For a while there, Bryson Page’s personality was just gone. Almost blank. One day he was normal. The next, he did not recognize his mom.
The effects of a concussion suffered in a football game took him out of school for a little more than a month.
Doctors told him his days as an athlete were done.
But that makes this week very special for Page, a senior wrestler for Union High School.
Weeks of therapy, neck exercises and memory drills helped Page return to action.
On Friday, Page is set to step onto the biggest stage of high school wrestling in the state.
While Page will be focusing on his opponent, he is sure to at least take in the moment at the state championships, where he is one of the favorites to place in the Class 4A 195-pound weight class.
“The next second could be your last, so you might as well savor what you’ve got,” Page said.
Page brings a 39-1 record to the Tacoma Dome with a school-record 30 pins. This coming from a wrestler who has never seen any success at state.
A severe neck injury suffered in Day 1 of Mat Classic ended his sophomore season. An illness at the wrong time — late in the season — left him weak as a junior, and he did not qualify for state.
As a senior, Page has been on a mission.
Interestingly, he believes that concussion in Week 1 of the football season is the motivating factor for his winning wrestling.
He pinned every opponent on his way to a Clark County championship, he took home a title at Pacific Coast Championships in December, and he cruised to a district title.
His only loss came last week at regionals to Blake McPherson of Arlington, who expects to be playing football for Army in the fall. If those two meet again this week, Page believes he will have a shot to avenge that loss.
But really, Page has already earned his victory. Just being in Tacoma as a participant, not as a spectator.
“I don’t remember any of the Bothell game,” Page said, that Week 1 football contest. “I woke up the next day and didn’t know what happened.”
His mother, Gimi Larsen, said: “To have his personality just disappear was really scary. And he just never got better.”
He returned to school the next week, wearing sunglasses.
“I tried to tough it out a couple days, but I just couldn’t do it,” he said.
The headaches kept getting more intense. His doctor advised him to stay home, to avoid light.
A student who was taking four Advanced Placement classes at the time, his grades began to suffer. He tried to study from home, but there were too many days he could not concentrate.
“It was awful, and my grades were awful,” Page said.
But he listened to his doctors.
“I just rested at home and did everything I could to keep my stress level down,” Page said.
He noticed some improvement, and he was responding to treatment. Doctors taught him techniques to get his eyes to focus on something, to pretty much retrain the brain. He used memory games, too.
“They helped me heal a ton. They helped get rid of my headaches,” Page said.
He was even cleared to resume athletics. That first day, Page just took off on a run. A ton of energy just waiting to be released. The goal was to be ready for the final games of the football season.
“I really needed to start thinking about my life and if it was really worth it,” Page said. “I decided that it was.”
His mother supported her son, albeit with some trepidation.
“I saw him get laid out at that first game. I wasn’t too thrilled with him going back,” Larsen said. “They gradually brought him back, though.”
Larsen said she was impressed with the caution the Union coaches used in regard to her son. From an assistant coach taking his helmet away after the injury so Page would not be tempted to return to the game to slowly bringing him back into playing shape after doctors cleared Page.
“It was a really hard decision,” Larsen said. “But how do you tell a kid not to go back with all of his friends and not finish his senior year?”
Page had to get his studies back on track in order to practice, then play.
Page returned to football practice and eventually played a bit in Week 8. He got more playing time the next week in the regular-season finale, then helped Union win two playoff games before the team lost in the state quarterfinals. Page had no health issues in those final weeks.
Instead, he just has great memories of how his football career ended.
“I had played with all those guys since I was 9 or 10. That was always my dream, to make a playoff run with those guys,” Page said. “I owed it to myself and the team.”
It was that attitude that sent him back into the wrestling room as soon as football ended.
“I don’t even know where that fortitude comes from,” Larsen said. “He’s the same with his school work as he is with sports. He just digs down inside himself.”
Those grades that were slipping? They were back to A’s and B’s by the end of the semester.
Page has been accepted to the University of Oregon where he hopes to be a junior in the fall after taking so many Advanced Placement classes in high school. He wants to major in psychology, go to law school, and become an FBI agent.
So while his senior year of high school started with a downer, he is on an emotional high going into state wrestling. He also never realized how much he cared for this sport until this season.
“I’m a football player, but I’ve turned into a wrestler,” he said. “I used to wrestle to stay in shape for football. Now I’m a wrestler who plays football.”
He enjoys the team aspect of wrestling, as well, which can be difficult to describe to those who do not understand how wrestling teams operate.
Page said an individual state championship would be a thrill, but his main goal is to help the Titans finish in the top four as a team at state, to take home a trophy for the first time in the program’s history.
“We have a really special team,” he said. “We have a lot of guys who work harder than anyone in the state.”
Page is one of those dedicated to hard work, overcoming obstacles. He also believes the obstacles have made him the person, the wrestler, he is today.
“You savor it quite a bit more,” he said. “I probably wouldn’t have done as well in wrestling this season if I didn’t get beat up in football. I respect everyone who has been injured. We know, this is it. I have to give it all I’ve got to accomplish my goals.”
With his health, and his commitment to athletics and studies, this is a weekend of celebration for Bryson Page. His body and mind are in this together.
