Away from the bright lights of a NCAA championship meet where the roar of the fans fills your ears and 20,000 people – and more on television and streaming platforms – are watching your every move, Connecticut wrestling official Nick Grosso has been working on his craft.

There was a time when Grosso could be seen practicing his skills as a wrestling official while collecting trash in the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Before he became a supervisor in Bridgeport’s Public Facilities Sanitation Division, Grosso used to hang off the back of a truck that collects trash on city streets.

You’ve seen the trucks before. They drive a few hundred feet and stop. You hear the air release from their brakes. There is one person on the back of the truck, one arm grasping a bar on the vehicle and standing on a small platform before they jump to the ground, grab a garbage can or garbage bag and toss it into the back of the truck.

In this case, it was Grosso, who would leap off the truck and crisply practice one of the 30 signals he might use in a wrestling match. And he would do it again. And again. And again.

“Each time I would do a different signal. Up and down the streets of Bridgeport for years, every time I came off the truck – 500 times a day for 10 years,” he said.

It’s that preparation that makes it look smooth when Grosso signals during a match. Now it is second nature to him.

It has helped Grosso to be where he is today – one of two Connecticut men working as an official in the Big 10 Conference, the best collegiate league in the sport and one of the few Connecticut men to ever be assigned to work at the NCAA Division I wrestling championships. Only six Connecticut men are known to have worked at the Division I tournament.

Grosso, 38, worked his third NCAA Division I tournament in St. Louis in March.

“The intensity and pressure of every point is so important,” Manzi said. “There is no one better prepared than Nick Gross. He works harder in a year than I did in my career. New England isn’t known for their big-time wrestlers so to have someone from the Northeast recognized is huge.

“I really believe (Grasso) is one of the very best officials in the country,” said Manzi, a member of the Connecticut chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. “It’s his poise, his signals, his judgment, his movement on the mat. We call him Mickey Smooth because he is. He knows what is going on and is able to get into position (to make the call).”

It’s not often an official in New England gets the call to officiate at the Division I level. But when Grosso got the call, he was ready to take advantage of it.

“My signals are what basically got people to notice me and help get to the level where I have gotten to,” he said. “You can’t get that level without hours and hours and hours of practice.”

Grosso is also a director of the Connecticut Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

Grosso was a high school wrestler in Connecticut at Bunnell in Stratford. He did some coaching with Bunnell and Bridgeport Central before joining the Marine Corps, where he served overseas and did some wrestling.

Once, he was discharged, he spent some time coaching in Trumbull before transitioning to officiating. It’s his way of staying involved in the sport.

“I just love the sport of wrestling,” Grosso said. “It did a lot for me and the way for me to give back now is to be the best official I can be. It’s not about me. It is about getting the call right.”

Read more at Connecticut Wrestling Online.

Published March 25, 2021 by the Connecticut Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame