Stockmaster wrestling as an underdog in battle of his life

CASTALIA — The music fades and the sound of feet running for spots along the "learning wall" fills the Margaretta wrestling room.A teachable moment is about to occur, and for the next few minutes all eyes are on Polar Bears assistant coach Caleb Stockmaster.At 22, Stockmaster's size, physicality and knowledge show through in the room full of virtual newbies to the sport. He's demonstrating an escape move from the bottom position, and he's explaining the move in the same terminology as a longtime coach. He moves his opponent like a rag doll, looking every part the 174-pound NCAA Division I wrestler he is.Stockmaster is in his element, doing something he loves while sharing his knowledge. But this transition from athlete to coach wasn't planned. It's a dream job that has come too soon.Stockmaster should be an hour east at Cleveland State University, enjoying his best college season yet. Instead, his opponent is one he can't look in the eye or hit with a two-leg takedown. It's cancer. The stage IV type that's the hardest to beat.Stockmaster has esophageal cancer, a rare, aggressive form of cancer that hits fewer than 200,000 U.S. patients each year, according to the Mayo Clinic. It's mostly asymptomatic until relatively late in the disease process. Stockmaster looks and feels like a healthy college athlete, except for occasional bouts with severe fatigue and the side effects of his chemotherapy treatments."I'm on my sixth round of chemo at the moment, and as of now, everything has gone well," Stockmaster said. "I'll get neuropathy in my fingers from time to time, just little changes like that. I've actually been putting on more weight, I'm up to around 200 pounds at the moment."But I only imagine it's going to get slowly worse after awhile."What's wrong?The date in July escapes him, but Stockmaster knows the exact move he was making when the stinger in his back hit him during a summer workout."i was in on a shot and it happened right away. It felt like I tweaked something, but I finished the practice " he said. "I practiced with it for about a month and it was slowly getting worse to a point where I was having a hard time walking. I had to use one of those walkers with rollers to get around."After two weeks to a month of using the walker, I realized this is only getting worse and worse. So they put me on muscle relaxers for a little bit, and it was helping me get around, but it was still bad. The pain was very intense."Stockmaster came home in August. In early September he underwent a bone biopsy and spent four days in the hospital. By the end of the month, walking was a near-impossible task. "I couldn't stand up, i just kind of leaned over," he said. "By the time I needed surgery, I couldn't even do that without lots of help."A gurney had to be used to get Stockmaster from his mother's car into the doctor's office to find out the results of his bone biopsy. Then the doctor dropped a bombshell.A tumor was the culprit, and only after a 7 1/2-hour surgery during which Stockamster's entire L2 vertebrae was removed did his doctors realize that his back wasn't the primary location or origin for this particular form of the cancer. After more tests, it was found that the cancerous cells had metastasized (traveled) through his blood and lymph system and had originated in his esophagus."Immediately my mind went to the worst possible places," Stockmaster recalled. "Wrestling was gone. My season was gone. Then I was worried I was going to die from this."Esophageal cancer is the seventh-most common cause of cancer death among men, according to cancer.net. The five-year survival rate after diagnosis is less than 50 percent for those who only have the cancer in their esophagus. For those in Stockmaster's predicament — when it's discovered at the stage IV phase — the survival rate is about 3 percent."A week or two after the surgery I was able to stand up and walk again," Stockmaster said. "That was a really nice moment."It's frustrating because I know everything is in the hands of my doctors. I can't really do anything extra besides what they tell me to do. But at the same time, they've been super positive about it with me because the cancer is staying right in the middle of my body in my esophagus, lymph node and spine. They aren't extremely worried because it hasn't spread all over to like my kidneys and other areas."It makes me feel like I have more of a chance and it's not getting as bad as it possibly could be. But it's still not very good. All I can do is fight."The starting lineupSuccess on the wrestling mat didn't come immediately for Stockmaster.He didn't start in the sport until he was in junior high and failed to wrestle beyond the sectional tournament as a sophomore. That disappointment fueled him to be a state qualifier as a junior. As a senior he went a step further, placing eighth at 160 pounds at the Division III tournament, compiling a 49-4 record.Prior to graduating, Stockmaster signed a national letter of intent to wrestle at Kent State University, where he was being recruited by Golden Flashes assistant coach Josh Moore, now Stockmaster's head coach at CSU."We saw him as being a guy that would fill the weight classes we need," Moore said. "I really saw him as a guy who could improve and develop. From everyone we had talked to, we'd heard he was a hard-working kid and a guy that really, really loved the sport. He was going to use wrestling to get an education."Stockmaster won 11 matches while competing as an unattached collegian in 2015-16. He went 6-6 in the fall of 2016 for the Golden Flashes before transferring to CSU at the beginning of the 2017 calendar year. He was 5-2 while competing unattached at 184 pounds, prior to going 21-13 last season."Everything was starting to click," Stockmaster said. "Looking at it now, I think if I had a little more confidence, I'd of had a little better year. "Coming into this season, I was excited because I had 20-plus wins the previous season and I was going to be in the starting lineup. I lost by only a couple points to a guy that made it to the round of 12 at the NCAA tournament, so I had high hopes of making the national tournament."Moore was named head coach at Cleveland State in May 2018 after four years as an assistant. He was looking forward to inserting Stockmaster into the starting lineup, and is impressed by his work ethic."I can honestly say Caleb probably put in more work than anybody else over the summertime, getting stronger and getting in the weight room," Moore said. "He was really dedicated to just improving and developing as a wrestler."Moore was as shocked as anyone when he heard that Stockmaster had cancer."His mother kept me in the loop and wanted me to share things with the team," he said. "I think at first it was hard for Caleb to accept. He's started to open up more about it and I think he knows he has to listen to people and do what the doctors tell him."Stockmaster still has an apartment in Cleveland with his teammates and he'll spend nights there from time to time. Four of his teammates are Edison graduates, including senior Evan Cheek, redshirt junior Jacob Worthington, redshirt freshman Brady Barnett and freshman Dylan Burns. "I try to stay around them, so it's not awkward," Stockmaster said. Barnett said many of the Vikings drove to Sandusky last week to support Stockmaster at a event that raised funds to help cover his medical expenses. They also gave their teammate a special Christmas gift."The team has been very supportive of him," Barnett said. "For Christmas we got him a pair of custom Cleveland State wrestling shoes that are pretty awesome."Moore is impressed with the way his team has rallied behind Stockmaster."He'll come up every other week or so and be with the team, spend the night with the guys and such," the coach said. "He's been coming to a few of our home matches. So we do everything we can to keep in touch with him and let him know we're here for him and we're in the fight with him."One of Stockmaster's former Kent State teammates sat with him for five hours prior to his surgery and was at his first few round of chemo treatments to keep him company."It's a long, boring process," Stockmaster said. "It's five hours of just sitting there doing not much anything."Stockmaster has a chemo port where he also gets 46 more hours of treatment at home for each round.Coach StockMargaretta wrestling coach Ron Chapman didn't know what to think about having a stage IV cancer patient on his staff."He was a little worried at first," Stockmaster said. "There's still times he'll worry when I'm on the mat with the kids, but I'll let him know if I'm having rough days from treatment where I have to take it easy and rest."Chapman said he "couldn't ask for a better guy to be helping out."Stockmaster's mother, Veronica Spayd, calls the opportunity a blessing."I was worried about him doing that at first," she said. "I didn't know if a kid would get too aggressive with him, and he's got his chemo port. But he explained to the kids what's going on. He showed them his port, they all know that he has cancer."Unlike the years when he was in school, the Polar Bears have mostly an inexperienced roster, aside from senior Kaden Keegan — a district qualifier in 2018. "It's really nice to get out of the house and stay active," Stockmaster said. "I enjoy coming over here and hanging out with the guys on the team for a bit. It's tough to tell if my coaching is rubbing off on them since they're all so young. "I do enjoy beating up on them, though, and teaching them some of the newer things I've seen that maybe the longtime coaches haven't seen. It's a nice mix."Even if it's just for one season, it's a role in which others know he'll excel."His goal is to get back to CSU next year and we'd love to have him back," Moore said. "But even if he can't come back to wrestle at the Division I level, it'd be great to see him be able to stay on the mat and help younger wrestlers in their development."As long as he can stay in wrestling in some capacity long term, that's the goal we all want to see."Margaretta wrestling assistant coach Caleb Stockmaster walks through the wrestling room during practice on Jan. 18, 2019, in Castalia.Margaretta wrestling assistant coach Caleb Stockmaster, right, practices wrestling with Kaden Keegan in Castalia on Jan. 18, 2019.Margaretta wrestling assistant coach Caleb Stockmaster, left, laughs with assistant coach Cameron Gessner and head coach Ron Chapman during Margaretta wrestling practice on Jan. 18, 2019.Cleveland State's Caleb Stockmaster stares down his 174-pound opponent during a match last season. The 2015 Margaretta graduate is back home in Castalia battling stage IV esophageal cancer and assisting with his old high school team.Cleveland State's Caleb Stockmaster, right, looks to make a move on an opponent during a 174-pound wrestling match last season. Stockmaster is back home in Castalia fighting stage IV esophageal cancer and working with his old high school team.Margaretta's Caleb Stockmaster returns a kick during a football game against St. Mary Central Catholic on Oct. 25, 2014. Stockmaster, who now wrestles at Cleveland State University, excelled at wrestling and was a two-time state qualifier for the Polar Bears. Margaretta wrestling assistant coach Caleb Stockmaster, left, practices with senior Kaden Keegan on Jan. 18, 2019, in Castalia.Margaretta wrestling assistant coach Caleb Stockmaster, right, talks with assistant coach Cameron Gessner during Margaretta wrestling practice in Castalia on Jan. 18, 2019.Margaretta wrestlers sit along the learning wall as assistant coach Caleb Stockmaster and senior Kaden Keegan show them a move to practice on Jan. 18, 2019.