Ozog concludes career with OFSAA silver
Seth Ozog summed up his Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations wrestling championships experience in six words.
“I enjoyed it. It was fun,” the 12B student at E.L. Crossley said.
The 18-year-old St. Catharines resident opened the recent championships in Hamilton with a bye and then ended up wrestling two matches on each day of the competition. When the meet was over, Ozog was wearing a silver medal for his performance in the 83-kilogram division.
“It was good. That is for sure,” he said of the championship match.
Ozog has made a steady progression at OFSAA. This year’s silver followed a bronze medal in 2023 and a sixth-place result in his first trip to the provincial championship.
“The matches were tougher than last year. It was way better competition. It is so many years after COVID and people are starting to come back in and wrestle again,” he said. “It died off pretty good because of COVID.”
The Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association champion had a goal of winning OFSAA gold in his final year of wrestling but isn’t disappointed he fell just short.
“I was expecting to do well and I just went out and did my best. The outcome is what it is.”
The OFSAA meet represents his last wrestling competition. He will be starting the paramedic program at the Ontario College of Health and Technology on April 25.
He is planning to stay involved in the sport.
“I will be dropping my two brothers off and I will stay and coach.”
He feels the lessons he learned as an athlete will help him as a coach.
“Definitely the commitment. I will be able to tell how much I can push them.”
His favourite memories of wrestling will be the travel.
Ozog started playing baseball and then followed his younger brother, Heath, into the sport of wrestling. He then played hockey before deciding to focus on wrestling. He competed for about nine or 10 years and is a former provincial youth champion.
Ozog already knows what he will do to continue to fuel his competitive fires.
“It will be tough but fishing will definitely help. I am going to be doing a few bass fishing tournaments this year and I may try and hit some walleye tournaments on Lake Erie. I am friends with the (wrestling) coaches too and when we go out fishing we do some friendly competitions here and there. And I have two brothers who I can goof around with if I need to.”
One of his wrestling skills will translate to fishing.
“Patience. It takes a lot of patience. If your lure is not working and you want to change it right away, you keep going with it until it works. It is the same with wrestling.”
Brock Junior Badgers coach Ryan Weicker can’t say enough about Ozog.
“He is just one of those guys who is so talented technically. He lost his final at OFSAA and was disappointed but he had a really tough opponent and he had three really good matches to get to the final,” he said. “We are really proud of what he did. We are excited that he wants to stick around and help coach next year.”
