Wrestling
Favorite athlete: Mike Trout
Favorite team: Philadelphia 76ers
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: I once forgot my baseball glove, so I had to use a little kid’s glove, who was sitting in the stands, until my dad came and brought my glove.
Music on iPod: Classical music, opera, classic rock, pop. I listen to everything.
Future plans: I plan on enlisting into the Army National Guard then going to a state school for my post-high school education.
Words to live by: “The greatest glory in living lies not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.” – Nelson Mandela
One goal before turning 30: Becoming an officer in the Army and getting a job in the Army Choir.
One thing people don’t know about me: I want to be an opera singer when I grow older.
By GORDON GLANTZ
Stick around in coaching long enough and you will be able to say you have seen it all.
Just ask Kurt Handel, who has a wrestler – 170-pound competitor and Univest Featured Male Athlete of the Week Joe Haywood – living the double life of a wrestler and key vocalist in the school's choir who is balancing singing lessons for the upcoming district choir.
“Joe took his junior year off from wrestling to focus on Choir,” the Panthers’ coach said. “Joe approached me this fall and said he really wants to wrestle his senior year and would I be able to work around his choir schedule for practice and matches.
“I told him, ‘Let's give it a try.’ Joe has done an excellent job at communicating his weekly schedule to me. If Joe misses practice time, I know he is getting a cardio workout in sometime during the day. Joe just finished his first Marathon! I don't worry too much about his conditioning.”
Still, well, it is not a situation he foresees happening again before he hangs up his whistle.
“I never had such an arrangement with one of my wrestlers in 16 years as a head coach, but I'm happy Joe approached me about wrestling this year,” said Handel. “I know we all benefited in so many ways in having Joe on the team.”
As for Haywood, well, it has been an adventure.
“I just try to balance everything out,” he said. “I’d say I’m holding my own.
“I kind of just map it all out each week. If there is a big event or a big match, I just let my coach or my choir teacher (Jonathan Lechner) know my plans. It has been a total blessing to work with both of them and for them to be so lenient with me as well as with each other.”
The situation turned more surreal when Haywood began singing the National Anthem before matches.
“I love having him sing the National Anthem before each match,” said Handel, who was approached by Heywood about the concept that turned into a ritual.
“That just started this year,” said Haywood. “Before the second home match, I went up to our coach and said, ‘Would you mind?’ I did that one time, but he kept asking me.”
While you would think it would be trash-talk fodder on the mat, that hasn’t been the case.
“No opponent has said anything to me,” said Haywood. “But I know one coach who came up to our coach and said, ‘Hey, is that the same kid who sang the National Anthem?’ I thought that was kind of cool.”
Family Affair
When it comes to examining the many sides of Joe Haywood, it does not go much farther than his immediate family.
“While I try to balance everything, I definitely make music my priority,” he said. “I have been in choirs. My mom (Monica) is a music teacher (at Lehigh Valley Academy), and I have been heavily influenced by her. I have played some instruments, but I just decided to stick with singing.
“It kind of developed as I got older and matured more. I really love classical music, I like Mozart’s music a lot.”
From his father, Michael, there was the interest in sports.
“He has been my most supportive fan,” said Haywood, who began wrestling “going back to kindergarten or first grade” with the Quakertown Youth Club. “He has always been there, pushing me to work harder.”
But the pushing only goes so far.
“He won’t force me into sports that I don’t like,” continued Haywood, who was competing in swimming when he was younger and stuck with football and baseball through middle school before giving them up early in his high school career to focus on wrestling and music.
“My whole family has always pushed me to be the best I can be and showed me that there is no limit on what hard work can get you,” said Haywood, the youngest of Monica and Michael’s brood.
His older sisters – Becky and Rachel -- have been major overall influences, particularly with academics.
“Both of them (made) me want to study,” said Haywood. “They have inspired me to be the best person I could be, to do the best I can at school and have an opportunity of getting into colleges. Because of them, I always knew that I could accomplish anything.”
And what he seeks to accomplish is following the trail blazed by his older brother -- James, a former Quakertown football player -- who chose to enlist in the Army National Guard and then parlay that service to his country into free tuition at a state school.
Haywood, who has already been accepted to Bloomsburg and East Stroudsburg, is eyeing a career in the military, where he hopes to sing in the Army choir.
“My brother went into the National Guard and that is beneficial for college,” said Haywood, adding he enlisted sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
“After next year, I will eventually apply (to college) and the National Guard will pay my tuition,” he said. “I want to keep the military as a career. After 20 years, you get a pension afterwards. Anything could change, but that’s the plan right now.
“Serving my country is such an honor and it builds character, it will teach me responsibility, and it will show me the true value of teamwork and discipline.”
Keeping It Cool
It was Haywood’s sense of all-around perspective that not only led him to give up wrestling for his junior year, but also led him back to the mat as a senior.
“I wanted to take the year off,” he said. “I was prepping to see if I could get into college. I wanted to focus on my grades, and your 11th grade year is the most important for that. It worked out pretty well.
“But I was always pretty set on coming back. I did want to wrestle again in my senior year. It is the most important year for sports.”
Despite battling through a rib injury, Haywood says he is “hanging in there” so far in what will likely be his final year of competitive wrestling.
“It’s not going bad, but it’s not going amazing,” he said. “I think I have gotten way cooler with my wrestling teammates, even though I wasn’t on the team last year.
“It has been pretty difficult to fight through the season with the rib injury, but I'm always optimistic they'll heal. I always show up to practice ready to do as much as my ribs can handle, and sometimes I'll create my own cardio workouts I try when I am not able to wrestle.”
Even though he left the team for a year, Haywood’s healthy rapport with his wrestle-first-and-foremost teammates has been noticed and appreciated.
“Joe is good to have on the team,” said Handel. “He is the guy that is always looking to have fun and keep tense moments as relaxing as possible with his humor. On top of being funny, he is a really tough kid. He has been wrestling with a painful rib injury most of the season.”
Said Haywood: “It is definitely one of my roles, to lay down the mood. If anyone is having a bad day or something, I’m there to cheer them up and laugh. So far, no one has told me to stop or anything, and it’s not like it’s all the time or anything. I have my serious moments.”
