“We understand that greatness is never given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less.”
  President Barak Obama

  In almost every endeavor undertaken, greatness is the ultimate goal. And though President Obama was speaking on the grand scale of the history of the United States, his words can be reduced to the smaller context of a single young man by the name of Joey Dance who understands that greatness rarely comes without hard work and sacrifices.

  No one would consider Dance giant in stature. At 15 years old, Dance stands 5-1 and weighs 103 pounds. But when it comes to the mentality of competition and future ambitions, Dance aims to be among the greatest. From a very early age, Dance began a journey along a path that could eventually take him to the acme of all athletic events; the Olympics.

  Even as a child, Dance was small for his age. “He was a little tiny baby,” said his father Joe. But despite Joey’s size disadvantage, at age five he took up mixed martial arts. “The mixed martial arts, they used to torture him when he used to go,” Joe said. “He would always have to fight kids twice his size.” However, Joe pointed out that did not hold his son back. “He used to brutal them. He could punch, kick, do everything.”

  Joe said that in the beginning his son did not display any particular talent for the sport other than his determination. “He had the right mentality for it,” Joe said. “He was all boy.”

  In martial arts Dance soon excelled, going undefeated for two consecutive years and being ranked No. 1 in the country for his age group. But it was at age six that Joey found his true calling when he took up wrestling.  “I wasn’t really good at it the first year but then I kept finding new coaches,” he said.

  As with martial arts, Joey’s work ethic and determination showed his family and coaches that he possessed the right combination of skills to become a special athlete.

  So the Dance family set their sites on making Joey into the best wrestler he could possibly be. They took him up and down the Eastern United States to compete against the best in the nation. Likewise, they were also in a continual search for the coaches who could best improve Joey’s skills.

  To further his son’s training, Joe, a retired Nabisco worker, sold the family’s 30-foot camper, 22-foot Boston Whaler and other recreational items in order to build a gym in their King William home. “I sold that stuff to put into that gym to start training him all of the time,” Joe said.

  And because of his intense dedication, people questioned the importance Joe placed on his son’s wrestling. “People tell you you’re crazy,” he said. “You’re spending all your college money now doing all the traveling that we do.

  “I say, ‘Hey, you’re forgetting about us enjoying this’,” Joe said. “We enjoy this. What else would I be doing? Running up and down the street, going to bars and whatever. Instead we chase wrestling. When we aren’t doing this I feel like I ain’t got anything to do. I sit there bored.”

  As a middle schooler, Joey attended Oak Knoll and conducted weight training with Lee-Davis strength and conditioning coach Mike Craven, who set up a specific training program to compliment the young man’s talents.

  Craven immediately recognized a unique quality in Joey that set him into a select group of athletes. “Coaches always talk about focus,” Craven said. “Whenever you’re explaining something to Joey or going over it, he’s staring a hole through you.

  “He comprehends, he focuses, he’s got that look of hunger,” Craven said. “Some people say most all of these very successful athletes that you’ve ever seen have that, and he had it.”

  To compliment his training, Craven entered Joey in a lifting competition. In his first event, Dance broke three American records for his class; bench, dead lift and squat. “For his size, he is tremendously strong,” Craven said.

  But in 2007 a further training opportunity arose and the Dance family moved to the beach, specifically so Joey could train under Mark Strickland at Poquoson Middle School. In 2004, Strickland was named Coach of the Year by Wrestling USA Magazine for the work he had done at Jesuit High School in Louisiana.  And it is Strickland who Joey attributes for making him into the wrestler he is today. “He’s the one who pushed me,” Dance said.

  Though already a talented wrestler, Strickland put Dance through a complete makeover. “When I met little Joey he’d already been wrestling for quite a few years,” Strickland said. “But he was more of a defensive wrestler at the time.” Strickland converted Dance into an offensive specialist. 

  When Strickland left Poquoson, the Dances moved to Mechanicsville, and Joey resumed his weight training with Craven.

  Over the summer of 2008, Dance entered the peak of youth wrestling events in the Cadet National Championship in Fargo, ND. When the event was over Dance had been named a double All-American, finishing fourth in Greco-Roman and fifth in Freestyle.

  But Dance wanted more.

  And though Joey was of old enough to attend high school, he was at a huge disadvantage due to his size. “He was small,” Joe said. Therefore, for Joey’s future well-being the Dance’s decided to hold him out of school for a year. “He couldn’t wrestle high school 103 when those boys are cutting from 118-120 down to 103 and him weighing 86 pounds.”

  So over the course of the next year, Joey was home-schooled while concentrating on a vigorous training schedule six days a week. Dance worked on strength and speed drills with Craven and also continued his training with Strickland who now coaches the VA Predators in Chester.

  “What’s best about him is his attitude toward work,” Strickland said. “It’s very hard to do what he does because there’s hard workouts all the time. He has a full time lifting schedule. He has a full time training schedule and his attitude towards it; he loves it. There’s never a complaint. He does everything that’s ever asked of him and he’s constantly improving and improving and improving.”

  This summer, Dance returned to the national stage in the country’s two biggest wrestling events. In April at the FILA Cadet National Championship, Dance opened eyes in the Freestyle competition when he took the national title in the 50KG/110.25 lbs class by defeating Mark Grey, who was at the time ranked No. 1 in the country.

  Then, at the end of July Dance made a triumphant return to Fargo. “Last year, no doubt I wrestled good but I wasn’t as good as I am now,” Dance said. “I’ve been training the entire year just for this tournament.”

  In Greco-Roman, Dance advanced to the championship where he fell to last year’s double National Champion Tyler Fraley of New Jersey.

  Driven by the second place finish, Dance only lost one of the next 19 periods to reach the Freestyle championship. His opponent once again was Fraley. This time around, Dance took the title in two straight periods, 2-0, 1-0.

  For Joey’s father, the years of dedication paid off at the prestigious event but he has little memory of what happened. “It was like a blur,” he said. “It came and went so fast. (Joey) was like, ‘did you see that move and all.’ I don’t know. It was just like being a parent. It was overwhelming for me to see him at this level. You always dream of, if my son can win something like that.”

  With the wins at FILA and Fargo, Dance moved into the nation’s elite. “He’s definitely at the top of the class,” Strickland said. “Those two events, they bring everybody who’s anybody to the table. So if you can win both of those events that puts you at the top of the game.”

  The wins also brought Dance into the eyes of college coaches though he has yet to enter high school. Dance said that so far he has been contacted by coaches from ODU, Virginia Tech, UVA and Missouri.

  This fall, Dance is on the move again to improve his training and will start his freshman year in Christiansburg.

  Dance is not shy about stating his ultimate goals in life. “Four time state champion, maybe a couple of national titles,” he said. “I’d like to be No. 1 in the nation in my weight class. And after high school make it to college, get an NCAA title, maybe four and I hope to be in the Olympics one day.”

  Lofty goals? Strickland doesn’t think so. “His ultimate potential?” Strickland said. “I think we’re talking about an Olympic level here. It’s nice to see Joey win these events but because of his attitude the sky’s the limit for Joey. I believe he has Olympic potential. I say that without arrogance. I say that with confidence because of his schedule, the competition, the lifting, the training and his attitude.”

Only time will tell Dance’s future but he most definitely is on the right path to greatness.