Normally, Gryphon senior wrestler Chandler Phillips would wake up Saturday morning still fuming over losing a wrestling match the previous evening. Phillips has been a fierce competitor on the mat since his first match six years ago at Edwards Middle.
Rocky Mount teacher and Gryphon wrestling and baseball supporter P.R. Ford tagged Chandler early in his freshman wrestling season as "Pitbull" because of his relentless and fierce competitive style.
Phillips had lost his second match at the State Tournament on a controversial call by the referee on the mat. He was pretty steamy when he came back into the stands to sit with his parents and former Gryphon teammates Francisco Alfaro and Guy Williamson, according to his dad.
"As usual, Chandler didn't complain about the call, but he was pretty mad. His windpipe was pretty sore and he was coughing for 20 minutes from the kid choking him," said the elder Phillips.
When Chandler arrived at the Coliseum Saturday morning, his dad expected to see him still in a sour mood. But that wasn't the case. He donned a home made T-shirt with RM Rock-N-Roll Express on the front, his and teammate J.K. Williamson's names on the back (made by yours truly) then made his way down to the mat Williamson would be wrestling on.
When returning to the seats directly behind his parents after the Williamson match, Chandler told the story of his swimming adventure the night before.
He and Janicento went down to the Hotel's indoor pool to take a dip and relax a little on Friday evening. Other than three young children, they had the pool to themselves.
One of the children, a boy of around 5 or 6 years old, went underwater near where Chandler was at in the 5 foot end of the pool. Chandler said the kids could swim pretty good, so he didn't think anything of it. Until the boy popped up gasping for breath, barely able to get a "help" out of his mouth before he went back under.
The boy pushed off the bottom of the pool and popped up again, this time flailing in the water before quickly going down again. Chandler realized that this boy was in trouble and went under to get him.
Chander pulled the boy to the top of the water and brought him over to the side of the pool, all while the parents were in a conversation with themselves, never seeing what was going on.
That Saturday morning, while telling the story to his parents, Chandler's lost wrestling match from the night before never came up. With a look of satisfaction on his face, he told his mom and dad, "You know, I saved some little kid's life last night in the pool. That's a pretty good feeling. I feel really good."
After suffering a heartbreaking loss in Friday night's match that ended his high school wrestling career, he made no mention of it Saturday morning.
He made no mention during his telling of the story that he got no thank you from the parents of the boy.
Just the satisfaction that he was in the right place at the right time to give help to someone who desperately needed it.
Much more satisfying than winning a wrestling match.
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