At the beginning of the season, Evan Reed struggled with his overall confidence. Yet, the junior was considered one of the leaders of a young Catasauqua wrestling team. Jonathan Reed, his father and head coach, has watched son flourish, and anticipated him to play a big role this winter.

Unfortunately, Reed’s promising season was cut short with a knee injury in mid-December. He had an overall 5-4 record with four pins and a major decision, and an overall record of 49-34.

Reed was able to lament on what was, and what could have been, as he was forced to miss the recently-concluded wrestling postseason.

“In the beginning of the season, my confidence was down,” reflected Reed. “We had a hard beginning of the season. Each year, we normally face Saucon (Valley) first.”

The Rough Riders began the season with a 15th-place finish in their own tournament before they endured a 71-6 decision to Saucon Valley and were edged by Palisades, 36-35. They then participated in the Chuck Spring Memorial Duals, where Reed suffered his season-ending injury.

Reed also expects to miss some of the upcoming baseball season.

“I started to get some confidence back,” added Reed. “But then I had my injury, and that hurt. It wasn’t the greatest timing for this because I’m missing my winter and spring sports.”

His injury has given him some time to reflect, however.

“I realized I took it for granted, and now I have one more year,” stated Reed. “I know I have to keep working, and I have to do something next year. Looking back, I could have done more to better myself”

The elder Reed is glad his son made the move to wrestling.

“He obviously had his choice of whatever sports he wanted to play, but, luckily for me, he gravitated to wrestling,” said the head coach. “Maybe it had to do with me ‘pushing’ him a little to the wrestling mats, or maybe due to him being a little smaller than the other kids due to being born at 27 weeks. Whatever it was, he just kind of started to really enjoy the sport of wrestling and started getting a little better and better at it every year.”

From the start, the younger Reed progressed along the way.

“It has been fun to watch him develop into a better and better wrestler every year which is why it was so hard to find out he was going to have season-ending knee surgery the week before Christmas,” offered his father. “The only thing that made it a little easier was that he is only a junior, so he will have his senior year to compete with a healthy knee.

“Evan has always been a leader in the wrestling room. Maybe it has to do with me being in the room coaching. He’s not a super vocal person in the room, but leads more by his work ethic. Drilling hard, wrestling live hard, trying to always be the first person to finish when we are sprinting and conditioning. Other kids see that and try to match his work out philosophy.”

The younger Reed is rehabbing twice a week, and he expects to start running and jumping in April. Through the years, he has appreciated his father’s guidance.

“He’s definitely been pushing me hard, and I could have done more stuff that he told me to do, like go to more offseason stuff,” said Reed of his father. “But he’s always there to help me get better, and I’m more than thankful.”

Coach Reed is confident his son will get back on track.

“Evan has always been held to a little higher standard than the other kids in the room and it’s not always fair for him, but he has done a tremendous job with that added little pressure,” said the coach. “I’m very anxious to see how he can respond to the adversity of the knee surgery next year with his last year of high school wrestling.

“But I think he will use this as motivation for his senior year and have his best season yet and achieve some of his goals he has set for himself.”