Caldwell Wrestler Bounces Back From Injury, Finds ‘Better’ Version Of Self

CALDWELL, NJ — Caldwell area residents looking for a feel-good sports story can learn something from Dean Caravela.

The James Caldwell High School student had finished in the top eight of his weight class as both a freshman and a sophomore, and was looking forward to his junior year. Recruitment from colleges had begun in earnest. Bucknell, Brown, Columbia and Princeton…all wanted him wrestling at their programs.

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The future looked rosy for the Essex County resident. And then came August 9, 2014.

That day, Caravela was participating in an off-season wrestling tournament at Holy Spirit High School in Absecon. But less than 30 seconds into his match, things went wrong.

“I heard a click in my shoulder and I felt an excruciating pain,” said Caravela. “My arm went limp and I just fell to the ground. I laid there and tried to move my arm but it was just limp. I couldn’t feel it for about thirty seconds until I was finally able to move it on my own.”

At first, Caravela didn’t think much of the injury. But when the pain persisted weeks later, the high school student knew that something wasn’t right. An MRI revealed one of every prospective college athlete’s worst fears: a labrum tear.

And just like that, colleges started losing interest.

When the season was over, Caravela underwent labrum surgery at Skylands Orthopedic in Hackettstown. He then started to undergo physical therapy at Parabolic Performance & Rehab in Montclair.

“Dean’s process had to start much slower than he would have liked to allow his shoulder to properly heal,” said Joseph Myhren, a doctor with Parabolic. “Once cleared to begin further progressions, he began to hit every measurement that we put in front of him: range, strength, stability. His character truly showed when it was time for him to progress into scapular and rotator cuff reflexive stability exercises in order to protect the recently repaired labrum. Whether it was a heavy kettlebell, resisted bear crawls, or something as non-specific as animal flow sequences, he accepted every challenge from our medical team and continued to push toward his return.”

“I was in there five days a week,” Caravela recalled.

As the next wrestling season approached, the high schooler continued his outreach to colleges.

“And that’s when [the U.S.] Army started showing strong interest in me,” said Caravela. “We had some great conversations and Army really started pursuing me as hard as anyone ever had. So I thought, if Army is this interested in me, maybe I’ll send my stuff to the Naval Academy as well. All of the schools got back in touch with me and we set up meetings. Every school had it’s selling points, but none were stronger than Navy. Great academics, good sports, guaranteed job, incredible reputation and I liked their location.”

Caravela finished his senior year with a record of 30-5, placing 4th in his region and had no recurrence of the injury. But more importantly, once again had multiple colleges interested in his wrestling skills.

He eventually settled on the United States Naval Academy, saying that his mother’s comment that she “would be a very proud parent” if he joined was the deciding factor.

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“When I look back at the last two years, getting injured and seeing everything I had worked so hard for slipping out of my reach was really frustrating,” Caravela reflected. “But having to battle back and become a new, better version of myself has given me a renewed amount of confidence to know that I can go from rock bottom to an all-time high… I was able to overcome all of the doubts and now I’m going to a better school then I ever imagined.”

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