Scholar Stories: All in the Family for Wrestling's Amine
11/29/2017 1:53:00 PM | Wrestling, Features
Continuing the popular series that began in 2016-17, each Wednesday MGoBlue.com will highlight a Michigan student-athlete and their academic pursuits. These are our Scholar-Athlete Stories, presented by Prairie Farms.
Myles Amine lives to wrestle.
To him, there's no better place to be than in the center of the mat; two opponents, staring across from one another, each wanting to put the other on the ground and have their hand raised as a victor.
For as long as the sport of wrestling has been around -- and it's been around a long time -- it's always been a test of strength. That's exactly what Amine craves.
"I love the one-on-one individuality of it," said Amine. "It's you versus the other guy. You determine the outcome. I've always liked the grind. And I don't mind contact."
Amine is a Michigan legacy, the second youngest of the second generation of grapplers behind older brother, Malik Amine, and cousin, Jordan Amine. His father, Mike, was an NCAA finalist and four-year letterwinner (1986-89). His uncle, Sam, wrestled for three years (1988-90).
The family loves wrestling so much that they turned their basement into a wrestling room. When they reconvene for the holidays, you best believe father and son find their way down there because nothing says "family bonding" like some impromptu basement brawling.
"I've been wrestling my dad since I was 112 pounds in high school. He wouldn't take it easy on me," said Amine. "But what goes around comes around. I've finally turned the tables on him."
"I wrestle him to this day. He's 50 now, but he'll still give me a good match. He knows a lot and is very intelligent when it comes to wrestling. He's been a big factor to a lot of my success."
Born of Lebanese and San Marinese descent, Amine started wrestling when he was 8 years old, but attending the University of Michigan, even with the family history, wasn't always a given. The familiarity was there -- Malik and Jordan were already on the team when Myles was a senior at Detroit Catholic Central -- but Myles didn't feel he could make a decision until he saw what else was out there.
So he took a few visits. If anything, it confirmed what he already knew.
"Michigan was the best place for me," he said. "It's always been the best place."
Now in his third year, Amine continues to make the most of his experience. He's more than succeeding academically, majoring in business administration at the Ross School of Business. Last year, in his first year eligible, Amine earned Academic All-Big Ten and NWCA All-Academic honors.
Over the summer, Amine interned at Wealth Strategies Financial Group in Southfield, a wealth management company started by his parents. As an intern, he started out on the bottom rung, doing a lot of cold-calling. For every one time he kept a prospective client on the line, five others hung up.
Though he still has time to figure out what career path to take, he's always been interested in the stock market. He bought a subscription to The Wall Street Journal over the summer and would flip through it every morning before going to the office.
"To be honest, I've not completely figured it out," he said, "but industry, Wall Street, how stocks are traded … those are things that have always interested me."
If his growth in business mirrors what he does on the wrestling mat, Amine will be just fine. Last year as a redshirt freshman, Amine went 32-7 overall at 174 pounds, finishing on the medal stand at the Big Ten Championships (third) and later earning NCAA All-America honors (fourth).
Amine noted that in some matches last year, he was simply overpowered, particularly against more senior wrestlers. To fix that, Amine spent the offseason adding strength and filling into the weight class.
So far this season, Amine is 3-2, but all three of his wins have been major decisions and his losses were to men ranked higher than him. He enters this weekend's Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational ranked sixth at 174 pounds by InterMat.
If this year follows the same pattern as last year, look for Amine to take off.
"Last year, I didn't quite know what to expect," Amine said. "I had a goal to be a national champion, to be on the top of those podiums, but I came up short. It's easy to say you want to be a national champion, but to actually achieve it is a totally different thing. It takes a lot more extra work."
"At the end of the day, it's a learning experience, but I'm grateful those things happened. It just makes me hungrier."
