As a sophomore, Colin Liebertz of the Ossining High School Varsity Wrestling team was named captain. Now as a junior, Liebertz has continued to earn the respect of his coaches and peers.
With a 29-9 record by the time he was in eighth grade, Liebertz had achieved All-League and All-County finishes, which recognizes him as one of the best performers in the area with three time All-County and two time All-Section finishes. During his freshman year, Liebertz held a record of 35-11, with 24 wins by pinfall alongside his first All-Section finish. Eventually, Liebertz finished his sophomore year with 100 career wins and a 37-13 record and is now a two time Divisional and Hen Hud Tournament champion.
Liebertz has also captained the Ossining High School Varsity Track and Field team, with just as many achievements in running as he has in his wrestling career. Ossining High School’s Head Wrestling Coach Tom Larm describes Liebertz as having a keen ability to self monitor, self motivate and balance his schoolwork with all other aspects of his life.
“I use my free time to be productive. One rule that I have for myself is that work gets done first,” Liebertz said.
He’s described as being an “absolute pleasure to work with” by Larm, who also mentioned Liebertz’s time volunteering at numerous youth wrestling camps and events, elementary school field days, and freshman orientations that last multiple days. Liebertz has even been able to blend sports into his academic life as well by writing and anchoring for OSports as a part of Ossining High School’s OHSNews.
Liebertz’s father, Kevin Liebertz also had a successful high school career in both track and wrestling. Although there may have been influence from his father, Colin’s first sports were actually soccer and baseball at the ages of four and five respectively before turning to wrestling at six years old with the Yorktown Athletic Club.
When asked who inspires or motivates him to reach his goals, Liebertz responded with himself.
“I have big goals for my life, and I set smaller goals on the path to get there,” Liebertz said, adding that one of his biggest goals is to be a student at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. All Liebertz’s efforts of working diligently in all aspects of his life reflect this vision. Still, Liebertz owes some of his motivation to the friends he’s made, with almost all of them having been met on a field or mat.
“I feel that there isn’t a friendship better than one between hard-working student athletes. My friends and I feel like family-like the brothers I never had,” Liebertz said when asked about the most rewarding part of athletics. “There wouldn’t be any other people that I would want to work hard every day with,” Liebertz said.
As mentioned by Larm, Liebertz’s friendship inspires others to work just as hard. Despite taking on his Varsity Wrestling team captain role at a young age and being undersized for his age category in middle school, Liebertz has risen to be a leader to peers both older and younger than him in more than just athletics. Liebertz is a hard worker on and off the mats with a GPA of 96.4. This makes his continuous wins in All-League, All-County and All-Section competitions even more impressive. Larm is looking forward to having Liebertz on the team for one more year to help mentor his younger teammates.
“My experience as a student-athlete has been very up and down, but I wouldn’t change it for the world,” Liebertz said.
