Edward Ramirez is up for the challenge.
He encountered plenty of challenges during his four years on the mat for the Seymour High School wrestling team.
He also was challenged by the academics at the school and worked through that to earn his diploma.
Next, he will be challenged when he heads to boot camp for the U.S. Marine Corps.
“The one thing I’m really looking forward to joining the military is the family I’m going to build or the relationships I’m going to build in the military,” the 18-year-old said. “As far as I’m concerned, people who are in
the military always end up like a family-type bond, so I’m excited to do that.”
He has been doing physical training once a week in Columbus to prepare for his departure July 5 for San Diego, California.
First, though, he will accomplish graduating from high school during a ceremony at 2:30 p.m. Sunday in the Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium. He is among the 334 members of the SHS Class of 2022.
“It means that I’ve made it, I’ve survived,” Ramirez said of reaching that milestone.
He has attended Seymour schools all along, going from Margaret R. Brown Elementary School to the Seymour Middle School Sixth Grade Center to Seymour Middle School to SHS.
In elementary, he was part of a running club and Math Bowl.
In high school, he tried a new sport, wrestling.
“My friend joined, and he wanted someone else to join with him because he didn’t want to do it by himself,” Ramirez said. “I kind of just gave in and joined, but I ended up really loving the sport, and it turned out to be one of my favorite sports that I knew. I’m not going to say I’m the best at it because I’m nowhere near awesome, but I feel like I was pretty good, and I really enjoyed it.”
Initially, he had to adjust to the physical contact.
“It was very weird because wrestling involves a lot of physical contact, and there are some moves that kind of question what you’re doing,” he said. “At first, it was very uncomfortable, but once you do it for a certain amount of time and you just keep doing it over and over again, you forget about it and you just do the move. … I had to do what I had to do to get the pin and get the win for the team.”
He went from the 106-pound weight class as a freshman to 113 his sophomore year and 120 his final two years.
“I feel like I improved a lot more than what I used to do my freshman year,” Ramirez said. “I was able to hit my moves a lot more than I would have been able to my freshman year. My stance was a lot better. I wouldn’t say I perfected, but I feel like I got better with my favorite move, which is the fireman, and the one move I did the most good at was the single leg.”
Ramirez also had to adjust his diet so he could make weight for wrestling.
For anyone interested in wrestling, he suggests starting to cut weight before the season starts, rather than during the season.
“They won’t have to worry about starving themselves,” he said. “When they give themselves time, you’re not going to have to dramatically just stop eating entirely just to make weight. You can gradually move your way up until you’re in your weight class. You’re going to be a lot happier then than having to weight cut during the winter.”
Ramirez qualified for regional his junior year but wasn’t able to make it past sectional his senior year.
“Even now because it’s my senior year and my season is over, I really miss it still,” he said. “I feel like it strengthened my mind. I’m able to push myself more than I was able to. … I feel like it just made me a better person. It honestly gave me more confidence in myself.”
Ramirez also was in the SHS band his first two years and used to be involved in his church’s youth group, but wrestling took up a lot of time, and then he got a job. He has worked at The Home Depot in Seymour since September 2021, going from the appliance department to the freight team.
In terms of joining the military, he said he talked to a National Guard recruiter his junior year, but it never really piqued his interest. This school year, though, the Marine Corps set up a pullup bar at SHS during lunch one day.
“I did the challenge. I didn’t get the shirt. I didn’t get as many pullups as I needed to, but I was telling the recruiter there that I was actually thinking about joining the military at some point,” Ramirez said. “He was like, ‘Oh, seriously, you should join the Marines.’ I talked to him more about it, and he convinced me to join the Marines.”
In March, he was sworn in, and shortly after, he started physical training.
“The more I go to PT for Marine Corps up in Columbus, the more I love it,” he said. “It’s really challenging, and it almost reminds me of wrestling, where you have challenging times. … They are getting us mentally and physically ready for when we get to boot camp. I feel like it’s going to help me because ever since I’ve started, my mile run has gotten better, and the amount of pullups that I’ve been able to do has increased.”
He will continue PT until leaving for boot camp for three months.
“The one thing I’m looking forward to do is the Crucible, which is like a 50-something-hour hike,” Ramirez said. “It’s supposed to simulate war times, and it’s supposed to be very mentally exhausting and physically exhausting, and it sounds like a really challenging thing. In my opinion, I like being challenged, and it honestly sounds like it’s going to be fun but of course exhausting and challenging, so I want to see how I’m going to be able to do.”
After boot camp, he will return to Seymour for 10 days before leaving for Florida for military occupational specialty school. He has chosen to become an aviation electrical technician, which will involve working on the electrical components of airplanes.
Ramirez said if it works out during his military service, he would like to study robotics and automation technology at the University of Northwestern Ohio. His ultimate career goal is to be a robotics engineer.
Ramirez file
Name: Edward Ramirez
Age: 18
Hometown: Seymour
Residence: Seymour
Education: Graduating from Seymour High School on Sunday
School activities: Wrestling for four years, band for two years
Occupation: Works on the freight team at The Home Depot in Seymour
Future plans: Leaves for U.S. Marine Corps boot camp July 5
Family: Parents, Santiago Ramirez and Leonor Marical; brothers, Emmanuel Ramirez and Santiago Ramirez
If you go
What: Seymour High School graduation
When: 2:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium at SHS, 1350 W. Second St., Seymour
Who: 334 members of the Class of 2022
Valedictorian: Eli Wood
Salutatorian: Dylan Nguyen