The 2016 Senior Perspectives is the 11th in a series of annual collections. Senior captains and representatives of teams at Harvard have been invited to contribute viewpoints based on personal experience from both their senior seasons and full varsity careers at Harvard.

For a complete listing of 2016 Senior Perspectives, click here.

Michael Mocco, Wrestling
Hometown: Benardsville, N.J.
Concentration: History
House Affiliation: Dunster

Half of my life up to this point has been dominated by wrestling. My commitment has elevated me to the top of podiums and driven me down into the mat, making effort on my part synonymous with sacrifice. Thinking it would make me great, competitive wrestling was the sport I idolized as a child (everything else was just playing).

I learned early on that if I wanted to be a successful wrestler there was no off-season. To get my hand raised I needed to do all of the right things, all the time. Eat right. Sleep right. Practice right. Compete right.

I needed to fight when my vision was blurred from impact, fatigue or dehydration. Many times I needed to fight just to breathe. Whether there was acidic bile or the iron taste of blood in my mouth, I couldn't stop. I would constantly face superior opponents and my truth was “never quit.” This truth defined my relationship with the sport. Soon enough wrestling culture taught me to value and take any chance to pit myself against someone better. As a central tenant of our martial art, wrestlers know that you only get better after a loss. But as I matured into a stronger and faster athlete, the risks of losing began to play out with higher stakes.

Early on in my collegiate career I met with serious injury. This was paired with the academic struggle we all know too well. As an underclassmen, I questioned my methods while constantly recovering in the training room and dreaming of getting my hand raised. It took a perspective from the technical aspect of wrestling to get me back on the mat.

During a match, openings come and go in fractions of a second. If you hesitate, or doubt, you'll certainly miss the opportunity for a takedown (at the high level you only get a handful of these). The decision and following execution of a shot is a risk, but also the only way to win. With this in mind, I decided to take every shot as long as the threat of injury was low. Though it didn't put me on the NCAA podium, this insight re-framed how I approach opportunity in my life.
Wrestling at Harvard beat me down but each time Harvard wrestling built me back up. During my crisis of faith, the men on the wrestling team were there for support. Our team is eclectic but we all score highly by any measure of hard work. My teammates are an impressive bunch: scientists, writers, musicians, politicians, and longboarders. We are comprised of a variety of specialities and interests. This small team showed me the value of helping others, the benefit of cooperation and the vice of sloth.

My values, morals and principles were reshaped by my coaches, teammates and time spent with Harvard wrestling. I bought into the “Harvard Way”. It didn't make me the athlete I had once hoped to be, but it made me the man I never knew I could be.

I now cherish the process oriented mentality, the BCA curve, and the reward of self improvement. As a history concentrator it is easy for me to see how a wrestling tradition has been valued across cultures and throughout time. I would like my senior perspective to contextualize my experience with Harvard wrestling in the great narrative of the sport. I see myself engaged in the same effort as the Greeks thousands of years before me. Thinking back, my last home match will forever define my career. In the Greek sense, that match was a tragedy. My consolation is that tragedies make for the best heroes. #PostWorkoutBeer

Thank you Matt Whalen, Jay Weiss, JP O'Connor, Muzaffar Abdurakhmanov, and to the men that came before me and those that will come after.