Mar 10, 2022 3 min read

HERSHEY – Bacterial meningitis took his leg but it couldn’t take his spirit.

Deven Jackson has been handed a crate full of lemons in his young life and he is busy turning them into heaping glasses of lemonade.

Jackson, a senior wrestler at West Perry High School, lost parts of both legs to this cursed condition at age 8. But it hasn’t stopped him from participating, and being successful at wrestling.

Jackson opened the first round of the PIAA Class 2A 113-pound tournament with a victory, a dominating 8-1 performance over Blake Sassaman of Danville, a third-place finisher in the Northwest Region Tournamennt.

Jackson, who finished fourth at 106 pounds as a sophomore in Class AA, drew Landon Bainey of West Branch, the second seed and Southwest Region champion, in today’s quarterfinals (9 a.m.).

“That’s one sport I can do, and no one else can take it away from me,” he told Damon Turbitt of Channel 27 News in Harrisburg.

“You can do anything in life – nobody can say no to you. If you want to go out there and try out for football, go out and try out for football, or go out there and try out for wrestling.”

Meningococcemia, a potentially deadly bacterial infection that reaches the blood stream, was the affliction that struck Terri Harding in college. Harding was the first female wrestler in Waynesburg High School history. Harding lost parts of both legs, her fingers on one had and part of her other arm.

“You can’t put boundaries on Deven,” West Perry head coach Craig Maytold told Turbitt. “He doesn’t have a boundary in his mind and, as long as he has that attitude and as long as he’s willing to put in the time and the effort he does, you can’t put boundaries (on him).”

Long time coming

When Blake Reihner won a 5-1 decision over Billy Wilson of West Chester Henderson Thursday in the preliminary round of the PIAA Class 3A Wrestling Championships at the Giant Center in Hershey, it marked the first time a Trinity wrestler won a bout in this event since Kyle McWreath did it. . . .

in 2012.

A decade worth of fruustration was wiped away by Reihner, the 132-pound sophomore who finished third in the Southwest Regional tournament last week.

“It feels great,” Reihner said after winning his 34th bout in 43 attempts. “I was nervous but I just have to get the nerves out somehow. I pray a lot.”

Reihner ran into a buzz saw the next round in No. 2-seed Luke Simcox of Central Mountain, the Northwest Champion. Simcox took an 8-0 decision from Reihner.

Reihner can still finish as high as third place.