Owings Mills junior Taran Carr comes from a wrestling family. Two of his uncles, Jimmy Carr and Nate Carr, made it as far as the Olympics, with Nate earning a bronze medal in 1984. His dad, Solomon Carr, was a high school wrestler in Pennsylvania, where he set state records, and is assistant wrestling coach at Owings Mills.
It seems only natural that Taran should follow in their footsteps.
But the senior, while wrestling with great success — he's 16-0 in Maryland this season and 16-1 overall, losing only to the then-No. 3-ranked competitor in the country — is combining his on-mat success with interests outside sports. The 16-year-old plays bass clarinet in the school orchestra, sings in the choir at the Christian Revival Center in Reisterstown, teaches Sunday school there and still maintains a 3.2 GPA.
His varsity wrestling coach, Guy Pritzker, who has coached Carr since Junior League, said he is impressed by Carr's time management and wrestling ability.
"I'm planning for him to be top 3 in the state, baring injury or other unexpected occurrences," said Pritzker, who saw Carr win the Baltimore County 1A-2A North Region titles last season and place fifth at the state meet. "He has a good chance to be state champ."
Carr, who acknowledges his goal is to repeat his county and regional performances and win states this year, said the most important thing is that the No. 6-ranked Eagles continue winning.
"If the team does well, it shows I'm doing well too," Carr said.
Question: Has wrestling always been your favorite sport?
Answer: At an early age my dad made the choice, but I got into it early on. As a kid I didn't know what I wanted. I still play baseball, and I tried football a few years and I tried rollerblading, just for fun.
Q: When did you actually decide that you liked the sport?
A: Seventh grade. It was a sport I could really enjoy. It challenged me. Just practice and going one-on-one. People describe wrestling as the most challenging sport, and I've found nothing compares to wrestling. I debate that with my friends, but it's the toughest sport. The practices are intense. The range of guys you wrestle against can be a lot better or they can just beat you. That's how it was in junior league. I wasn't the most talented guy. I was placing, but I wasn't placing first.
Q: Your coach says when you were in seventh grade and were 5 feet tall you weighed 152 pounds and now that you're 5-11, you still weigh 152 pounds. Was weight an issue early on?
A: I've lost a lot of weight since seventh grade, but weight isn't something I worry about. It's just something I manage. Just last year I decided I didn't want to drink sodas anymore because not drinking them helps with my physical fitness. For some guys (weight is) the main part. For me, it's practicing and improving my own skills. I think experience is the reason I'm doing so well now.
Q: Does having a dad who wrestled and who is your assistant coach help you to improve a lot?
A: Dad has helped me out a lot. He helps me make weight. He helps me learn new moves. And he does a lot of things so I don't have to worry about them — like finding rides to tournaments and food. He brings me a lot of food, lunch and stuff at events. Some guys have to wait or go buy it themselves. My dad is always there with fruit and water and sometimes a sub, so I can get all the carbs for energy.
Q: What is your favorite wrestling move?
A: I have a "fireman's carry" The setup for it is really important. But basically, I grab the guy's arm and just launch him over my shoulder. Most of my pins come in the first period. A few in the second. All the wrestlers I see know it's coming. It's not a secret. I don't know why it's hard to stop. I just do what I'm taught.
Q: So when you say experience is what makes you successful, would add that technique is also a key factor?
A: Technique, yeah. But it comes from the experience. I lost in junior league, so I worked harder until my skills got good enough to pin a guy in the first period. Actually, it's mostly mental. You have to have the belief in yourself and in the things you've done in practice. You have to believe no one can beat you. That's gotten easier with time as I started beating everyone. But you have to believe. You can't psych yourself out. If you get beat, you probably did it to yourself.
Q: Is that what happened in the one match you lost?
A: No. I'd practiced with him [Chance Marsteller] before, and I used to be able to beat him. But he's gotten really good. He's a freshman at Kennard-Dale, Pa., and he beat me really bad.
Q: What did you take out of that match?
A: That I need to work harder. I'm trying to focus on some specific things, like ways to get off the bottom and the hand fight from the neutral position — how to position your hands to make a takedown the easiest it can be.
Q: Does a wrestling match break out at your house every night after dinner?
A: Hardly ever. With my schedule I don't have as much time as I want. I spend two hours on homework every day. Friday and Saturday I'm at church.
Q: You have a lot of interests beyond wrestling. How did you decide on playing clarinet and singing in the church choir?
A: I picked up a clarinet in elementary school and heard classical music. I just liked it. Music is something I enjoy, not something I think of as a profession. I don't have a favorite musician or composer, though I definitely like Mozart. Whatever I hear is fine with me.
Q: With wrestling, choir, church and bad is balancing your time and schedule difficult?
A: It was at first, but I've learned how to do it. The hardest thing to balance is playing clarinet with the rest of the band. Balancing your sound is so difficult. You can play all the right notes and right rhythm, but it won't sound good — it will be right, just not good — if you don't have the right level of sound to blend with the other instruments.
Q: You mention music is fun, but not a profession. What do you think you want to do in the future and is wrestling part of it?
A: One of the things I like is science, so I'm thinking about biomedical engineering as a possibility. Wrestling is still an option for college, but academics come before wrestling. I'd like an academic scholarship. I'm definitely looking at six or more schools, including a few in the Ivy League. And Maryland is definitely in the mix.