Kody Rashed’s season could have been smoother.
The Concord High senior faced adversity in a variety of forms. The wrestling program had been unable to get its gears turning in the offseason thanks to the pandemic. The lack of offseason training left everyone feeling a little uneasy and disjointed from routine. When the season did start, COVID-19 reared its ugly head once more and shut down the program in its first week.
“I think the kids got pretty discouraged,” said Concord coach Ham Munnell. “We got shut down the first week of competition. And I think people were like, ‘Oh, this is gonna be like this again.’ ”
Despite the adversity, Rashed persevered and capped his senior season with a win over a longtime rival at the NHIAA Meet of Champions. His campaign and final performance made it clear: Kody Rashed is the Concord Monitor wrestler of the year.
“It’s just exciting,” said Rashed. “I’m happy to win it. It’s nice to have it back here in Concord again.”
After the first shutdown, CHS wrestling faced tournament cancellations, and further positive tests made the whole season a stop-start affair.
“It definitely impacted us as a team but, like, it wasn’t like a huge impact.” said Rashed.
Rashed underplayed the affect of the pandemic, but Munnell shone a light on just how strange the season was for the senior: “I think it was an odd year. He got sick and then we didn’t go to the Keene tournament because that got canceled. And so things got canceled, and he didn’t have a full match until he wrestled the Timberlane kid.”
The Timberlane kid is Dom Pallaria. The two faced off multiple times in tournaments and the regular season duals, but it all came to a head during the Division I state championship. With the 195-pounds title on the line, nothing seemed to go right for Rashed.
“He didn’t do well when he wrestled in the state finals. He kind of just over-wrestled. He tried to do too much,” said Munnell.
Munnell placed blame for the loss on the lack of live matches Rashed wrestled in the season. The long-time coach said the season’s challenges stunted Rashed’s growth and forced him to try and get up to speed in the middle of a state championship bout. Given the context, the result felt almost inevitable.
But the great thing about sports is that there’s always time for redemption. The Meet of Champions came one week after Rashed’s D-I championship loss. And it gave him one last chance to leave a lasting mark on his senior season.
The week of absorbing the defeat honed Rashed’s mindset and technique. He went over everything he did wrong in preparation. As the tournament progressed, the collision course was clear for all to see. Rashed and top-seeded Pallaria would once again duke it out on the mat for a title.
This time, it all went right.
“He did a great job in that final,” said Munnell. “And he just let the match happen and was patient.”
“I just think I had a better mindset coming into that match the second time,” said Rashed.
Patience paid off and Rashed pinned Pallaria to snatch the title and earn a spot at New Englands. It was a blissful moment at the top, the culmination of four years of work and the grit to pick himself up off the mat and come back stronger.
“The joy (of wrestling) is definitely in winning. You win big matches, and it’s the most fun part of the sport,” said Rashed.
Now comes the hard part for Rashed: leaving it all behind. The season has ended and so, too, has his high school wrestling career. Rashed reflected on his time on the mat and thanked his friends and family for supporting him as well as his coaches for relentlessly pushing him to get better.
“It’s sad to like think that my wrestling career is over. But it’s nice that it ended with me as a state champ and winning this award. It means a lot,” said Rashed.