Chris Gatto almost didn’t return to the Highland wrestling team for his senior year.

His junior season had been canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic and, in his own words, he thought he “was going to be terrible” as he didn’t do anything during quarantine.

But he came back.

All he did was win a Section 9 Division II championship at 126 pounds, win two matches at the state tournament and now he’s committed to continuing his wrestling career at SUNY Oswego, beginning in the 2022-23 season.

“I just liked the bond of the team,” Gatto said. “There was one of the guys up there, he used to wrestle somewhere else, and he transferred to Oswego, and he said it was the best team he’s ever been on. It’s such a good bond. I took his word for it, and I’m going to figure that out myself.”

He was honored by the Highland High School Athletic Dept. last Wednesday.

“I think a lot of kids thought (they weren’t going to come back),” Highland wrestling coach John McFarland said. “I’m glad that the pandemic is over. I’m glad kids got the opportunity to wrestle. The sport of wrestling is not always about wins and losses, but also giving kids opportunities. Wrestling opened a doorway for him, and we’ve had a lot of kids come into this program and wrestling has opened a lot of doorways for a lot of kids, which is great.”

In addition to almost not returning to the Huskies’ program, he didn’t think he was going to wrestle in college. But his performance at the state tournament told him otherwise. He opened the state tournament, held on Feb. 25 and 26 at the MVP Arena in Albany with a 6-2 win over Section 5’s Gavin Bob before losing his Round of 16 match to No. 2 Mason Welch of Section 4.

He came back to beat Section 10’s Zoe Griffith, 4-0, before finally getting eliminated by Section 2’s Dylan Winchell in the second round of Wrestlebacks.

“I didn’t even think I was going to win a match,” Gatto said. “I just came in, wrestled and did my thing. I didn’t want to be nervous and just did it, and I outperformed way more than I thought I would.”

It was that performance that convinced him he could wrestle in college.

“I think he went up there and not expecting to do well and going 2-2, and getting to that point, he realized he can go to a higher level,” McFarland said. “And I think with a little encouragement, and things like that, and Oswego reaching out to him and doing their job, they found somebody that they really liked in their program.”

Gatto will wrestle under coach Mike Howard, who has coached the Lakes for more than 25 years.

During his career, Wood’s teams have had 65 NCAA Division III qualifiers, 18 NCAA All-Americans, 21 individual conference championships, 96 New York State Collegiate Championship place winners and five conference most Outstanding Wrestlers.

He has high goals, but he also wants to make sure he has fun wrestling up there because that’s when he’s having fun.

“I was always having so much anxiety in high school, but when I came up to states and just wrestled to have fun, that’s when I did my best,” Gatto said. “So, I think that’s going to be my approach in college.”

Even though he’s going to a higher level, he will miss the small-town connection with his Highland teammates, who have been lifelong friends to this point. He’ll miss that bond.

“Everybody just knows each other, and it’s always so close,” Gatto said. “And with the wrestling team, McFarland cares a lot about us.”