Draegen Orine has rediscovered his love for wrestling.
The Seckman senior will once again find his name on the top line of a state bracket when the Class 4 Missouri State High School Activities Association wrestling tournament begins Friday at Mizzou Arena in Columbia.
The path he took to get there was anything but linear.
Orine, a two-time state medalist while at Seckman, decided to leave Missouri prior to his junior year and attend Wyoming Seminary, a boarding school in Pennsylvania and a high school wrestling empire.
“It was a good opportunity for me, so I had to take it,” said Orine. “I just wanted to try something different.”
For Orine, the intensity in the wrestling room combined with the rigor of the academics at Wyoming Seminary felt like he was already living the life of a college athlete.
“We were a top-five team in the country, so I was wrestling the best kids in the country every day and evolving my game. I also got a good view of how (college) works and how to manage my time, so moving forward in life, it will help me,” said Orine, who is committed to wrestle at North Carolina State University.
But as his junior year progressed, Orine struggled to find joy in either the classroom or the wrestling room, and the stress of being apart from family and friends weighed heavily on him.
“It was a lot of mixed emotions. The wrestling, being away from home, the schedule I was on, it really wasn’t my kind of mojo,” Orine said. “All those emotions came together in one, and that’s what impacted me the most. I realized that it isn’t what I wanted.”
Last February, with one month remaining in the wrestling season, Orine decided to step away from the Wyoming Seminary team. A few weeks later, he moved back to Missouri and completely disengaged from the sport of wrestling for nine months.
“He was a kid who kind of fell out of love with the sport,” Seckman coach Ryan Moyer said. “I’ve seen it with a lot of top-level kids. It took him nine months to try to find himself.”
This winter, Orine decided to rejoin the Seckman wrestling team for his senior season.
“When he got back into our (wrestling) room, I really think he felt home,” Moyer said.
In his first tournament, Orine won the 132-pound title at Fort Zumwalt North with a late, second period pin in the semifinal match and a 10-5 decision in the championship match, but the explosive, takedown machine of previous seasons was not there.
“At Fort Zumwalt North, he wasn’t Draegen,” Moyer said. “He still wasn’t 100 percent bought back in. He still was on the fence whether he wanted to do this in college. It took a while. A lot of times with that, you just have to let the cards play out.”
His breakthrough occurred Dec. 8-9 at the Walsh Ironman Tournament in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Orine faced off against some of the best wrestlers in the nation, including his former Wyoming Seminary teammate Matthew Botello.
“Honestly, it took us going to Ironman and seeing some guys he used to wrestle with. That’s where he trickled back in and thought, ‘I still got this. This is what I want to do.’” Moyer said.
Orine went 4-3 in seven matches at Ironman. He is 27-0 since then, with 24 wins coming by pin or technical fall. His quickness and creativity have returned, as well as his passion for the sport.
“It was definitely a positive to recuperate my mind because I felt my mental game had fallen off,” Orine said. “Being back home is definitely the best thing for me now – and I’m happy.”
As a freshman, Orine placed second in Class 4 after a 4-2 loss to Luke Lilledahl of CBC in the 106-pound championship match. As a sophomore, he placed third after a 6-4 loss to Zan Fugitt of Nixa in the 120-pound semifinal. Both Lilledahl and Fugitt have wrestled internationally as members of the Under-17 USA World Team since then.
Orine (39-3) enters his final Class 4 Missouri state tournament as the No. 1 ranked wrestler at 132-pounds and seeks his first state title.
“I feel really confident. I’m the top guy right now and everybody is coming for me, so it’s about getting better every day, staying consistent, staying on my game and being ready,” Orine said.
Moyer may be even more confident after seeing Orine perform over the last two months.
“Draegen could win state from 106 (pounds) to 165 (pounds) if he wanted to, that’s how good he is,” Moyer said. “At the beginning of the year, I wouldn’t have said that, but now, no one wants to wrestle him.”
And with a refreshed outlook and reignited passion for the sport, Orine may be tougher to beat than ever.
“I’m back, feeling good, wrestling again… I’m happy,” Orine said.
*Class 1 and 2 boys and Class 1 girls state tournament – Feb. 21-22 at Mizzou Arena.
*Class 3 and 4 boys and Class 2 girls state tournament – Feb. 23-24 at Mizzou Arena.