Kittanning's Josh Serene

Josh Serene should make a movie: "A Year In The Life of Josh, Or How I Landed A Gold & Sixth Place In The State A Year After Two Surgeries." And he and his friends could even make that movie themselves.

Serene, a senior at Kittanning High School, wrestled his way to third in the WPIAL and sixth in the state last year, but with a serious shoulder injury he'd had for two years. A surgery to repair it last summer slowed him down for a while. Then after being released to hit the mat again, he woke to sharp pain the morning he was to leave for a Missouri wrestling tournament, but it wasn't from the shoulder. His wrist--opposite his almost-healed shoulder--was bothering him, a lot. Josh, whose reaction to the torn shoulder for two years was "Sure it hurts a little, but I don’t like to quit. I don’t like to fail," naturally, went to wrestle in Missouri anyway. But as he wrestled, the pain grew much worse.

Josh, son of Keith and Shelley Serene, still to this day doesn't know how he hurt his wrist. He does know he somehow made it through the whole tournament last summer then came home to discover he'd have to go under the knife again; he'd torn something in his wrist. Two operations in one summer were two too many. "It was a bummer of a summer for me," Serene says, "My shoulder [surgery recovery] first practically incapacitated the right side of my body," by hindering his ability to use his right hand or upper body. Now his left wrist affected his other side, and school was starting soon.

The wrestler missed the first two weeks of the season, though he kept going to practice and working out as he could. But, Josh says, "as soon as I was cleared, it was about wrestling. I lived wrestling." And he did. The evidence was a WPIAL gold medal, as he took first place in Southwestern PA in his weight class, and a grueling wrestle-back to a sixth-place medal finish in the entire state.

Serene, who owns a 3.5 GPA, is going to wrestle at Brown University next fall. But he's not letting grass grow under his feet until then. Normally, Josh is pole-vaulting for the track team this time of year, but shoulder surgery ended that. Now the natural athlete is doing something you don't usually see wrestlers do…playing tennis for the school team. "I really have a great time with it," he says.

Wrestling at this level takes a lot of time, but Serene is a part of Key Club, was on his Junior class cabinet, and is a member of Salem Baptist Church, though wrestling often makes it difficult to attend. But Josh, who helps with the Strawberry Festival there, says, "I put a lot of pride in being part of it and the church community." He also takes pride in “True Story Guys Productions.” It's just a hobby, Josh says, but it's a lot of fun. "True Story Guys…" are Josh and his friend, Robert Milligan, and their friends making small films. They write scripts for short comedies or parodies, plan the shots, get friends to act with them, then video and edit the result into a DVD. They recently sold 50 $2 copies of an eight-minute short they made, called "Good Samaritans," in a day and a half. And work on another film has already begun, with plans for three or more before summer's end.

Josh Serene may not be planning a movie about his year. But going from two surgeries to WPIAL Champion and State medal-winner will always be a tale of encouragement he can tell his grandchildren.

Watch the video interview with Josh Serene here at http://www.alle-kiskitoday.com/webcasts/1707