Rama is the reason for the season

Absegami senior Bhavya Rama didn’t win the NJSIAA District 32 title at his 138-pound weight class last Saturday. In fact, depending on your viewpoint, he didn’t even come close to winning the gold medal at 132. He wasn’t named Most Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament and he isn’t getting a bye to the quarterfinals of this week’s Region 8 tournament.

But Rama was by far the biggest winner in Absegami’s gym.

Rama is a four-year member of the Braves’ wrestling team. He has seen varsity action in all four of his seasons. Unlike some Braves of similar levels of experience Rama’s name will not be painted out in the hallway outside the gym for winning 100 matches or winning district, region or state titles. What this kid has done is far beyond anything a paint brush can celebrate.

What colors do you paint pride, character and perseverance?

Rama didn’t win a match during his freshman varsity season. His sophomore season he won 8 matches and lost 26. Actually, two of his credited wins that season were by forfeit. So halfway through his high school career he had won just six varsity matches on the mat. Buffeted by the pandemic winds and a crazy season schedule Rama was winless as a junior last season. Three seasons practicing every day under the sweaty, lung-searing intensity of Shawn Scannell practices and he had six wins on the mat to show for it.

Senior year would be different. It would be better. He would work even harder in the off-season. He would put it all together this time. No doubt about it.

This past December senior four-year Brave Bhavya Rama began his final season by losing his first six matches. Oh and six. Time to bag it? Enough is enough?

Nope.

Rama went 12-8 the remainder of this season. At one point Rama won three matches in a row, lost one and then won four matches in a row. He came up with six big team points for the Braves in their South Jersey Group III quarterfinal win over Mainland and was the third seed in District 32 at 132 pounds.

In Saturday’s district quarterfinals Rama pounded EHT’s Matt Dugan 10-4. Dugan had come into that match with more wins this year, as a sophomore, than Rama had in his entire career prior to this season. In the semifinals Rama shocked many fans and second-seeded Liam Cupit of Ocean City with a 6-3 win that sent him into the finals and under the famous Absegami spotlights shining brightly in the darkened gym.

But really, who needs electricity with a kid like Rama? Some felt he didn’t need the light on over his head, that he was so proud he would light up the place all by himself. Rama lost his match in the finals to a far, far better wrestler who will very likely be a state placewinner. But who cares? That’s not what this is about.

It’s about being mentally tough in the face of overwhelming disappointment and discouraging results over nearly four years. It’s about not quitting when most rational people would have.

Maybe Scannell, a man of few words when discussing important topics, said it best. “That kid, he said of Rama, “has worked his butt off.”