Staying “Slez Strong” at state for Southern Door wrestler
MADISON – Southern Door sophomore Grant Englebert will be wearing a green warm-up shirt Saturday as he aims to earn a third-place finish in Division 3’s 145-pound weight class at the WIAA individual state tournament.
Green isn’t one of Southern Door’s school colors.
However, the shirt and color mean a lot to Englebert, who is wearing it in support of his teammate, Griffin Slezewski.
Englebert watched Slezewski place sixth at 106 pounds as a freshman last year.
Instead of competing for spots on the state podium together this season at the Kohl Center, Slezewski is battling to beat a foe that is much tougher than any he’s ever faced on the mat.
Slezewski (pictured above) was diagnosed with leukemia last month and is at St. Vincent Hospital in Green Bay receiving chemo treatments.
“It’s a nice way to support him,” Englebert said about the shirt, which says “Slez Strong” on it.
Click here to donate to the GoFundMe for Griffin Slezewski’s treatments
Orange is the color for leukemia awareness, but the Southern Door wrestling team made the shirts green because that is Slezewski’s favorite color.
“At first we were all just shocked,” Englebert said. “It’s hard to believe that one of your best friends has cancer. It doesn’t even sound right to say that.”
With the intent of climbing higher on the state podium this year, Slezewski just wasn’t himself at the start of the season, according to Southern Door wrestling coach Jerry Englebert.
“He was losing a lot of matches that he shouldn’t and you just couldn’t put your finger on it,” Coach Englebert said. “What’s different? What’s going on?”
Slezewski came down with stomach pain during a tournament at Sheboygan North, which was followed by hip, knee and ankle pain before he started getting severe migraines.
Slezewski went to the hospital on a Friday and Saturday in January to try to get answers. He was diagnosed with leukemia on Sunday.
Two days later he started receiving the first round of chemo treatments, which entailed receiving treatments every 12 hours for 10 days.
“They figure he’ll be there for five months,” Coach Englebert said. “Because his white blood cells are so depleted there is a risk of infection, so he can’t go home and he can’t have any visitors.”
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Grant Englebert received a surprise earlier this week when he logged on to play a new Xbox game online and saw Slezewski was logged on as well to play.
“It was really nice,” Grant Englebert said. “He obviously wasn’t able to stay on for long because he gets headaches and it can get to be a lot for him.”
After losing his quarterfinal match, Englebert settled into the environment at the Kohl Center to pick up an 8-5 decision victory over Brookwood’s James Gjefle to guarantee a spot on the state podium this year.
“The first match was jitters a lot. I wasn’t ready,” said Englebert, whose older brother, Jacob, won state titles for Southern Door in 2014.
“But it was nice then to come back and get this win and get it out of my system. I think I’ll be ready to go now.”
Englebert will be thinking about his teammate and friend Saturday as he takes the mat.
Coach Englebert said the amount of support for and well wishes for Slezewski from wrestling teams near and far has been amazing to see.
“The wrestling family is just huge,” Coach Englebert said. “There has been a lot of different fundraising and that’s all helping.”