Wrestling is truly for everyone!

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Wrestler, 12, overcoming obstacle

By David Elfin

David Elfin for ESPN.comDayton Webber, 12-year-old Maryland boy, wrestles Gregory Griffith.

WALDORF, Md. -- In many ways, Dayton Webber is a typical 12-year-old boy. He gets good, but not great, grades. He's popular with his classmates. He's a good, but not perfect, son and brother. He wrestles, plays football, climbs trees and plays video games.

And he does all of this without hands and feet.

Dayton was a normal, happy 10-month-old when a bacterial infection quickly turned so aggressive that he was given last rites. He survived but didn't go home from the hospital for months and not until his lower arms and legs were amputated.

"They said we would need a wheelchair ramp, but Dayton learned to walk in no time," recalled his father, Mike, a cell phone tower contractor and one-time high school wrestler. "We didn't know how he would do things, but we just figured he would. That's what he's always done."

That's what Dayton does in athletic competition. He finished fourth earlier this year in the Southern Maryland Junior Wrestling League in the 55-pound weight class for the Rampage although he doesn't have hands with which to grab or feet with which to knock down a fellow wrestler.

"Dayton is very, very strong so we use that to his advantage," said Rampage coach Jason Kiessling, a 2007 ACC champion at Maryland. "A lot of guys, when they wrestle Dayton, they try to keep his head down. He just smacks their hands off and then he attacks their legs and takes them down. If Dayton gets stuck underneath, he uses his strong shoulders, clamps down on his opponent's arm and puts him on his back. A lot of wrestling is leg attacks, but no one shoots for Dayton's legs."

Dayton scoots around pretty quickly on his leg stumps, which are protected with rubber liners containing a gel when he's competing or practicing. Dayton uses the same technique to recover fumbles as a nose guard for his youth football team. He drives his beloved go-kart with prosthetic legs and steers with special gloves made with Velcro and that same gel.

But it's on the wrestling mat where Dayton really shines.

"I like wrestling better than any other sport," he explained as a smile spread across his impish face that's topped by a blond buzzcut. "I like using my strength and being fit. And I don't have to rely on other people to do stuff for me like you do in football. Sometimes when I watch my teammates in certain situations I wish I had hands, but I just try to do things my own way."

Indeed, Mike and Natalie Webber, a homemaker, treat Dayton just like his brothers, Tyler, 17, and Justin, 6. They push a chair in front of the kitchen sink in their Charlotte Hall, Md., home so Dayton can climb up to wash the dishes.

"I'm human like everyone else," said Dayton, who wants to be a priest or a Secret Service agent someday. "I get in the same trouble at home. I have the same rules.''

Dayton can deftly unscrew and replace the cap on a sports-drink bottle. And the rising seventh grader writes neatly in print and cursive with the scarred stumps of his arms.

Dane Kramer, a long-time wrestling coach, was Dayton's physical education teacher in fourth and fifth grade and his homeroom teacher last year in sixth grade.

"The thing that amazes me the most about Dayton is that he's always got a smile on his face," Kramer said. "A normal kid would get upset about a bad grade or if something happened with his friends, but not Dayton. He's just a happy-go-lucky kid. We all have issues, but then you see Dayton and you just deal with the issues.''

David Elfin is a freelance writer for Sports Media Exchange, a national freelance writing network.