(EDITOR’S NOTE: The Times News is running a series of stories on former area athletes and what they have been doing since graduating from high school. The subject of today’s “Catching up With” is former Northern Lehigh High School wrestling standout Cory DeBias)

By TJ ENGLE

tengle@tnonline.com

Cory DeBias wrestled his last college match in 2003.

But wrestling is still impacting his life today.

Seventeen years after walking off the mat for the final time as an NCAA Division III bronze medalist, DeBias continues to lean on the lessons he learned from the sport.

A 1998 Northern Lehigh graduate, DeBias said what he has learned from wrestling has continued to help him throughout all facets of his life.

“Wrestling is such a part of me. I kind of wear it everywhere I go,” DeBias said. “It’s all the lessons I learned from it. It’s funny how it shapes everything that you do.”

DeBias said he doesn’t go through a day without somehow connecting it back to wrestling.

“From organizing the emails on my desktop at work, to watching every step I take down the steps. I don’t know how to explain it, but you’re just trained that all the little things matter,” DeBias said. “It mattered where your head position was. It mattered where your hands would go. It mattered how many sprints you did. It mattered how many calories you put in your body. Wrestling taught me to pay attention to the details and focus on what was important.”

“Set goals. Try to accomplish those goals. You’re going to fall short more times than not, but it teaches you to keep getting back up and keep fighting for it. So, I’m just glad for everything the sport taught me, and the lessons that my parents instilled in me with wrestling’s help”

Starting out

For DeBias, the love for the sport started when he put on his first singlet when he was only five years old. It continued all the way through the Northern Lehigh knee-high program and straight into his time spent in the Bulldogs’ varsity lineup as he developed into one of the finest wrestlers in the Lehigh Valley.

DeBias had a 137-10 career record as a Bulldog. He was a three-time District 11 and three-time Southeast Regional champion. He was also a four-time PIAA State qualifier, where he finished as a runner-up in 1997, and then captured a state championship in 1998.

He was inducted into the Northern Lehigh High School “Ring of Honor” in 2008.

College success

Following graduation, the three-time Times News Wrestlers of the Year took his wrestling skills to Division 1 Rider University.

A broken ankle forced him to redshirt his freshman season, but DeBias overcame the injury to crack the Rider starting lineup each of the next three seasons.

A very crowded and talented Rider roster, combined with some weight shifts, presented a problem for DeBias heading into his final season of eligibility, however.

“Coming into my fifth year, the coaches wanted me to move from 165 pounds down to 149 pounds - a weight I had not seen since my redshirt freshman year two years prior. With each of the three weight classes above that (157, 165, 174) all having returning national qualifiers on the team from the year before, I didn’t have a place to go,” DeBias said. “I didn’t believe I could make the weight and perform at 149 pounds, and I just couldn’t stand the thought that the final year of my career could be my first not in the starting lineup. Because of that, I transferred to Roger Williams University for my final year of eligibility.”

With one year of eligibility left, DeBias joined younger brother Kyle at the Rhode Island school and was able to step right into a starting role with the Hawks.

DeBias made the most of his time at Roger Williams.

“Moving from Division I to Division III, you’re expected to do well,” DeBias said. “I had trained at the highest level at Rider University for four years. I had wrestled with the best NCAA wrestling had to offer, and understood what it took to compete at that level.

“Moving into a Division III program from Division I, the mindset is a bit different, and it’s not so much of a full-time job that it is at the D1 level. The coaches and my teammates looked to me for leadership, and to set an example. I needed to hold myself accountable, and make sure I lived up to what was expected of me.

“It was also a special situation being teammates with my brother Kyle again. Spending our final year wrestling together on the same team after 20-some odd years in the sport together was motivating for both of us.”

DeBias was extremely successful in his final wrestling season as a 165-pounder for the Hawks, recording a 32-2 record.

While the wins surely outweighed the losses, the two setbacks were still hard to take. DeBias lost in the finals of the Hawks’ first tournament of the year. He didn’t lose again until the NCAA Division III semifinals, dropping a heartbreaking 10-9 setback to the eventual national champion. But he rebounded from the setback and finished third at the championships.

His impressive record accounted for a .941 winning percentage, which set a new single-season Roger Williams University program record. He continues to rank in the top-10 in Hawks’ program history for single season wins, winning percentage, and takedowns.

DeBias was also be inducted into the Roger Williams University Athletic Hall of Fame, and was named the Universities Male Athlete of the year in 2003.

In addition to a stellar wrestling career, DeBias received a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems, with a minor in Political Science.

Life after wrestling

It didn’t take him long to get back into the swing of things once he returned home, as DeBias got a chance to be a volunteer assistant with his former coach at Northern Lehigh, Todd Herzog.

DeBias got back to states, but this time in a different role, as the Bulldogs won the PIAA Class 2A team title in 2003.

“It was really cool to get back out there to Hershey and be on the bench coaching the guys,” DeBias said. “It was really a fun experience.”

But DeBias’ time as a coach was short-lived, as he took a job in April of 2004 in New Jersey.

Sixteen years later, DeBias is still with the same company - KPMG LLP, a multinational professional services network and one of the Big Four accounting organizations in the United States. DeBias serves as a Director in the firms Risk Consulting Practice focused on Information Technology Risk Consulting.

And when he’s not working, DeBias is once again coaching. But it’s not high school wrestling, its youth level soccer, basketball and softball.

Specifically, the teams his two daughters - Molly (9-years-old) and Mia (7-years-old) - play on.

Although he isn’t coaching the sport where he achieved incredible success, he shares with his daughters and their teammates what he considers the most important lesson he can impart - regardless of the sport.

“I think the biggest thing for me is always maximum effort. You give everything that you have,” said DeBias. “That’s practices. That’s games. If you give the maximum effort that you’re capable of giving, then I think everybody has to be happy about that.”

The other thing that DeBias stresses is enjoying what you’re doing.

“The mindset I try to push for the girls is to have fun,” DeBias said. “They’re young and they need to enjoy it. Just do the best that you can is what I tell them.

“You could lose - and that’s not what we want as a result - but what that means is you got to go back to the drawing board and keep training. You got to keep working hard. The harder you work, the more opportunity you have to be successful.’

It’s in the genes

And while he might not be coaching wrestling, DeBias is still enjoying a chance to stay involved with the sport through his two nephews - Mason (son of brother and former state qualifier wrestler Kyle DeBias) and Trapp (son of sister and current Northern Lehigh softball coach Katie Farber), who live in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, respectively.

“It’s tough working with them on their wrestling techniques being in another state, and also coaching my girls in three different sports,” said DeBias. “I get a chance to get out to one or two tournaments a year to see them wrestle, and we are always rolling around on the floor over the holidays and family gatherings. But I think more than anything else, they like to call me and tell me how everything went. They enjoy relaying their success on the mat to me, which I enjoy very much.

“I look forward to continuing to root for them and be involved with their wrestling careers as much as I can. They’re both my godsons. Even though I don’t have boys of my own, I have two wrestlers in them, so that’s cool.”

Lessons learned

DeBias has enjoyed a lot of success in his life since graduating from Northern Lehigh High School, and said his days growing up in the Slatington area and the lessons he learned wrestling played a big role in everything he accomplished.

“I look back on those years very, very fondly at Northern Lehigh High School,” DeBias said. “The community was amazingly supportive and always there for you, my teammates pushed me every day, and the coaches had us prepared and ready to compete. It was a great place to grow up, and I’m happy that I was able to carry forward the lessons I learned there into college and onward.

“The reality of it is that I think wrestling taught me how to be a successful person. You learn so many lessons from it. The hard work, the discipline, the sacrifice, the courage ... you learn what it is to be accountable and responsible for everything that you do all day long. You learn what it’s like to be a part of a team, and how to work, and how to lead as a member of that team.”

DeBias is still living those lessons today.

“All those things translate to everything that I do. It translates into being a father. It translates into being a brother and a son. It translates into being an employee, a manager and a leader in the office.

“So, I think that’s why wrestling is such a special thing. It’s not necessarily the accomplishments. It’s what it taught me about life, and appreciating those who help you on your journey - like my parents and siblings, coaches and teammates, and the community that supported me.”