Former Centralia, Toledo Athlete Jesse Weeks Commits to Corban University Wrestling

Warriors: Weeks Gets Surprise Call From Corban University a Year After Graduating

Jesse Weeks was sitting on the couch Tuesday when he heard the familiar vzzzzt, vzzzzt vibration of his phone. He had no idea at the time, but it was a call that would change his life.

It was also a call Weeks almost didn’t answer.

“I was like, ‘Why is some Oregon number calling me?’” Week said.

He didn’t know anyone in Oregon and thought it might be one of those scam calls saying he had won a free cruise trip with an all-expenses-paid vacation to the Bahamas.

Weeks answered the phone and listened as the man identified himself as Corban University’s assistant men’s wrestling coach Stryder Davis. But Weeks had graduated nearly a year ago and hadn’t competed in 14 months. His last contact with any college coaches had been months ago. He figured his chances of wrestling in college were long gone and at best Davis would offer him a walk-on invitation.

“Then he was like, ‘So, you’re going to send me your email, I’ll send it to my athletic director, we’re going to give you a scholarship and you’re going to come down and wrestle,’” Weeks said. “I started to tear up a little bit. All I could think about was my grandma.”

Weeks had dedicated his wrestling career to his grandma, Paulette Weeks, who has been battling cancer since Jesse was 7 years old. His grandpa, Joe, wrestled in college in Oregon and died of cancer when Jesse was six years old. As a result, his grandma has always been a big wrestling fan and had always wanted Jesse to wrestle ever since he was little.

But Jesse was never allowed to play any sports as his mother, Katie Weeks, was super protective of her son and was worried he’d get injured. It wasn’t until the beginning of his freshman year that he finally told his mom, not asked, that he was going to try out for the wrestling team.

“She said, ‘I’m going to put you in an air bubble. I’m not having my baby boy get anything broken,’” Weeks said.

It was far from a smooth start. Jesse’s freshman year was marked by anger issues and an overall bad attitude. He was known to throw his headgear after a frustrating loss. He didn’t win a single match that season. Jesse’s wrestling prospects weren’t looking bright.

But Centralia’s wrestling coaches didn’t give up on him, particularly head coach Scott Phillips. Jesse went to wrestling camp his sophomore year, began listening to Phillips and the other coaches and was able to quell his anger problems.

“(The coaches) started helping me out with my classes, helping keep my grades up,” Jesse said. “Then I started doing good.”

He finally won his first match. Then another. And another.

For the first time in a long time, he felt good about life. Jesse, who rarely stayed with his mother, instead often decided to stay with his friend, Devin Pace, and Pace’s mother, Valorie Lounsbury. Jesse’s mom is a caregiver and was taking care of his grandmother. He couldn't handle seeing his grandma suffer in pain every day.

“There was no point of me being around my grandma at that time because I couldn’t focus,” Jesse said. “It was too much.”

His mom’s fear from day one materialized at the end of his sophomore year when he broke his ankle during a match. He couldn’t wrestle that following summer and then narrowly missed qualifying for the Class 2A state tournament his junior year, which would be his last as a Tiger. After just three short years, Jesse was on the cusp of a breakthrough, but another big change was coming his way.

Jesse had to leave his hometown at the start of his senior year and move with his mom to Toledo so they could be closer to his grandma, who was needing more care.

As a senior at Toledo, Jesse finally had the breakout season he had been striving for. He went 32-6, advanced to the Mat Classic and barely missed out on placing at state, going 3-2 while registering two pins with an injured ankle.

That spring, he helped the Toledo-Winlock United boys soccer team take second at state as a starter. It was Jesse’s first year ever playing soccer. After that precipitous rise in the sport, he was hoping to receive some college offers, but none came. Nothing showed up for wrestling either. He was briefly communicating with Eastern Washington University to run track, but that fell through, as well.

He had a couple walk-on offers from small junior colleges but not a single scholarship.

As the days, then weeks and finally months began passing by, Jesse saw his chances of ever competing in college disappear.

“Nothing. No phone calls, no emails,” Jesse said. “So I just started to lose hope.”

He began helping coach wrestling at Toledo Middle School this past winter, sometimes helping out with the high school team. He didn’t want to be done on the mats; wasn’t yet ready to give up on wrestling.

Then he got the call on Tuesday that changed everything.

His grandma has never been able to watch him wrestle in person, ever, due to her condition. The two could only talk after his matches through FaceTime calls.

“She hasn’t been able to come to any of my matches because she’s sick, so I’ve just been grinding hard for her,” Jesse said. “She’s probably not going to make it through to see me wrestle in college, which is pretty rough.”

Paulette has been in the hospital the past week, still battling cancer. Jesse plans to wear the Nike Hypersweep wrestling shoes his grandma bought him at the beginning of his senior year in 2018.

“If anything ever happens to those things, I tell ya, I’m going to tape them up and I’m going to keep wearing them until there’s nothing left of ‘em,” Jesse said.

As he prepares to head to the dorms at Corban University late this summer, he plans to keep fresh in his mind a few words his grandma told him after she learned he was going to college: ‘Take pride in how far you have come. Have faith in how far you can go.’

Every time he steps foot onto the mat he says a prayer for his grandma. In a way, those prayers have been answered.