Wrestling: On the mat, Everin rocks

Everin’s success has largely been due to his relentless dedication to the sport. This season, he has made wrestling the focus of his life.

“If you really want to improve and get to the top, wrestling isn’t just something you can do in your spare time,” Everin said. “It’s more like a lifestyle. You need to always be thinking about it and make every decision with the questions, ‘Is this going to help me get better? Is this going to improve me?’ in mind.”

Head coach Chris Ayres has enjoyed watching Everin’s progress over the last three years.

“Marty’s first year, I think he wasn’t focused, to be perfectly honest with you,” Ayres said. “He really changed a whole lot. He’s probably the most improved kid that I’ve ever coached. Some kids need to change, and most often they don’t. He needed to change, and he did it to such a drastic degree. It’s really amazing.”

Everin sought the help of his coaches at every opportunity.

“Our coaches are the only All-Americans in the room, the only people that have had such high success at this level,” Everin said.

“He’s probably the hardest worker on the team,” Ayres said. “He deserves to be really good and deserves to have a great finish to the year.”

Everin has also been a steady source of leadership this season. As the only senior in the starting lineup, he has set the bar for his younger teammates.

“A coach can take a team so far,” Ayres said. “But what you really need [is] a guy who carries your message. The best thing that Marty provides is that he bought in, and he’s basically leading by example. He’s not a leader by talking, really. He just basically says, ‘Here’s what I’m doing, come join me if you want to.’ ”

“The first thing is, ‘Are you doing the right things?’ ” Everin said. “I made sure I was always doing the right things. And then, ‘Are you having some success?’ So doing the right things and having some success, there’s a sense of respect when I talk to the guys and I have something to fall back on. I can say, ‘Look, I’ve been doing this and this has been working … If you guys want to get in line, this is the way it’s going to work.’ Also, maturity-wise, it helps being older. I’ve done everything wrong just about every way you could, and I’ve got a vast past to speak on.’”

Everin’s season has been good overall. Nearly all of his losses have come against nationally ranked opponents, and most of those losses have been by only a few points. But there is no time to dwell on what could have been. With five dual meets ahead and the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) championships looming, Everin’s goals are clear.

“At the end of last year, the coaches brought us in and asked us what our goals are for this year,” Everin said. “I wanted to win an EIWA title and be an All-American. Moving forward, those are absolutely still the goals.”

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In high school, he had brief stints running cross country and playing water polo. But the focus was always on wrestling. Princeton jumped out at Everin as the best fit for a number of reasons, the wrestler noted. He said he felt that former Princeton coach Michael New was similar to his high school coach, adding that he was also attracted by the opportunity to start early at a Division I program.

During his first two years at Princeton, the wrestling team had a different identity.

“I didn’t think that wrestling was the focal point of everybody on the team,” Everin said. “We had some people with pretty big academic endeavors and other stuff they were doing outside of school. I don’t want to say people didn’t work hard, but it was different. It [wrestling] wasn’t treated as much like most Division I programs are.”

Princeton has had a disappointing lack of success during those years.

“That’s kind of hard: To do this sport and put so much time and effort into it and not have much success,” Everin said. “There’s not always a lot of fun to get out of it.”

By the end of Everin’s sophomore season, the Tigers had hit bottom. Nearly the entire team was injured, and the program was almost dissolved. Practice became optional, and the team began to resemble a club team.

In Everin’s junior year, Ayres was hired. The mindset changed with the team refocused on wrestling.

Everin injured his knee early in his third season and was forced to return home for the year.

“That was about as low as it got,” Everin said.

The season Everin missed was a tough one, as Ayres’ philosophy took time to germinate. Upon returning last year for his second junior year, Everin has witnessed a slow but steady turnaround.

His continued success will set the standard for years to come.