Upper St. Clair wrestler coming home to Pitt
Jake Slinger will wrestle next season at Pitt.
Jake Slinger won nine matches as a freshman at George Mason.
Jake Slinger thought his heart’s desires lay somewhere in northern Virginia. However, after a yearlong adventure at George Mason University, the Upper St. Clair native learned what Dorothy Gayle from Kansas knew all along.
“There’s no place like home,” Slinger said.
So Slinger has returned to his roots. He transferred to the University of Pittsburgh where he will continue his wrestling career.
As a record-setting senior at USC in 2019, Slinger had the attention of many major college programs. West Virginia, Virginia, Bucknell, Lock Haven, Cleveland State, North Carolina State and Pitt, included. The PIAA runner-up, however, selected George Mason.
“No one knows exactly what the best fit is until they are actually in the situation,” Slinger said of that college decision-making process. “Some thrive. Some go a month and want to go somewhere else.”
After a year, Slinger said he realized George Mason was not “the fit” for him even though he had experienced success. He won nine matches, three with pins and two by tech falls, for the Patriots this winter.
Yet, Slinger was not content.
“You can’t be afraid to experience your opportunities, but at the same time don’t close any doors or burn bridges,” he said. “You have to be open to reach out and explore new possibilities.”
Slinger indeed investigated. Not only did he discover coming home was best during the coronavirus pandemic, he realized Pitt was it after all.
“George Mason had a lot of great benefits. I was welcomed, but I was not happy with where I was. I guess I really wanted to be closer to home. When Pitt reached out to me, I thought this would be a great situation to come back home.”
Slinger said his mother, Heather, introduced him to wrestling at a “fairly young” age.
“My mom grew up in Hempfield and they are immersed in the sport,” said the 19-year-old son of Frank Slinger. “Because I was always running around causing a mess, she thought it would be a good way for me to burn up some of that energy.”
Slinger seared through the competition, even while adding track and field to a scholastic resume, which also included football.
While in high school, Slinger earned MVP and NHSCA All-America honors twice. The two-year captain and all-state performer posted a 138-26 career record and finished with the most wins in USC history.
A county, section and district champion, Slinger also finished as runner-up in the PIAA tournament. His 3-1 loss to Kawaun DeBoe from Cathedral Prep in the 285-pound state championship match was the lone blemish on his senior season. Slinger finished 39-1.
Slinger was selected to participate in the prestigious Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic. He was also twice selected to the Flo Nationals All-America team and finished fourth in the NHSCA National Duals with the Quest School of Wrestling.
Slinger credits Josh Mollica, Jim Akerly and Mason Beckman for his success and for his ability to transition to the next phase of his career.
“My coaches have prepared me for a lot of situations that have led me to this point,” he said. “They have also developed me as a young man.
“I’m excited about the opportunities ahead of me, whether that is on the mats against whom I’m competing or the world that is in front of me.”
Slinger embraces gradual goals at Pitt. He said he anticipates “thriving” academically as well as athletically, particularly with old rivals such as Mt. Lebanon’s Kellan Stout, Bethel Park’s Nino Bonaccorsi and South Park’s Jake Wentzel and Dallas Bulsak.
Initially, he hopes to break into the starting line-up for the Panthers, who finished 10-4 this past season while competing in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The “end goal” he said is an NCAA championship.
Slinger has a red-shirt season and three years of eligibility remaining.
His experience at George Mason will aid in the process. He said because he competed as a starter against varsity wrestlers he sees some similarities in the Mid-American Conference to the ACC.
“It’s a harder conference with more national qualifiers,” Slinger said of the ACC. “So I do thing there is going to be an adjustment. I’ll need to tweak the small things and fine-tune skills.”
Slinger has already adjusted his attitude. By watching his George Mason teammates in the weight room, he sharpened his work ethic as well as presence on the mat.
“There was a huge adjustment,” said Slinger of going from high school to collegiate wrestling. “It wasn’t just the work ethic in the other people I wrestled but the technique and attitude. How they held themselves up. It was a hard adjustment to make at first but later I gradually realized that is the way I should compete. It’s not their stature. It’s the way they presented themselves on and off the mat. I had not seen that before but at the college level they are highly respected among their competitors.”
While at George Mason, Slinger also said he was “actually was in the best shape” of his life.
Although he had wrestled under the weight threshold, he currently tips the scales at 285.
During the quarantine, Slinger had been restricted to running on his own and lifting weights at home.
“COVID-19 has really affected a lot of things quite a bit,” he said. “I think we are all ready to get back to normal and focus on the things at hand we need to do.”