he was a little more standoffish with me."

Hence, the truck is the thing stuff.

***

Last January, Casey struck up a deal with Colby: earn free college tuition, through a football or wrestling scholarship, and I’ll get you a truck.

The boy bargained down for a wrestling state championship instead. Casey caved.

“All I was thinking about was that truck,” Colby said.

But as Colby squared off against Jose Valdez in the 182 final, the truck was the last thing on his mind. He had lost his two previous matches with Valdez, and the third was looking just just as hapless.

Colby was trailing on points to Valdez in the final minute.

“If it would have gone to a decision, Colby would have lost,” Cody said. “We didn't think he was going to pull it off.”

If. 

But Colby decided to have his “to be” moment.

“Earlier in the match, we had a caution and (Valdez) made a move with his left leg. If he did it again, I was going to hit it,” he said.

As things would play out, with seconds remaining, Valdez flinched his left leg before making a move. Colby saw it and jumped.

“I knew this was it,” Colby said. “It was my time to get it done.”

Within milliseconds, Colby took Valdez down and pinned him. Ballgame. State champ.

“It was insane,” Cody said. “We are all so proud of him.”

Looking back, Colby won't admit to feeling much familial pressure.

“Of course, there was some pressure,” he said. “But it wasn't anything too big.”

Maybe not “anything too big,” but bigger than his Ford F-350?

“Yeah,” Colby said. “That’s about right.”