Taking Solace

Jim Makovsky

"I wasn't the best technician in amateur wrestling. But I was strong, had great conditioning, and a hard head. Nobody could break me." Brock Lesnar, former NCAA wrestling and UFC heavyweight champion.

You can see it in his eyes.  Minnesota State coach Jim Makovsky thrives on working in the wrestling room with his team.  He'd played football and wrestled at Valley City State (N.D.) as a student-athlete prior to embarking on his now lengthy coaching career and the years of drilling with the boys have started to take its toll.  Makovsky, who's in his 18th year with the Maverick wrestling program, recently had his right hip replaced and although the pain from the procedure is undoubtedly tremendous, you just know that not being able to work like he normally would with his team is something he's struggling that pains him even more.

MavBlog:  "I suppose this hip-replacement thing isn't something that just cropped up."

Makovsky:  "(laughing) No, no.  It's been chronic for a while and have known since 2004 that I was going to have to get this done eventually."

MavBlog: "Can you describe what you had done and how's the recovery going?"

Makovsky: "I had what's called a Birmingham Hip Resurfacing Procedure.  Basically it's a pretty new procedure for people that are younger and active and need hip replacement.   I was pretty excited to have this rather than the other procedure which involves a total hip replacement.  You retain more bone with this process."

"The recovery is going o.k.  It's probably been mentally harder than physically.  I'm not good at sitting around.  I like being around the program with the comaraderie you have with the guys.  I like the work part of it and being around positive people.  I started rehab right away and I'm at the point now where it's more of a workout pain and feels pretty good."

MavBlog: "Where does it go from here?"

Makosky:  "I'm going to listen to my doctors and physical therapists.  Try not to push too much, which I'm not good at.  I'm not going to to our meet at UNI this weekend and that was a tough decision.  But long term it will be good for me."

MavBlog:  "What are your thoughts on the team this year and have you had a chance to be back into the room this week?"

Mavovsky:  "It's tough, because we're relatively inexperienced and don't have that national championship meet experience you like to see.  But I think we have a chance to be good.  We won't really know what we have until we get into the second half of the season.   But, I love our guys.  I'm not sure if they were happy to see me or not when I came into the room today.  They gave me some grief about my cane, but that's the nature of our guys.  Just another experience along the way."

Currently ranked seventh in the nation, Minnesota State is at the UNI Open in Cedar Falls, Iowa this weekend.

It's great to be a Maverick.