After Inspiring Return, Bartlett Marches On
March 27, 2020
By Doug Donnelly
Special for Second Half
TEMPERANCE – Just before the Temperance Bedford wrestling team was to enter the arena at Kalamazoo’s Wings Event Center for opening ceremonies of the MHSAA Team Finals this winter, head coach Kevin Vogel told Connor Bartlett he had a job for him.
“I had no idea what it was,” Bartlett said. “Then, he called me up to the front and handed me the flag.”
Bartlett had been chosen to usher in the event. It was a moving tribute to the 17-year-old Bedford athlete who, about a year ago, wasn’t sure he would still be alive.
“It was a great honor,” Bartlett said. “I had never been to the state finals before. I didn’t know anything about the ceremony.
“We were the first team to enter the arena. They had me carrying the flag for the City of Kalamazoo. I led my team and all of the wrestlers into the arena. It was amazing. It’s something I’ll never forget. To be at the forefront of my team and lead them was fantastic.”
Bartlett was the perfect choice to lead Bedford into its first trip to Finals weekend since 2016. The senior wrestler missed his junior season on the mat while he battled testicular carcinoma. At times, he was forced to make peace with the possibility that the cancer might win.
“I always kept that in mind – that I wanted to get back on the mat. That was a big source of inspiration and something I wanted,” he said.
Bartlett went to Ottawa Lake Whiteford until his freshman year, when his family moved into neighboring Bedford Township. He had never wrestled before but had heard about Bedford’s storied wrestling program.
“My brother had started wrestling a year or two before me,” he said. “I had always heard about Bedford’s wrestling program. My freshman year came, and I played football at Bedford. I thought I would wrestle as a way to stay in shape for football. I ended up loving wrestling so much I decided to give up football and concentrate on wrestling.”
That first year on the mat, he said, there was a huge learning curve.
“My first year was pretty rough,” he said. “I only won a single match all year.”
His sophomore year saw rapid improvement, enough that he won a JV tournament.
“I do not consider myself a natural at wrestling,” he said. “It was 100-percent hard work. Actually, most of it was the great coaches that Bedford has.”
He anticipated an even more improved season as a junior, but that had to be put on hold. Near the end of his sophomore school year, Bartlett was watching TV at home when the right side of his body went numb. It felt, to him, like it fell asleep. He didn’t think much of it until a short time later he was at school and it happened again. This time, it was his entire body that went numb.
“The paramedics came,” he said. “I knew something was wrong.”
After a series of tests, doctors soon discovered Bartlett had testicular carcinoma. If that wasn’t enough bad news, doctors told Bartlett it was stage four.
“It had spread to my lungs, my brain and part of my kidney,” he said.
He began chemotherapy treatments almost immediately. He had tumors removed, went through more treatments and had a bone marrow transplant that kept him hospitalized for about 40 days. It was during that time that Vogel brought the Bedford wrestling team on a surprise visit to see him at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor. The visit had a major impact on him, Bartlett said.
“That was pretty big,” he said. “I had so much support.”
While doctors continued treatments, scans and tests, Bartlett never lost faith.
“It was pretty severe,” he said. “The doctors told me everything. I didn’t want them to hold anything back.
“Throughout the process I was at peace. I was calm. I had 100-percent faith if I died, I would wake up in heaven. I had no doubts about that.”
While things looked bleak at times, Bartlett pressed on, determined. The treatments worked. Finally, the last spot of cancer on his lungs went away, and the cancer remains in remission. He’s had a couple of follow-up tests and is cancer-free now.
He rejoined the wrestling team this year. Bartlett had lost between 20-30 pounds but was able to get back to his wrestling weight for the season.
“I had done some stuff, but I had just started to lift and run around the time the season started,” Bartlett said. “Once I got used to it, I was just working out with the team. It was an ongoing thing. It felt good to get back into the swing of things. I was done with that portion of my life.”
It was about midseason that he began to feel like he was back in wrestling shape. He ended the season with a 13-14 record.
“It was better than I could have expected,” Bartlett said.
Now that wrestling season is complete, Bartlett is focused on the next stage in life. He wants to go to college, study nursing, and become a missionary through the church in Lambertville where his dad, Brett Bartlett, is pastor. He wants to take the message of God to other countries. A couple of years ago he went on a mission trip to Hungary and helped put on what amounted to a vacation Bible school for children. “It was awesome seeing all of these kids accept Christ,” he said. “It was great to be part of that.”
Bartlett is grateful for his church, family and teammates who stuck with him through the entire ordeal. His dad, mom (Kim) and three siblings were always by his side.
“They were with me 100 percent,” he said. “I always had someone by my bedside. They gave up part of their lives to be with me.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Temperance Bedford’s Connor Bartlett leads his team into the Wings Event Center arena before the Division 1 Team Quarterfinals on Feb. 28. (Middle) Bartlett prepares to carry the City of Kalamazoo flag during the procession. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
2-Time Champion Langewicz Paving Historic Path Amid Growing Spotlight
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
December 20, 2023
Sky Langewicz knows she’s part of something special.
The Algonac junior started her high school career the same year the MHSAA Girls Wrestling Finals debuted. And as she’s brought home a pair of Finals titles to cap her first two years, she’s also watched the sport grow rapidly around her.
“There were other girls state tournaments, so I always knew I could do that,” Langewicz said. “But I’m really thankful my freshman year was the first year. … It’s kind of cool to be part of it all happening. It happened so fast. I went from being one of the only girls in youth wrestling, now there are women’s high school teams around me. It’s cool to see all these girls joining. It’s really cool to be part of it.”
Langewicz is not just part of it – she’s one of the best, not only in the state, but the nation in a sport that’s booming. She’s ranked No. 11 in the nation at 110 pounds by FloWrestling and has built up an impressive resume over her first two seasons.
Her two Finals titles – at 105 and 110 pounds – are joined by a pair of MUSAW Freestyle state championships. During her sophomore year, she won the Michigan Grappler Fall Classic and placed fourth in the USAW Central Regional Championships. She also placed second in the Macomb County Invitational and third in the Blue Water Area Conference championships, both boys tournaments.
She’s never lost a girls high school match, and this season, she’s off to a 6-3 start at 113 pounds, with all her matches coming against boys. Two of her three losses came to unbeaten wrestlers.
Most of her matches are still wrestled against boys, and she’s OK with that. She was 42-5 a year ago against the boys – 14-0 against girls – and her freshman year she was torn on whether to enter the boys or the girls MHSAA Tournament before ultimately deciding to become part of history.
“That was the big question,” said Langewicz, who was 19-0 against girls as a freshman. “That wasn’t completely my decision, but I thought it was better to win it in the girls than to be a boys state placer.”
Both of Langewicz’s Finals titles finished with wins against Gaylord’s Sunni LaFond. Langewicz won 5-3 in the 2023 Finals, and 3-0 in 2022.
She isn’t sure what weight class she will eventually wind up at for this year’s tournament, but seeing LaFond, who is also a junior, is certainly a real possibility.
“I think it’s pretty cool to have that rivalry,” Langewicz said. “It’s a pretty big part of wrestling, to have a rivalry like that.”
A girls rivalry is fairly new for Langewicz, as she’s been competing against the boys her entire life. She played quarterback on a boys football team in third grade, and in her first youth wrestling season, mostly against boys, she went 15-3.
“It was pretty quick,” Algonac coach Brian Ranger said of when he knew Langewicz could be special. “I knew if I could just point her in the right direction, and do what I can here locally, she had the ability. It was just a matter of making it happen.”
While Clawson’s Katlyn Pizzo, a two-time MHSAA Finals qualifier and 2017 placer, is the one girl Langewicz remembers watching compete when she was younger, Langewicz’s older brothers really sparked her interest in the sport.
“I always went to their tournaments and always thought it was fun,” she said. “I was already involved in other sports, football was one of those, and those boys were my friends, so I wanted to be part of it.”
Now, however, Langewicz is giving girls in Algonac and around the state someone to look up to as their interest in the sport grows. Among them is Ranger’s daughter, Emma, a third grader in Algonac’s youth program.
That’s not lost on Langewicz.
“I feel like I have a lot of responsibility with that,” she said. “Knowing that I have a lot of girls, even in Algonac, there are so many that look up to me, and so many that tell me they started wrestling because they saw me.”
As Langewicz handles the duties of being a role model, she’s also chasing her own dreams on the mat and juggling decisions about her future.
As a junior, what happens after high school is still an open question. But it’s not just where Langewicz will go, but if she will wrestle at all.
She’s undecided on that, currently, as even though the number of women’s collegiate wrestling programs is growing, it’s still relatively small. That means finding the right athletic and academic fit is tougher, and Langewicz – who has spoken with multiple colleges – currently wants to become a chiropractor.
Whether or not she chooses to wrestle in college, she has a chance to become part of an exclusive club.
Thanks to great timing – and great wrestling – Langewicz has a chance to become one of the first four-time girls MHSAA Individual Finals champions. Both her and Fowlerville’s Margaret Buurma are on pace through two years.
“That’s the vision,” Ranger said. “She’s good enough, she just has to believe in herself. Now that she’s done it a couple times, she knows that she’s good enough. There are so many factors – being healthy, having great training partners in the room. She does a lot in spring and summer. We’re excited for her to have a chance at No. 3 this year, then hopefully there’s a chance to win four.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Algonac’s Sky Langewicz, left, wrestles Gaylord’s Sunni LaFond during last season’s Individual Finals at Ford Field. (Middle) Langewicz’s arm is raised in victory. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)