It’s been a long journey for Robinett

Jack Robinett capped his senior year at Atascadero High by sneaking into the CIF State wrestling championships with a gutsy comeback and riding that momentum all the way to a sixth-place finish.

So, it makes perfect sense that Robinett would be poised to make a splash at the California Community College Wrestling Championships now that he is competing for Cuesta College, which will host the event in its current format for the first time in program history as the meet gets under way today.

Only, Robinett’s march to a medal with the Greyhounds was almost seven years ago.

The last time he wrestled before this season was in 2009, when he finished one victory short of medaling in the state championships as a freshman for Cuesta.

Now a month away from turning 25, Robinett is one of nine Cougar wrestlers who’ve qualified for the state meet, which starts at 10 a.m. today and wraps up with the championship rounds Saturday.

Sophomore 133-pounder George Sakkas is aiming to improve on last year’s third-place finish.

Connor Pollock is seeded second at 141 pounds. Clayton Hartwell has been ranked as high as second in the state at 197 pounds this season, and in the 50th year of wrestling at Cuesta, 14-year head coach Joe Dansby believes all nine of the Cougars’ state qualifiers have the ability for a top-eight finish in their respective 12-man brackets.

At 184 pounds, the eighth-ranked Robinett is the only one with a wife and two young children. When he leaves practice, he doesn’t go back to a dorm and focus on mat skills and homework. He juggles all that with a young family.

“I’ve just grown into a different type of wrestler,” Robinett said. “I come back from practice, and it’s a different battle now. It’s not so much trying to make my skills better as much as it is trying to keep myself in mental and physical shape and healthy and having to balance the state tournament and going home and making sure my kids are bathed.”

Robinett spent the past four years away from the mat to serve in the Air Force. Like many military personnel who were school-age children during the 9/11 attacks, Robinett was inspired by the tragic events to enlist and did so after his freshman season at Cuesta, hoping to make a career in the military.

He said he earned a rare spot with a security unit tasked with transporting nuclear weapons and within two years was promoted to a position training potential candidates to serve the same purpose.

In the meantime, Robinett married his hometown girlfriend, Chelsy, and the couple has a 2-year-old son and a 5-month-old daughter born this past Fourth of July.

Robinett said his training position was lost to budget cuts in a round of layoffs last year, and it gave him the opportunity to answer a question that had always lingered in the back of his mind: What if he had stayed for his sophomore season at Cuesta?

He got in contact with Dansby and Cougars athletic director Bob Mariucci about returning to school and was welcomed with open arms.

Robinett is older, stronger and more physically and emotionally mature — all positive attributes for an athlete, especially in a one-on-one combat sport. And serving as the last line of defense in protecting nuclear weapons, keeping in excellent condition was a requirement.

“He’s mature and strong,” Dansby said. “He’s been there and seen it. It’s not like he has not trained and was eating potato chips and all that.

Also, “it’s two-fold. It’s always hard to step back from wrestling too long. You become rusty. The movement kind of becomes foreign a little bit as you get away from it. That’s always the downfall.”

Robinett definitely noticed the change. He’s not as spry as he once was. The Air Force put a lot of mileage on his knees. The wrestler who once was thinking three moves ahead suddenly realized the strategy wasn’t coming as easy as it used to.

He had forgotten how stressful it is to cut weight. He hadn’t realized how consuming the anxiety before a big match or meet could be.

Still, while Robinett adjusted back into the sport though a slow start to the season, he has had a standout year. He’s 18-9 this year and has been ranked in the top five in the state, placing fifth at the Southern California Regional Championships.

He aspires to get hired for either a security or corrections position in the new year.

Job pressures and family commitments can overshadow what happens in the wrestling room, but he seems to have that balance figured out at the right time.

“I kind of battle with trying to find that fire again and making peace with what’s going on,” Robinett said. “I was really upset that I wasn’t winning like I did in high school.

“Now, toward the end of the season, last week I wrestled the No. 2 guy in the state and took him to overtime. That was the first time I felt the burning desire to win since high school. I think I’m ready to take home a medal.”

This story was originally published December 11, 2014 at 11:16 PM with the headline "It’s been a long journey for Robinett."