Down River

By John Lipez

Headlines Tell the Story:
There was this from The Record on February 13 in 2017: “Marsteller Sentenced to Seven Years Probation.” And this over the weekend from penn.live: “Ex-Fentanyl Addict Makes Remarkable Comeback to Make USA Wrestling World Championship Team.”

Yep, same guy, Chance Marsteller, an acclaimed wrestler from as soon as he first put on a singlet, a standout in the sport, particularly at the high school level, but then the demons. Yes, the demons hit the Lock Haven University graduate when he first went away to college, off to Oklahoma State in faraway Stillwater, Oklahoma, a long, long way from his rural southcentral Pennsylvania home.

Between Marsteller’s graduation from Kennard-Dale High School to his stunning Saturdaay win over former Olympic champion Jordan Burroughs there was a lot, success on the mat, travails off the mat. But Marsteller persevered to the point that he is now a member of the 2023 USA World team.

From Stillwater to Lock Haven and a few stops afterwards, he’s had some challenging battles off the mat.
After he won last weekend, he didn’t hide from what he had to overcome:

“I want to let somebody know out there that things are obtainable, and you can change your life. I don’t know many people who were addicted to the things I was and go full-circle and turn around and be able to make the World Team after. It’s hard for me to say, hard to tell the full story, but I don’t know many people that were addicted to Oxy and fentanyl and heroine and go make the World Team.

“I always say, I wish if somebody out there would have been able to share that story, maybe I would have been able to stop sooner. Maybe I would have known it was obtainable sooner, change it around sooner. That being said, I want that for somebody else. I want somebody to know, no matter what you go through, it’s obtainable at all levels of life.”

What made this feel-good story even more compelling is the role that his LHU coaches played in his life’s resurrection. And they, head Bald Eagle coach Scott Moore and assistants Ronnie Perry and Rob Weikel, were in Newark, NJ on Saturday to share in Marsteller’s accomplishment. Think they were happy and proud? Just look at the social media picture on page B1 of this print issue, the shot taken just after the win.

If you followed the Marsteller story, you know this turn-around almost didn’t happen. That Record story from 2017 detailed how Marsteller, then 21 years-old, had run afoul of the law while attending LHU in August of 2016, based on his involvement in a series of incidents at Evergreen Commons and the Lock Haven Hospital emergency room.

At that 2017 sentencing, Judge Michael Salisbury accepted a plea agreement from District Attorney Dave Strouse; its terms included seven years of probation and 350 hours of community service. And in a prophetic comment, Judge Salisbury told Marsteller he did not want to see him in front of him again, calling the sentence “a one-time deal” that could have been up to 20 years in prison.

The judge said he was encouraged that Marsteller had completed an in-patient rehabilitation program and had the opportunity to be back at Lock Haven University.

That’s where the LHU coaching staff played such a significant role in the Marsteller turn-around. Coach Moore and staff provided the small school, caring environment that served Marsteller well as he returned to wrestling after sitting out a year and again became a successful amateur wrestler.

The Marsteller story is a sobering one, what drugs can do, the havoc they cause, the lives derailed, sometimes lost. At one point, Marsteller told an interviewer, he woke every day, “truly believing that I was going to die.”

At this point, everything points to Marsteller’s biggest win of all, straightening out his life. Wins on the mat are great, but pale in comparison to his drug-free, demon-free accomplishment. Keep it going, Chance, from your fans and followers back in Lock Haven!