Dr. Phillips wrestling’s Tahj Glemaud continues to improve

DR. PHILLIPS  Moving to Florida from New York as a freshman, Tahj Glemaud didn’t even have wrestling on his radar when he arrived at Dr. Phillips High — in New York, he’d been a football player.

But, when Panthers wrestling coach and teacher John Miller encouraged the sizable teen to give wrestling a try, he obliged. After all, Glemaud figured, he always had enjoyed watching WWE wrestling as a kid with favorites such as The Undertaker and John Cena.

It took only one practice for the then-sophomore to learn that varsity wrestling was a whole different sport from what he’d seen on television.

“It was real different — I thought it was going to be like WWE the first time I came in,” Glemaud said.

Still, though it wasn’t what he thought it would be, he still quickly grew fond of the sport.

“He fell in love with it when he started understanding the skills and strategies and techniques that had to be done,” Miller said.

Glemaud’s sophomore year hardly hinted at what the future would have in store. Now a senior, Glemaud is Dr. Phillips’ No. 1 at heavyweight (285-plus pounds) and is hoping to return to the state tournament where, as a junior, he went 3-2 and nearly placed.

It’s a far cry from his sophomore year, when Glemaud wrestled at the junior varsity level and largely underachieved. Going into his junior year, Glemaud wasn’t expected to make that leap to varsity yet. 

When the wrestler Miller had pegged as the Panthers’ heavyweight (Colby Meeks) graduated early to enroll for the spring at the college where he would play football, Glemaud was thrust into varsity wrestling.

“Tahj had to step up — to step into our lineup and be a varsity wrestler,” Miller said. “He had to work on some things that, as a big guy, he wasn’t used to.”

Glemaud’s first season at varsity was one defined by gradual improvement. Early in the season, Miller said Glemaud was consistently wrestling in close matches as he continued to learn the craft. Glemaud lost several matches in overtime and double-overtime. He developed a rival in West Orange’s Ish Hollis, a senior at the time. 

Hollis was one of the region’s top heavyweights and, because of district and Metro Conference alignments, the two grapplers met several times. Hollis won each of those meetings — until the last one.

“He pushed me to my limit, and one time, I stood up and I won,” Glemaud said.

From that victory, Glemaud was on a roll and advanced to the state tournament. Over the course of the season, he’d become a different wrestler.

“He walked into the state tournament like he’d been there forever,” Miller recalled.

In the off-season, Glemaud wrestled at the club level for Orange County Wrestling. He worked out and bulked up to 278 pounds before leaning back down to 262. Last summer, he won gold at the AAU Scholastic Duals at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.

So far in his senior year this winter, Glemaud has won every match. It’s almost hard to believe Glemaud, who says, “Nothing is possible is without God,” has evolved into such a fierce competitor on the mat when, off it, he is generally seen as a friendly and polite young man.

“He’s like a little teddy bear; off the mat, he’s the nicest kid you want to be around,” Miller said. “(On the mat) he just turns into something else.”

Glemaud and the Dr. Phillips wrestling team will be in action this weekend at a tournament at Lyman High School in Longwood.

Contact Steven Ryzewski at [email protected].