Wrestler defies hurdles

It’s difficult to imagine that Cesar Hernandez, the testosterone-fueled 15-year-old with the black-and-orange speckled shoes and the red-tinted tee rolling around the Liberty wrestling room floor, is anything but a normal kid.

His moves on the wrestling mat are fluid. Graced with nimble footwork, he uses his deceptively strong upper body to drop his sparring partner to the ground with the ease of a seasoned wrestler.

“His style is just kind of funky,” Patriots coach Billy Love said of the 126-pound freshman. “He has a jiujitsu background, so he doesn’t do traditional wrestling moves per se. He does a really good job scrambling. He’s a good partner in the room because kids get to wrestle with him and it makes them better.”

But it’s not simply an unorthodox style that sets Hernandez apart from the rest of his Liberty teammates. It’s two deficits that are unavoidably evident.

The junior varsity wrestler can’t hear a thing. He doesn’t speak a word. He keeps mostly to himself and likes to keep his social interactions to a minimum.

Off the mat, Hernandez, who is deaf and autistic, appears excessively shy and rarely smiles. Moaning nervously through an interpreter, he swiftly signs that he enjoys wrestling because he can “take people down.” But that ends the short conversation. He’s too flustered to communicate, so he heads back to the mat.

Peering over at his father, Sergio, who attends a bulk of Hernandez’s matches, the precocious wrestler waits for a hand gesture to map out his next potential move and set of instructions.

“When I found out about (his disability), he was about 5,” Sergio Hernandez said. “I took him to different doctors to see what was wrong with him. He wasn’t walking. He had no balance.”

Seeking an emotional outlet for his son, Sergio Hernandez began taking Cesar to the TapouT Training Center in Las Vegas when he was 12. It was there that Cesar developed a love for jiujitsu, wrestling and boxing.

After competing in multiple Southern Nevada Wrestling Association tournaments, Sergio Hernandez handed his son an ultimatum in the form of a piece of paper with all three sports written down and made him choose one.

Cesar promptly crossed out jiujitsu and boxing, and from that point on, Sergio Hernandez dedicated himself to embracing his son’s love of wrestling.

“We run and practice at home and do some weightlifting,” Sergio Hernandez said. “I wasn’t sure about him and sports when he was growing up. But he really focuses a lot and started paying attention more.”

Sergio Hernandez also was thrilled to have Cesar increase his involvement with peers, engaging in physical contact, shaking hands and developing minor communication skills through wrestling.

“He’s a lonely kid,” Sergio Hernandez said. “He’s still not making friends because of how he is. He spends most of the time by himself. He remembers kids and says hi, gives them a hug, but after that he stays by himself. He has more fun when he wrestles. On the mat, he’s always laughing. I see other kids before they wrestle, they’re nervous. He’s laughing. No matter if he wins or loses the match, he loves it.”

Love, the first-year Liberty coach, met Cesar over the summer after hearing about the wrestler through a local youth program and was intrigued when he discovered Cesar was placed in his fourth-period Classical Studies class.

“The first interaction I had with him at school, I saw him, and I wrote him a note because I thought he could read the note,” Love said. “There was no interaction back. He came with one of his aides at the end of the day because he knew it was about wrestling. He was very interested in wanting to know when practice was. I told him intramurals start on this date and he needed to show up.”

Cesar, though, didn’t show up. It took the effort of Love to contact the wrestler’s parents, who immediately brought Cesar in for intramurals. Love said he couldn’t be more proud of the way the wrestler has performed amid adversity.

“Just seeing him on the mat when he wins a match, that’s one of the few times he shows emotion,” Love said. “He’s happy, and he wants to please the coaches and his parents.”

Cesar has multiple wins at the varsity level, including two pins at the Laughlin Duals on Dec. 8. Love said the school district provides a signing aide at each match, and officials are notified of Hernandez’s condition.

Aside from impressing his coach, the rest of the Liberty squad has been receptive to Cesar and can be seen emphatically cheering him on whenever they get the opportunity.

Storm Roper, a sophomore on the Patriots’ varsity squad, has watched Cesar wrestle since the seventh grade.

“It’s pretty cool with his challenge being able to do what he does,” said Roper, who competes at the 138-pound weight class. “Anytime he wins a match or doesn’t win a match, we’ll be on the bench, and we do the sign language clap.”

With a heavy dose of training and improvement on the mat, Love believes Hernandez has the skills to possibly take the next step. But regardless, the coach is inspired by the joy he witnesses when the resilient youth wrestles.

“There’s no doubt that if he keeps progressing, he’ll be a varsity wrestler someday,” Love said. “He could make the lineup, no doubt. I just love to see someone like that enjoy what they’re doing.

“It’s good to see him be passionate about something and be successful. He can come to school, and this is what he enjoys.”