Scholar Stories: Mattin Aims to Transfer Wrestling Lessons into Emergency Medicine
10/2/2019 11:40:00 AM | Wrestling, Features
Continuing the 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.
By Brad Rudner
The sport of wrestling is a family affair for University of Michigan lightweight Drew Mattin.
Growing up in Delta, Ohio, a small town of about 3,000 just west of Toledo, Mattin and his three younger brothers did what you'd expect brothers to do.
"We wrestled a lot. It caused a lot of tension," he said. "We have some great stories from out in the barn and in our living room. There are a few holes in the wall. Not from fists. Just from being reckless, roughhousing."
As you might imagine, they were -- and still are -- highly competitive in just about everything.
"My younger brother called me to tell me his ACT score. He beat me," he said. "He was like, 'Hey, I got this score. Just wanted to let you know. Gotta go.' And then he hung up on me. I didn't even get to tell him 'good job.'"
By his own admission, Mattin grew up a big Ohio State fan. His grandfather went there and helped build a Block 'O' on the dock at their family's lake house. But that all started to change during his junior year of high school when Mattin began training with the Wolverines' Michigan Regional Training Center (RTC) out of the Bahna Wrestling Center.
"I didn't want to come, but it's where the best training partners were," he said, "and I realized they weren't bad people up here."
As a three-time Ohio state champion with a career record of 180-10, Mattin got looks from just about every Big Ten school. But it was a recruiting pitch from former head coach Joe McFarland that sealed the deal. Mattin was surprised he got a phone call in the first place.
"What stuck out to me was how Michigan drove home their commitment to you as a person, and I really liked that," he said. "There is a life after wrestling, which some people don't think about. I looked at that, getting a degree from Michigan, and realized it would take you places if you work hard. It's not given to you, and you have to earn it. But I liked that aspect."
Mattin said his family did not wear any maize and blue unless it said 'Michigan Wrestling' on it. Now that Drew and his younger brother, Cole, a freshman on the wrestling team, are both here, that's beginning to change.
Drew started wrestling when he was 4 years old, often accompanying his father, Mike, to practices. Mike wrestled collegiately at Toledo and later became wrestling coach at Delta High School.
Look around the wrestling room and it would have been easy to miss Mattin. In eighth grade, he wrestled at the state tournament at 75 pounds. Before he went to high school, he put on 30 pounds to make the 106 weight class. Mattin spent his first two years at Michigan wrestling at 125 pounds, compiling a 41-23 record with two berths to the NCAA Championships. He bumped up a class this year and is currently listed on the roster at 133 pounds.
The training environment at Bahna is a highly competitive one. As one of the lightweights in the wrestling room, Mattin occasionally finds himself drilling against guys who are simply bigger and stronger than he is. While there are obvious disadvantages with that in a sport that requires quickness and strength, Mattin views it differently.
"Steel sharpens steel," he said. "You aren't getting better if you're wrestling people worse than you. The more you can make practice competitive, which I think our coaching staff does a great job of, the better it'll be. You're always in that competitive state of mind.
"One thing we do really well is making sure that whatever happens in the room stays there. We're all buddies after. It can get physical in practice. That's not unheard of. But when you step off the mat, it's over. We're all on the same team and have the same goals. If you back down to someone, you're going to get run through. You have to be on your 'A' game always."
That was a lesson Mattin had to learn the hard way. He remembers a practice as a freshman that included members of the RTC and a few Wolverine alumni. They had five 10-minute live goes, and in succession, he wrestled Jimmy Kennedy (a U.S. world team member), Kellen Russell (a two-time NCAA champion at Michigan) and Joe Warren (an MMA fighter).
At one point, Mattin found himself without a partner. There was a man sitting off to the side that said he'd come in and wrestle him.
"This guy doesn't look too bad. Maybe I'll finally get a break," Mattin thought.
Russell looked over and gave some advice.
"Don't take a bad shot!"
So what did Mattin do? He took a bad shot and then didn't get off the mat for 10 minutes.
Mattin found out afterward that his counterpart was All-American Zac Stevens.
"That was a big learning curve," he said. "Mentally, there are times you don't want to practice. Maybe you feel sick. It doesn't matter. If you slack off, you're going get your face rubbed in the mat."
When he's off the mat, Mattin is excelling in the classroom as a biology, health and society major, a relatively new course of study that broadly focuses on biology and its interactions with science and society. It's also a good place to start for pre-med students, which is the path Mattin wants to go down.
Ideally, Mattin follows in his father's footsteps and eventually becomes an emergency room doctor. What he doesn't want to do is find himself stuck in a lab peering down a microscope every day. The variety is what made the major very appealing.
"I like helping people and serving my community," he said. "I want to be able to give back. Being able to see my dad in that environment, I know it's the people who need it most. Whether they're really injured or sick, they need someone to take care of them. I want to be in an ER, but I really just want to help people."
Mattin hasn't shadowed his father, but he has done so with others. He estimates he's been in the emergency room three or four times for three-to-four hours each time.
In a strange way, being in there is a lot like being on the wrestling mat. You have to be ready for whatever comes your way.
"I like the chaos," he said. "You never know what's going to happen. I like that about being a doctor. It keeps you on your toes. Every day is different, and every case is different."
Until then, Mattin will continue to prepare for two futures: one that's now (wrestling) and one that's later (medicine). He isn't sure if he's going to wrestle this season or redshirt; that conversation will be between him and the coaches. But regardless of his immediate plans, trading the "O" for the "M" has been the best decision he's made.
"It's been fun. It's been hard. It's been worth it," he said. "These guys are my brothers for life."
Players Mentioned
