Sewell pursuing 3rd state title

Tom and Mikey Sewell do not talk much about the state wrestling tournament, rarely mentioning it by name, never discussing an outcome. Far better, they say, to focus on the preparation and the details — things they can control — than some fairy-tale finish.

And so their story line proceeds quietly, hurtling faster and faster toward its inevitable conclusion at the Tacoma Dome, where the questions of this father-son quest finally will be answered.

Can Mikey Sewell, already the most decorated wrestler in the history of Inglemoor High School, win a third consecutive Class 4A state championship?

Will Tom Sewell, the Vikings' longtime and soon-to-be-retired coach, see his 24 seasons of service culminate with a perfect send-off from his son?

By Saturday night, the final day of Mat Classic, everybody should know.

The annual two-day tournament for all classifications begins tomorrow at 10 a.m. at the Tacoma Dome.

"It's funny that you're talking about the state tournament," Tom said the other day. "We don't even talk about that. That's just not something that we deal with. We just talk about getting in better shape and working on technique."

Those are two things Mikey has apparently mastered, at least at the high-school level. In three years, he has lost only three times, boasting a career record of 106-3. He has never lost on the mat to an in-state opponent (his only in-state defeat came last year, via disqualification). And with one more title this weekend, he will have completed a perfect three-year reign as a conference, regional and state champion at 140, 152 and 160 pounds, respectively.

No other wrestler in Inglemoor history has come close to accomplishing that.

Perhaps that's fitting, though, because the name Sewell has become synonymous with the Vikings' program. Mikey's brother, Paul, now wrestling at Columbia, also competed for Inglemoor, twice placing at state. And Tom has been a pillar of consistency since becoming head coach more than two decades ago.

"Tom came in and he was kind of this throwback," recalled Inglemoor athletic director Frank Naish, a high-school and college classmate of Sewell's. "It was the way you would think of wrestling in the Big Ten or something. That was an eye-opener for those kids. But they bought into it, and it got successful."

So successful that in Sewell's 24 seasons, the Vikings have hung 14 KingCo Conference banners and compiled a dual-meet record of 261-51-1.

Tom said he's leaving for one of the very reasons he stayed so long — family. He and his wife, Connie, always have been close to their boys and would like to be able to watch them wrestle in college. Paul, a junior, has one more year, while Mikey is weighing options at Columbia, Northwestern and Virginia.

"I think it's a good time to get a transition going in life," said Tom, a high-school history teacher. "I'd like a little bit of balance, you know?"

To a certain extent, though, being a Sewell has always meant being a wrestler. Ask Mikey for his earliest wrestling memory and he goes all the way back to when he was 5 or 6 years old, when his dad used to have team parties at the house. The guys would come over and clear all the furniture out of the living room to wrestle, often throwing Mikey around with them.

"That's like my first memory," Mikey said, "just getting tossed around like a rag doll."

His mother, Connie, goes even further back, to a video she has of her two sons taken one Easter. While Paul, in the foreground, tells the story of the Easter Bunny, Mikey, in the background, still in diapers, pounds away at a giant blow-up rabbit.

"That's just Mike," Connie said. "He woke up wired."

After trying hockey for several years, Mikey dedicated himself to wrestling before his ninth-grade season. He progressed quickly, starting his sophomore year at Inglemoor at 140 pounds, posting a 37-1 record and setting a precedent for things to come.

He also played football, where that native intensity served him well as a rush end. Every play, he flew off the corner, his primary job being to bust up anything in the backfield. So difficult was he to handle that conference coaches voted him first-team All-KingCo 4A on the defensive line last fall. This, for a kid who stands 5 feet 7, and at the time, weighed 174 pounds.

"At one point, we looked at him as a linebacker," said Naish, also the school's football coach. "But he was just so much more effective with his hair on fire — coming. It was kind of that wrestling mentality."

It's a mentality that has been refined after years on the mat. Mikey and Tom agree that Mikey is a more versatile wrestler today than he was as a sophomore. He has more methods of attack, a better feel for improvisation, and that same natural quickness he had as a 140-pounder.

"This year, I'm trying to grind a little bit more on top," he said, "get turns, get pins, that sort of thing."

He said he's also not feeling as much pressure, even with a 35-0 record and a bulls'-eye on his back.

Sitting in a chair near his fireplace, Tom Sewell was asked about his memories of Mikey's first state tournament. He glanced over at his son, who was seated in a chair next to him, and smiled.

"I looked up at the clock and there was 10 seconds left and it was counting down," Tom said. "I could see him, and I think he realized that he was going to be a state champion. To look in his eyes, that was pretty cool. Then looking up and seeing my wife in the stands, and my mom, and our family. Everyone was there. It was something you will never forget."

So how will it end this time?

Nobody wants to say, but maybe, if everything goes as planned, just like it started.

Matt Peterson: 206-515-5536 or mpeterson@seattletimes.com