Michael DeAugustino seeks to blaze his own trail

Palm Coast Observer
Sports

To know the wrestling tree Flagler Palm Coast’s Michael DeAugustino was chopped from makes me wonder if he came out of the womb with his umbilical cord in a submission lock. Only a year into his high school wrestling career, DeAugustino, who placed fourth last year at the state meet, is going into his sophomore season ranked No. 1 in his division.

“It just means I have an even bigger target on my back this year,” he said. “It'll make me work harder, so I can make a dream come true.”

DeAugustino is not one who lacks for confidence, and rightly so. He grew up in a house with FPC Athletics Director and father Stephen DeAugustino, who was a wrestling champion and coach for multiple team and individual champions, and Stephen Jr. as a brother, who owns the record for most wins (151) at FPC. Michael hoarded some of the best training one could possibly receive, beginning in diapers.

“He was probably 4 years old when he wrestled in his first tournament,” Stephen DeAugustino said. “When Stephen was still in school, he’d go to practice with us and just roll around and wrestle; you couldn’t keep him off the map.”

Knowing the wrestling pedigree that was set before him, DeAugustino embraces the challenge to follow in his family’s footsteps as an FPC wrestler, but he wants to accomplish even more.

“From a young age, Stephen always preached to me that I was the future, and, once he had graduated in 2007, he told me that I had to keep the tradition going inside and outside the walls of the wrestling gym,” Michael DeAugustino said. “He always told me to shoot to beat his record, and that's what I'm doing.” The accomplishments they have always make me shoot for high goals and push harder every day to break that record and get some state titles of my own and winning a team title for Flagler Palm Coast.”

For Michael, his family tree extends beyond those who bear the Augustino name. When he takes the floor, shakes his opponent’s hand reaches for position, his motivation to win goes back decades.

“The thousands of wrestlers who have busted their tails before me on that exact mat and my grandfather, a four-time state finalist in Pennsylvania, who isn't able to come see me wrestle for medical reasons, would want me to wrestle to my full abilities,” he said. “The mentality of Bulldog wrestlers is, “Go hard, as if it were your last practice. So that drives me.”

He’s ready for this season and all of its challenges.