A spoonful of sugar makes the wrestling go down

Most of the time, 184-pound wrestler Garrett Hicks is a precursor for Buffalo's All-American Kyle Cerminara. He's the opening act before the big show.

Although it is easy to get lost in that giant shadow, Hicks does have one thing he can always hang over the head of his nationally ranked teammate.

"I beat Kyle when I was 11," Hicks said. "Then puberty struck him."

Hicks may joke about the 197-pound Cerminara's dominance, but as a senior captain he has seen his own success on the mat.

Hicks' wrestling endeavors started at 7-years-old in the quaint parts of Chautauqua, N.Y., where he had to travel elsewhere to wrestle because there was no program in his hometown.

"We didn't have a team in 8th and 9th grades," Hicks said. "I wrestled at another school. There was a joint program with Westfield. My dad started the program at my high school when I was in 10th grade."

Hicks' father has always been an important presence of his life and his wrestling. Not only did he create a wrestling program so his son could wrestle at home, but he also attends all his matches with video camera in hand.

"It feels good to have him watch," Hicks said. "I just go out and wrestle then after the match he may say something if I lose, but that's what fathers do."

With the reputation of being one of the toughest grapplers on the team, the senior stalwart is the first of three wrestlers in the Bulls' lineup that are said to be a part of Buffalo's "death row," a name that was given to Hicks, Cerminara and senior heavyweight Harold Sherrell because they wrestle consecutively in dual meets.

The trio of senior leadership has a combined record of 88-16, making for a difficult roadblock to victory for any opposing team.

"Garrett is like a classic gamer," Sherrell said. "You put him in a situation where the stakes are high and he comes through. He's very hard to wrestle."

Hicks describes his own style of mat work simply as "a lot of countering and wrestling on the mat," which junior teammate Mike Ragusa agrees on.

"He's more of a scrambler," Ragusa said. "So if you think you have a takedown on him, he'll surprise you and get on top. When he's most vulnerable is when he's at his best."

Hick's statistics back up Ragusa's claim. Hicks is only the fourth wrestler in school history to complete 30 reversals in a single season, putting him third on the all-time list with 33.

Off the mat, Hicks is somewhat of a reversal of his on mat persona.

"He is very laid back," Sherrell said. "He loves to joke around. He's quiet, too. He's not going to bark at you but if there's something to say he'll say it. He's kind of quirky."

One of Hicks' "quirky" habits involves him saying random things to confuse his teammates.

"He's notorious for one-line throw-outs," Ragusa said. "Sometimes it gets people fired up and motivated. It's a good thing to loosen up tension so things are not so serious. When he throws them out, it lightens up the air."

Sherrell has experienced one of Hicks' puzzles first-hand.

"He'll say one thing and there will be something behind it and go scuttle off," Sherrell said. "The one time he said to me, 'Mary Poppins' and walked away and then a few days later he finally told me why he said it, because he had just watched the movie. He says things like this just to get you to think."

Although his words may seem strange at first, Hicks said that there is usually a meaning behind it all.

"People think it's random stuff but it has some tie and they realize it after a while," Hicks said. "It's something to trigger their memory."

This personality deviation can be attributed to Hicks' small-town upbringing to a much bigger populated campus.

"Coming to UB really ignited it," Hicks said. "It's because there are more people my style here. In high school, it was just a small area but there are wittier kids here and stuff like that."

Hicks and his teammates next wrestle at the Mid-American Conference championships on Friday, March 3 starting at 11 a.m. in DeKalb, Ill.