After two straight heartbreaking second-place finishes, this weekend will be the last opportunity for senior All-American Kyle Ott to win the NCAA title at 125 pounds. However, regardless of the outcome this weekend, Ott has already achieved more than anyone could have possibly imagined.

Ott’s saga began as a talented junior wrestler at Wayne High School in Huber Heights, Ohio. He was coming off his second straight state title and had just finished runner-up at High School Nationals.

In the summer after his junior year, Ott discovered a meniscus tear in his knee and underwent surgery to fix it. However, a few days afterwards, Ott’s knee showed abnormal bruising and discoloration. Doctors were shocked to find that the skin above his right knee had blackened and for unknown reasons, died.

“My knee was purple, the swelling wasn’t going down, I was in a lot of pain,” Ott said. “I got my knee drained a week after that, and we realized that there was a lot of skin damage in my knee. I was devastated after that, and I wasn’t really thinking about wrestling, but whether or not I would be able to walk afterwards.”

The outlook was grim, as doctors told Ott that it could possibly end his wrestling career and prevent him from doing simple things such as running. Ott, however, found Dr. R. Michael Johnson, a plastic surgeon, who was willing to try a World War II technique so Ott could wrestle again. It called for a series of surgeries that included major skin grafts and replacements that would be spread out over a five-month period.

“You can’t imagine what our whole family went through, you never knew from one surgery to another whether it was going to be successful,” said Kyle’s mom, Sherry Ott. “Kyle laid in a bed with two IV lines, one with morphine because he was in so much pain. As a parent it was so tough to see him in continuous pain and to not be able to do anything about it. I can’t tell you how many times I cried.”

One of the surgeries included pinching skin off of his upper thigh to replace the dead skin on the knee. It was a period of intense physical rehabilitation that included 10 surgeries that ended in November of his senior year.

“One thing that really helped me out was reading Lance Armstrong’s book,” said Ott. “But it was hard for me to feel sorry about myself when I was recovering in the burn unit, because my knee was nothing compared to what the people around me were going through.”

Ott still had hopes of wrestling and winning his third state title his senior year, but more obstacles were thrown his way. He was banned from wrestling at Wayne High School after the school found out about the possible risks he would be putting himself in by wrestling. Ott was forced to make a tough decision, but he decided to leave Wayne in the middle of his senior year to go to St. Paris Graham High school.

“That was tough, too, because nobody really knew what was going on,” Sherry said. “People would say horrible things, especially when he switched schools. He was being sent hateful emails by parents in the new school division and the newspaper would write terrible things about him. He went from golden boy to enemy No.1.”

Before the surgeries, Ott had received a flood of offers from Division-I programs, but they soon dried up. However, Illinois coach Mark Johnson still saw potential in Ott.

“I felt that because of his competitive desire he was going to make it in college,” Johson said. “He doesn’t let adversity keep him down. He does everything that we ask him to do. He’s a very talented athlete, got a great work ethic, and he’s also a great student. “

Ott justified Johnson’s decision as he won his third-straight national title and astonishingly also won High School Nationals.

“I was so proud, because he basically wrestled on one leg,” Sherry said. “He had to completely change his repertoire because of the lack of the range his motion in his knee. It’s like learning how to walk again, and to win the high school nationals was amazing.”

During Ott’s red-shirt year at Illinois, his knee began to flare up as a result of scar tissue that developed to the size of a golf ball, and once again he underwent surgery. Ott recovered and the next year went on to earn the starting job at 125 pounds, going 18-6 and was ranked 10th in the country, when he tore knee cartilage against Michigan. Ott underwent his 12th knee surgery to repair the cartilage tear, but once again he came back.

In 2003-2004, Ott went 25-6 during the year, and went all the way to the NCAA finals to earn All-American honors. Last year, Ott went 21-4, and went to the NCAA finals again, but lost a closely contested 2-0 decision to Indiana’s Joe Dubuque, and earned All-American honors for the second straight year.

“There’s 320 athletes at the NCAA’s and only 20 make it to the finals, so for him to get to the NCAA finals twice is a great accomplishment in itself,” Johnson said. “A lot of our guys and even me have learned from Kyle because the hand that he was dealt wasn’t fair, but he just goes on to do his work.”

In his final year, Ott still undergoes therapy and the constant pain is a reminder of what he’s been through. Ott’s work ethic and dedication have earned him a place as a leader on a team with national title expectations.

“Kyle is the silent leader,” fellow senior Pete Friedl said. “He works hard and lets his actions do the talking and so far they’ve done a lot. He has this chair that he brings with him on road meets and he is up at 5 o’clock in the morning, before anyone is even awake, on this chair just so he could bend his knee before a match. He’s got so much on his plate but you never hear the kid complain, and he’s always positive. It really is something that makes you say, ‘Wow.'”

Ott, a kinesiology major, will continue to see hospital rooms in his future, not in the same fashion though, as he plans to go to medical school to become a surgeon. If his wrestling career is any indication, Ott has shown that he can withstand the rigors of medical school, along with everything else that life throws his way.

“Kyle’s always been driven and a hard worker and I thought if anybody could make it back, he could,” Sherry said. ” It’s a testament to the kind of person he is and what a strong individual he is. I think that he should be an inspiration to kids; it shows you that if you hang in, there’s always a possibility of coming back.”