Bakersfield College’s Torrey Casper took a break from wrestling and is back to show himself and his son that it’s not too late to pursue something you love.

“With wrestling, I had a huge void, and I had to fill it. I was unhappy, and you can’t live life that unhappy,” said Casper.

Casper, 24, has been wrestling since his sophomore year at Frontier High School.

He explained that most wrestlers start when they are around 5 and 6 years old, and that this caused him to have to play a lot of catch up.

Casper was expected to go far in wrestling, but he explained that partying and getting in trouble got in the way of that.

“I guess I didn’t really understand the importance of wrestling in my life because I only was doing it since I was a sophomore. It was fairly new to me then, and so were girls, so I mean, come on,” said Casper.

Casper talked more about his time wrestling in high school and said, “I let a lot of people down, though; I let myself down. I didn’t realize I let myself down until I was already out of high school.”

In 2010, Casper began attending BC and was going to wrestle at BC as well. He ended up dropping out because he and his girlfriend had a son.

“For the next four years I worked to support them as well as possible,” said Casper.

Casper explained that he was becoming unhappy with his life, and that he believed that he could be better than average. He said he felt regret when he thought of wrestling, and he thought about wrestling nearly every day. These were some of the reasons why he came back to school to wrestle.

Another reason for coming back was that he wanted to set an example for his son.

“I want him to do great things and do big things and believe that he can do big things, and I can’t be a hypocrite and tell him to go to college, get good grades, and do good in sports if I didn’t do it myself,” said Casper.

Casper explained that during his time off he didn’t wrestle at all until his last year of his break as he coached at Frontier. He said that the three-year time period where he did not wrestle at all did not make him a worse wrestler.

“If anything, I gained because I matured,” said Casper. “Going through so many life-changing events like having a kid at such a young age, having to get a job, and learning about life so fast shaped me into a better man, and I was ready to go at it (wrestling) head on again.”

Casper explained that he expects to do well in state. He said that he is shooting for first in state, but he also said he knows that anything can happen in state that can cause him to drop lower than that.

Casper’s success at the collegiate level of wrestling has caught the eyes of some people.

“The crazy thing is that I just wanted to come back and wrestle. I wasn’t looking for a scholarship, but scholarships are now coming my way. And that’s huge because I get to further my education,” said Casper.

York College in Nebraska and Montana Western are two colleges that are currently looking at Casper.

Casper said that he is happy that he gets to further his education by the hands of wrestling as it’s something he loves to do.

He said, “Wrestling for the longest time was known as a poor person’s sport. Well count me as a poor person because I love it.”