Custers makes her stand
There’s the school of hard knocks and then there’s the next level — the Brock wrestling room.
For 18-year-old Mikayla Custers, it’s chance to learn from and wrestle against world and Olympic medalists.
“If you would have seen me earlier this year, it was a little rough,” the Denis Morris graduate said, with a smile. “I’m starting to develop the skill level that I need to be in the room and it is starting to catch up with my athletic abilities.”
The fifth-place finisher at last year’s Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championships admits it hasn’t all been smooth sailing.
“Obviously I still have my good and bad days, but now my good days are out weighing my bad days.”
She agrees that bad days were really bad.
“There was one day a girl went to do an arm drag on me and I gave her my back and I just gave up,” she said. “I wasn’t mentally on the mat. My body was physically there but I wasn’t mentally there.
“In order for me to compete at the varsity level, I need to be mentally there.”
That being said, she feels she has made strides as a wrestler, both mentally and physically.
“It’s just being able to keep up with the girls that are in the room,” Custers said. “We have world and Olympic medalists and it’s having the mindset that even though they are beating on me every single day, maybe I score a point one day.
“And from that one point, I’ll be able to score more points and make even bigger strides.”
Custers’ goal is to crack the roster of the Brock University women’s wrestling team. That is a gargantuan task considering the Badger women have won seven straight Canadian university (U Sports) team titles.
“I think it is hard from the standpoint that I know what to expect, but it is a lot of motivation for me,” she said. “Every day, I tell myself that I have this practice and I need to go to that practice and I have to do weights to be able to compete.
“I always want to do the best that I can even on days like today (Tuesday) where I am really tired and would like to be sleeping.”
Her goal is to make the Brock women’s team in time for next year’s Ontario University Athletics championships.
Getting there is a joy ride for Custers.
“It’s the family atmosphere in the room,” she said. “The girls and guys are very supportive and welcoming and the coaches as well.”
Custers would come to Brock and train while she was still attending Denis Morris, but the difference between now and then is night and day.
“The biggest adjustment is the workload,” she said. “I am out twice a day every single day.”
The next big competition for Custers is this weekend’s Ontario junior championships in London. She had a forgettable experience competing at the Ontario juvenile championships two years ago and has much higher expectations this time around.
“After the last couple of practices, I am really looking forward to it,” she said. “I was moving well on the mat.”
Her goal is simple.
“I want a medal.”
Brock head coach Marty Calder has been impressed with Custers.
“I see glimpses of great potential in her,” he said. “She does things and is picking up on things that we teach and she has shown great progress already.
“That’s a good indicator for us and she is a nice project to take on.”
Calder and the other Brock coaches love the challenges of making wrestlers out of athletes who maybe don’t have the greatest wrestling pedigrees or resumes.
“There is ability there, but she is going to have to take her lumps, for sure,” he said. “But she has the right attitude for it.”
