West Roxbury's Paul Healy, Jr. Assumes Wrestling Captaincy at Roxbury Latin

Paul Healy, Jr. still remembers when he was cut from the basketball team in the seventh grade.

"Of course at first I was really disappointed," he said prior to practice with the school's wrestling team. "Kind of sad, because I really did like basketball at the time."

But with quick resolve, the West Roxbury resident quickly turned the page and went out for the wrestling team. Though Healy did not find immediate success on the mat, RL coach - and National Wrestling Hall of Fame inductee - Steve Ward said he "stuck with it" and now, as a senior, is one of the team's four captains.

Healy said the school's philosophies of "being a generalist" and "not specializing in any one activity" influenced his decision to give the sport a try.

"After basketball, I could have said, 'Well I like baseball, I'm just going to play baseball,'" he said. "But the attitude here that you should try different activities, sports, anything you want to do, and just try it and see if you like it, that directly influenced me to try wrestling."

That same philosophy has seen Healy, a senior, take on a number of roles across the school. He's involved with the school's Model UN, Chorus, Classics Club, Bible Study Group, Habitat for Humanity, amongst other organizations.

"My life would be drastically different if I hadn't attended RL," he said.

Healy wrestles almost year-round at this point, attending clubs in the summer and fall seasons. In the spring, he plays baseball. He will wrestle between the 125- and 130-lb. weight classes this winter and hopes to see the team win the ISL's dual meet season.

Healy credits much of his success to Ward, who in 35 seasons at the program's helm has won 12 ISL titles and 371 meets.

"He'll take kids who aren't great athletes and turn them into great wrestlers," Healy said.

But Ward credits Healy and Healy alone for his success.

"It's not coaching," he said. "It's kids with character who stick with it. Wrestling's a sport where if you stick with it, you'll be successful."

Outside of RL, Healy has involved himself in a mentor role with the sport that he said has become his favorite. He is currently serving, for a second year, as the assistant coach for the Parkway Wrestling Club, which offers K-8 students in the area the opportunity to learn to wrestle and compete in tournaments. PWC head coach Bob Bligh said Healy has been "just fantastic" in the role.

Healy is an honors student and is looking at a number of top-tier colleges as options for next year, including Georgetown, College of the Holy Cross, Dartmouth, Harvard, Tufts, Bowdoin, and Amherst. He doesn't expect to wrestle past this year, but he's open to the possibility. He's not quite sure, but he has interest in majoring in classics.

Options and possibility and uncertainty. They sound kind of like the principles that got him as far as he has so far, don't they?