De La Salle's Luke Sheridan prepares to represent the U.S.A. in the Youth Olympic Games.

Luke Sheridan is a singular individual.
This statement is not intended to mean that he is exceptional, unique, especially talented or a standout — some of the common usages to which that word is put. Sheridan is all those things, mind you: a gifted wrestler who placed third in the state at 171 pounds at the 2010 California Interscholastic Federation championships in March. That came hard on the heels of Sheridan, a junior in the 2009-10 season, netting his second individual North Coast Section title while leading De La Salle to its second-straight Division I team title as well as its second-straight overall NCS team finish. The Spartans outpaced second-place Granada by a final team point total of 270.5-166.5 — the largest difference between first and second place in the team championship since James Logan topped Mission San Jose 261.5-132.5 in 1995. The Spartans' rout came thanks in large part to Sheridan's stellar, four-pin run through the brackets. Dating back to 1991, the 270.5 points are the most scored by any team in the overall NCS tournament.

That's all well and good. But in this instance Sheridan's singularity means something a bit more straightforward. Singular. As in one. Only. The guy. King of the mountain. El numero uno honcho. See, when he isn't busy tossing opponents around on the freestyle mat, Sheridan is hard at work tossing them around on the Greco-Roman mat (*editor's note: same mat). So busy, in fact, that he was recently tapped as the only (see: singular, above) American wrestler to be selected to participate in the Greco-Roman events at the first-ever Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in August.

There are two American freestylers and one American woman who are also Singapore-bound. For the wrestling novices out there, the primary difference between freestyle and Greco-Roman (or Greco, which was part of the first modern Olympics in 1896 and has been included in every Games since 1908) is that in Greco, participants may not grasp or hold their opponents below the waist, or grab, hook, or trip their opponents legs in any way. This places an emphasis on upper-body strength and throws. Sure, sure, you say. Sheridan's high school and club coach, Mark Halvorson, is the U.S. Wrestling coach for Singapore. Of course he picked his guy.

Well. Yeah. Of course he picked his guy — because his guy dominated the field at the Pan-American qualifier in Monterrey, Mexico, in May. After pinning Luis Arias of Venezuela in the first round, Sheridan, the No. 5 seed in the tourney, then proceeded to stick third-seeded Alfonso Antonio Leyva Yepez of Mexico and No. 2 seed Kevin Mejia Castillo of Honduras for the championship at 85 kilograms (187 pounds). The win and advancement comes despite the fact that Sheridan is a bit undersized in his weight class. Sheridan's 'walking around' weight outside of competition is right around 189 pounds. And as any mat-head will tell you, you drop 5-10 pounds in a hurry when you're ramping up for a big competition. Meaning Sheridan, rather than needing to drop weight, generally tips the scales well under what his opponents are sweating and cutting to make.

"I'm the small guy," Sheridan said. "But I hope to make up for it with talent and skill." "He's pretty undersized," Sheridan's brother, coach, and biggest supporter, Tyler Sheridan said. "But I promise. He's strong enough. It's going to be hard for you to find a 17-year-old in this world stronger than Luke." And Tyler would know. In addition to his other roles, big brother Tyler Sheridan (also a De La Salle grad and former state medallist — seventh at 145 in 2008 and again at 152 in '09) is also Luke's primary training partner, a role to which the older Sheridan was, quite literally, born.

"We've been wrestling each other all our lives. We could probably wrestle with our eyes closed and know exactly what the other guy was going to do," Tyler Sheridan said. "Wrestling has probably brought us closer than most siblings. … I never had an older brother, but I had wrestling coaches who played that role for me. At first, when we practiced together in high school, I could handle him pretty well. Now, I can't hold anything back."

Neither can Luke. As gritty and grueling as the high school season was, and as tough as the competition in Monterrey was, this whole Olympics thing takes the competition to a whole new level. And so is the attention. "It's a little overwhelming," Luke Sheridan said shortly before departing for the Junior Nationals in Fargo, North Dakota. "When I won the Pan Am games, everybody in my neighborhood knew about it. People are starting to recognize me. Wrestling is not football — especially at De La Salle. So it's exciting to be recognized like the football players are. It's a little weird. Nobody ever wanted to talk to me before. Now, I'm starting to get a lot of calls from reporters."

Things are even tougher on the mat. The Youth Olympic Games are, ostensibly, a feeder program into the big-boy Olympics — sort of a junior varsity for international amateur competition — complete with the flame, the rings, the athletes' village, 26 sports, and all the Citius-Altius-Fortius you can get your hands on. "It's exciting," Sheridan said. "It's an amazing opportunity for me to get to represent not just myself, but my family and my community. And now it's beyond just De La Salle or California. Now it's for the U.S.A. I've always wanted to make the Olympics. This is a step in the right direction." That being said, as the stakes get higher, so does the proficiency of the opponents. Sheridan said he doesn't know all that much about the field he will be facing in Singapore, but adds that, "There's a Russian in my weight who is really tough. There's always a Russian in wrestling."

Despite the accolades, accomplishments and opportunities afforded Sheridan, the 2009-10 wrestling season hasn't been a cakewalk. It started well, to be sure. Then, a spot of adversity…"I got sick," Sheridan said. "At first, they thought it was strep (throat). Then they said, 'No, it's mono(nucleosis). I was wiped out. I wasn't 100 percent until league." So, rather than train hard like he has every day since he was nine, Sheridan had to grit his teeth and do the one thing that has been difficult for him: rest. But once the doctors released him to start training again, he threw himself into his regimen with renewed vigor. "Up until high school, wrestling was always something that was fun for (Luke)," Tyler Sheridan said. "Then he decided it was something he could really excel at. He's really put everything together, doing extra workouts and everything that you can do to get better. … As a person, he's just so tough. He can grind it out with anybody."

Including, but not limited to, big bro.
"Tyler?" Luke Sheridan said. "I couldn't have gotten (to Singapore) without him. I was training six hours a day (before I got sick), then I couldn't get out of bed. I couldn't have done what I did without my family and teammates." Fortunately for Sheridan, along with the groundswell of local fan support he also has a pretty solid coaching staff prepping him for the world stage. In addition to head coach Halvorson, who has coached internationally, as well as leading numerous junior world teams, Sheridan also has former North Coast Section, State and Pac-10 champion Kenny Cook pointing him in the right direction. Both Sheridans credit Cook, a three-time CIF medallist (4th at 145 in 1999, 2nd at 160 in 2000 and 1st at 160 in 2001) and the 2006 Pac-10 champ at 174 pounds wrestling out of UC Davis, with having greatly raised Luke's competitive and technical level.

"He beat on me every day in practice," Luke Sheridan said. "He's really helped me develop as a wrestler and as a person." Another huge bright side is that Sheridan has the distinct advantage of winging off to the Malay Peninsula with a fairly significant support team in tow. Along with Halvorson — who Sheridan calls his "coach, and best friend as well" — Tyler Sheridan will be joining his younger brother in the Asian city-state as a coach (and punching bag, and confidant, and fan…) "To have my big brother and my head coach with me? I wouldn't have it any other way," Luke Sheridan said. "(Halvorson) is always there for me, every single day. We have a very strong bond. (Tyler) has really helped me. He always reminds me that the big important thing is to keep this all in perspective, and to do what I did to get here."