By Pat Welter

The heat is turned up and so is the intensity – witnessing a NC State wrestling practice is something you won’t soon forget. Experiencing it is something that connects this team for life.

“I describe the culture as like a brotherhood,” redshirt junior wrestler Isaac Trumble said. “I’d use that word because we are always there for each other and got each other’s backs.”

As Trumble faces off against a teammate and secures a takedown, Wolfpack head coach Pat Popolizio paces the room motivating through constructive criticism.

“Work, work, work, keep the pressure on him, keep the pressure on him,” Popolizio said calmly and directly.

Popolizio is the patriarch of this program.

“You get in the heat of the battle with the work these guys do in that room. It builds a bond that is like nothing else these guys are going to see in their lifetime,” Popolizio said.

Popolizio has coached the Wolfpack for 13 years and has won six straight ACC championships.

“We work really hard from day one to set the foundation for our culture,” Popolizio said.

The practice ends with a grueling series of timed conditioning drills – from weighted medicine ball throws, to pull ups, pushups and resistence bands.

If you can survive this practice, you can survive almost anything. It’s a lesson they’ve learned from the father and son observing their practice from the corner – Scott Van Almen and 14-year-old Vince.

Vince wrestles on this same mat with the youth Wolfpack wrestling club.

“We’ll train in there, sometimes we’ll have NC State guys come in and coach some of the practices,” Vince explained. “It’s pretty cool.”

In 2020 he started a match with an opponent who didn’t play by the rules.

“It was during the COVID season,” Vince explained. “We were practicing in some restaurant, and I got a bloody nose and it just wouldn’t stop.”

“It was like a faucet, the blood was just streaming out,” Scott Van Almen said. “Eventually it stopped. He goes back to practice. Three days later he gets diagnosed with leukemia. The brakes get applied with two feet when something like that happens to a family.”

As Vince wrestled with his treatment, the non-profit Team Impact helped connect him with NC State.

“Team Impact, they bring someone in who is going through something,” Wolfpack graduate senior wrestler Jakob Camacho said. “Essentially we just try to bring them into our family and make them feel special. Give them a little bit of that hope that they give us.”

Eight months into Vince’s treatment, the Van Almen’s started the InVINCEable Foundation to help other families fighting pediatric cancer through financial and emotional support. Over the last two years the foundation has helped 29 families and donated over $135,000.

“Pediatric cancer not only kills children, but it devastates families,” Scott said. “Due to the duration that you have to treat that child and the all– hands-on-deck from the parents. We just saw a massive need there.”

NC State wrestling has been there to help support Vince and spread the word about the InVINCEable Foundation every step of the way.

“Our guys got to know Vince and the adversity he’s dealing with. I think it puts it all in perspective,” Popolizio said. “Stay positive like Vince has done, and staying relentless in his overall perspective in life. I think that’s carried over and given us a good eye opener experience.”

In May of 2023 Vince finished his cancer treatment only to learn he’d relapsed in November of 2024.

“The best thing you can do is just live in the moment and realize that right now I’m still alive and I’m fine,” Vince said. “Whatever you’re doing, if you’re doing something fun in the moment, just be in that moment.”

Vince’s story is encapsulated by the Rudyard Kipling quote that is written on the wall outside NC State’s wrestling room. “For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.”

“We’ve got the brotherhood,” Trumble said. “We’ve got a pack of guys behind him, we’ve got a pack behind the guys on the team, we’ve got a pack of guys behind Vince and we’re there fighting for him every single day.”

“I wouldn’t trade any of it, you’ve got to take the good with the bad,” Scott said. “Would you ever want a cancer diagnosis for your child? The answer is no. But I think as you face it there are lessons to come on the backend. All adversity, I don’t care what it is, there are lessons and opportunities to get better. I think what it’s done is it’s enhanced us as human beings to a level we would have never fathomed we could have been.”

Source: wralsportsfan.com