Mark Adams Memorial
Mark Adams Classic More Than Wrestling
Christmas Eve…A lot of wrestling matches were won and lost yesterday, and a short-handed Imp squad squeaked out a tournament win over a stout St Stephen’s squad, but the real story of the Mark Adams Classic was found in the relative quiet of the back gym entryway just off the main mat area. It seemed the natural place for wrestlers just coming out on the losing end of the score to seek a bit of solitude. You’d see them in a quiet corner away from the human traffic, back against the wall, head down, the swell of exertion and tears being choked back, even as their shoulders heaved to let them burst forth. Alone was what they needed. Time alone to shed frustration, self-doubt. Perhaps a time to quietly cry a little where no one could see. They would sit like that for a while, regroup, and sooner or later the head would come back up, just like it always does with good wrestlers. That’s when they would meet Mark Adams….
They would notice, in another relatively quiet area not far away, a table and display just in front of the trophy case. The display had a solitude and dignity all its’ own, and inevitably the healing wrestlers would become curious and slowly make their way over. They would read of Mark Adams, Captain of the Cary Wrestling Team, Sergeant of Marines, Brother, Son, Friend. A young man so honor-bound to his fellow Marines that he felt the draw back to duty in combat. He simply felt his fellow Marines needed him, that his duty to them was somehow not finished. They would read of Mark rising to lead a squad of Marines in the fight for Fallujah, of his concern for his squad extending to relieving one of his men in the gun turret, just before the turret took an rocket propelled grenade just behind his seat, mortally wounding him. If you watched these young wrestlers closely, you’d see their faces change. With the sadness, and maybe a few guarded tears, now for Mark and not for themselves, came something more: perspective, a creep forward towards maturity. Suddenly their loss on the mat didn’t seem quite so enormous…there’s much more to life than the score of a wrestling match…
A few of them were lucky enough to meet Mark’s Mom and Dad, Philip and Renee’ Adams, and feel first-hand the absolute power of the finest qualities God grants us through people like Mark and his parents: Faith, Hope, Love. Two people who live an absolute certainty in the goodness of God’s plan, even in the face of the loss of their son…
This is why the Mark Adams Classic is special. When people ask why Cary did not go to the Tiger this year, this is why. Some things are more important: Faith, Hope, Love, in a season where our higher power seeks to remind us of these. The Marine Corps motto is “Semper Fidelis”, latin for “Always Faithful”. Mark Adams lived it, first for his Cary wrestling teammates and friends, and later, when the stakes were much higher, for his fellow Marines. Semper Fi, Mark. Cary wrestlers will never forget….
To learn more about the legacy of Mark Adams, visit the Sgt. Mark Adams Foundation website: