One of the best high school wrestlers in the country pays his talent forward

Seth Shumate hit some depressing bumps during a lost year because of COVID, but he found added strength by coaching and mentoring kids.

By Aaron Blankenship | Photos by Jeremiah Webber

Wrestler Seth Shumate routinely scores explosive takedowns and twists opponents into knots before pinning the vast majority of them with relative ease.

The Dublin Coffman senior has won both Division I state tournaments he’s competed in, amassing a 155-4 career high school record while wrestling some of the best competition in the country.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to work with other state champions, but Seth’s got to be the best wrestler I’ve coached when you consider how gifted he is and his accomplishments,” said 10th-year Coffman coach Chance Van Gundy, who's in his 22nd season coaching wrestling in central Ohio. “Seth’s a strong, physical guy, and he’s so athletically gifted that he can do certain things well that most other wrestlers can’t do at all.

“Seth’s been one of the best wrestlers in the nation at his weight class since he’s been here, and he’s always working hard to get better. Wrestling is a grind, and he embraces it.”

Shumate has earned a 32-2 record and placed first in six tournaments while competing at 190 pounds as a senior.

After Coffman’s coaches challenged the Ohio State recruit to see how many takedowns he could score in the Rieman Invitational, held Jan. 29 at Delaware Hayes, Shumate piled up 40 on the way to earning tech fall victories over all four of his opponents.

“Seth’s definitely one of the best high school wrestlers in Ohio high school history, if not the history of high school wrestling across the entire country,” Coffman assistant coach Jeremiah Webber said. “We get him the best competition possible, and then we usually tie his hands behind his back by telling him he can only score in a couple of different ways.

“We do this because it makes him work harder to become better at certain skills that he will need in the future, instead of just getting a quick pin. We want him to be ready to win not only another state title, but to be ready to continue winning once he’s at Ohio State.”

Early riser

While growing up in Galion, Shumate began learning how to wrestle under the tutelage of his father, Mitch, at the age of 4.

Mitch, a 1998 Galion graduate, qualified for the state tournament at 215 pounds his sophomore season.

Seth also excelled at baseball and football for several years, before choosing to wrestle year-round in high school. Seth said training with Webber as part of the Beast Mode Wrestling club the past several years has played a large role in taking his wrestling skills to their current level.

“Seth’s dad and I wrestled together in high school in Galion, and he was a phenomenal athlete, just like his son,” Webber said. “Seth’s always been a freak athlete. When he was 4, he showed up to play T-ball with kids who were 5 and 6 years old, and he was only as tall as the bat in his hands. But Seth stepped up to the plate and boom, hit the ball over the fence. He was the only kid who could do it, and he did it every time. And while we were setting up mats in our gymnasium recently, Seth grabbed a basketball and chucked up a shot from half-court and swished it. That’s the kind of athlete he’s always been.”

Despite his superior athleticism, Shumate has had to overcome some major setbacks along the way.

As a youth, Shumate was a self-described adrenaline junkie, who enjoyed jumping off steep cliffs into a quarry in Marion, as much as he enjoyed fishing and playing sports.

Shumate suffered the first major injury of his life when he accepted a dare to hang off of a railroad trestle bridge, and then fell an estimated 30 feet to the ground, breaking the tibia bone in his right leg.

“I fell when I pulled myself using a tree branch that was dead, and it suddenly broke,” Seth said. “I got up and tried to walk home, but you could see this huge bump that was my bone pushing against my skin, and I went into shock real quick.”

Finding a new strength in Dublin

While his leg healed in a cast, Mitch and Jody Shumate decided to home-school Seth for eighth grade, and then moved their family, including his younger sister, Leah, to Dublin the following year.

“Seth’s parents made a big sacrifice to come to Dublin, where the cost of living is 10 times higher than Galion,” Webber said. “They had to give up their house and family dog to live on a much tighter budget in a two-bedroom apartment for a few years. It was a big culture shock for Seth, too, to move from a small town to a suburb with a much larger school, and he was frustrated and overwhelmed at first.”

However, Shumate quickly bounced back from his injury and made a huge impact during his freshman season at Coffman, piling up a 50-1 record at 195 pounds, including pinning an opponent in a team-record five seconds.

He made history in the Division I state tournament at Ohio State that year by placing first to become the heaviest freshman state champion in the 84-year history of the event.

“The way I look at it, God blessed me with the opportunity of breaking my leg, because it led us moving to Dublin,” Shumate said. “In Galion, I was kind of a jokester who just wanted to play sports and have fun. In Dublin, I’ve found a sense of enjoyment in learning, and I’ve become a well-rounded person.

“Coach Webber has really put me through the wringer to help me jump levels in training over the years, which has made me a lot better. A lot of people took me for granted because I was a freshman, and that put a chip on my shoulder, and I went out there looking to punch people in the mouth.”

Shumate continued his dominance during the offseason, as he went on to win Junior Men’s Freestyle and Greco-Roman titles at 195 pounds in the U.S. Marine Corps Junior Nationals that summer in Fargo, North Dakota, en route to being ranked No. 1 in the nation at his weight class.

After making a verbal commitment to accept a wrestling scholarship from Ohio State two days before returning to school at Coffman, Shumate mowed his way through his competition as a sophomore, earning a 43-0 record.

Turning negatives into positives

Shumate was a massive favorite to defend his state title that winter, but the state tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, destroying his dreams of becoming a four-time state champion and eventually sending him into a state of depression.

While he was unable to train the way he was accustomed to over the following months, Shumate began overeating, and his weight ballooned to 230 pounds.

“Becoming a four-time state champion has been my dream since I was 6 years old, and I had an identity crisis when the chance to win four was taken away from me,” Shumate said. “I had anxiety issues and went into a deep depression because I sacrificed so much to get to this level, and I had to find enjoyment and learn who I was outside of wrestling.

“I moped around the house because there was nothing I could do but eat and play video games.”

However, after watching an inspirational video that Webber sent him, and getting a pep talk from his father, Shumate began training at a high level again and found new sources of enjoyment such as painting. Shumate also more time training and mentoring aspiring young wrestlers through the Little Rocks Wrestling club.

“COVID broke me down mentally and physically, but that sparked my growth in other ways,” Shumate said. “Coaching kids and hanging out with them helped me as much as I was helping them, and I found a lot more enjoyment in wrestling after that.

“Once I snapped out of my depression and stopped feeling sorry for myself, I was able to let go of the pressure I was putting on myself and start to enjoy wrestling again.”

Shumate returned to action with a vengeance his junior season, defeating everyone in his path, until a fluke injury caused him to lose by injury default to DeSales’ Max Shulaw. Shumate was leading the match 4-1 when he tore the meniscus and MCL in his right knee.

“I hit a funky move where my leg got hyperextended to the point that my knee bent the whole wrong way,” Shumate said.

When Shumate limped off the mat, Coffman’s coaches initially feared that he would miss the remainder of the season; but just two weeks later, Shumate returned to action using a completely different style of wrestling.

To the surprise of many, Shumate went undefeated the rest of the way, finishing 30-1 after pinning Delaware’s Clay Ours in 1 minute, 42 seconds in the 195-pound state final.

“We definitely feared that Seth would miss the rest of the season, but he was determined to not miss another state tournament, so he learned to use different attacks that focused on his upper body and protected his knee,” Webber said. “We watched a lot of videos of Russian wrestlers and had deep intellectual practices, and it was amazing how quickly he made those adjustments.

“Seth has phenomenal double-leg takedowns that he could no longer use, so it took away his No. 1 and 2 weapons. It’s like a right-handed person suddenly having to write with their left hand, and doing an excellent job with it.”

College, Olympic goals

After winning his second state title and having his knee surgically repaired, Shumate fulfilled another longtime goal in November when he signed a national letter of intent to wrestle for Ohio State.

“I’ve grown up a Buckeye and didn’t even think about going anywhere else,” Shumate said. “I’m part of what is being called a historical (strong incoming) class at Ohio State, and I want to win individual and team titles as much as I can there.”

Shumate, who was Academic All-Ohio as a junior, has even loftier goals beyond winning Big Ten and national championships, as he is hoping to follow in the footsteps of OSU graduate Kyle Snyder, who captured a gold medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

“I plan on wrestling in the Olympics,” Shumate said. “I still have the newspaper article of Kyle Snyder winning gold, from Aug. 22, 2016, on my wall as motivation. I hope to coach college wrestling, too, and I want to major in business so that I can open an all-purpose training facility to help train young wrestlers in the future.”

But before he graduates from Coffman, Shumate will attempt to capture a third state title and to establish a lasting legacy of success within the Shamrocks’ wrestling program.

“My biggest thing is instilling a work ethic and high standard, both in the wrestling room and academically, because I want my teammates and our entire team to do well,” Shumate said. “I spend a lot of time with our youth wrestlers, because I enjoy hanging out with them and giving back to the sport, and I want to leave a legacy of success here that lasts for many years to come.”