Reason to Smile

The name has proven magnetic, the ideal blend of good times and simple, two-syllable pronunciation. Take last wrestling season when individuals the kid had never seen, much less met, were chanting it as if they had known him his entire life. "Chi-co. Chi-co. Chi-co." Understandable behavior. Really, how many Chicos does the average human being run into over the course of his or her lifetime, especially ones as athletically gifted as the state's reigning champion in the heavyweight division? Perry Meridian senior Chico Adams packs 265 muscle-dominated pounds into his 5-foot-11 1/2 (he claims 5-11 3/4) frame. He's squatted as much as 510 pounds, benched 360 and can carry a 30-pound shoulder chip onto the mat with him at a moment's notice - qualities responsible for Adams finishing his junior season with a 53-0 record. But to paint a portrait of Adams using a single brush - the he's-a-great-athlete brush - is to do the young man a disservice. Away from competition, Adams possesses a 1,000-watt personality and a smile just waiting to throw light on someone's dark mood. "For some reason Chico is an icon. People in the state just started taking him in as last season's state tournament went on," said 12th-year Perry Meridian coach Jim Tonte. "He's got this aura about him and at first he didn't know how to handle it. Chico's a big teddy bear, but you don't want to get on his bad side." "Chico is a lot of things rolled up into one. He's very competitive and you won't find many heavyweights as fleet a foot as he is," continues Tonte. "He's very strong, but he wrestles like a middleweight. He's an intelligent kid who just has an uncanny wrestling intelligence. I don't know if I've ever coached a smarter wrestler." Or one who has made such drastically large strides over such a short period of time. Flash back to 2003 and Adams, one month into his eighth-grade school year in the Indianapolis Public Schools system, is in the process of transferring to Perry Meridian from Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS). He decides to wrestle competitively for the first time in his young life, and the results are a few area codes from fabulous. "We knew Chico when he was an eighth-grader and he was having a hard time grasping it," remembers Tonte, who, according to Adams, has since squeezed every possible drop of inspiration out of that story. "Every time the coaches talk to us about wrestling in the offseason, they bring up my name," said Adams, laughing. "They say, 'Chico was horrible, but by being committed in the offseason, he's gotten so much better.' " The official 180-degree turn took place following Adams' freshman season when he literally threw himself into the sport, including a trip to wrestling-crazed Iowa to compete in the USA Folkstyle Nationals. Such dedication combined with the opportunity to repeatedly hone one's skills against outstanding competition vaulted Adams to a level no one in their right mind saw coming 18 months earlier. "Chico is fast. About as fast as me," says senior Brian Vest, Perry Meridian's outstanding 130-pound wrestler who advanced to the state finals the past two seasons as a 119-pounder. "He's trying moves a heavyweight probably shouldn't try, but that's why he's a state champion." The only thing that sounds better to Adams is two-time state champion, though his postseason challenges are a ways off as the 2008 state tournament throws out its first half-nelson Jan. 26 (the Falcons compete in the Decatur Central Sectional) with the finals scheduled for Feb. 15-16 inside Conseco Fieldhouse. Perhaps history does repeat itself and the heavyweight blessed with the agility and mat smarts of someone half his size takes us on the kind of ride only the special ones can. All together now: "Chi-co. Chi-co. Chi-co."