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Nile C. Kinnick's Dre Paylor pinned Kubasaki's Brendan Miracle in the 168-pound championship of the Beast of the East wrestling tournament.

Nile C. Kinnick's Dre Paylor pinned Kubasaki's Brendan Miracle in the 168-pound championship of the Beast of the East wrestling tournament. (James Kimber/Stars and Stripes)

Nile C. Kinnick's Dre Paylor pinned Kubasaki's Brendan Miracle in the 168-pound championship of the Beast of the East wrestling tournament.

Nile C. Kinnick's Dre Paylor pinned Kubasaki's Brendan Miracle in the 168-pound championship of the Beast of the East wrestling tournament. (James Kimber/Stars and Stripes)

NIle C. Kinnick Dre Paylor pins E.J. King Keagan Longton in the 168 -pound championship match at the DODDS Japan Wrestling Tournament Jan. 24 at Yokota High School in Fussa, Japan.

NIle C. Kinnick Dre Paylor pins E.J. King Keagan Longton in the 168 -pound championship match at the DODDS Japan Wrestling Tournament Jan. 24 at Yokota High School in Fussa, Japan. (James Kimber/Stars and Stripes)

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan -- He's the current Beast of the East, the DODDS Japan and Kanto Invitational champion at 168 pounds. He's gut wrenched, leg laced and pinned his way to a 16-1 regular season. His only loss came in the very first match of his life.

Not bad for a football player.

Dre Paylor is a junior at Nile C. Kinnick who seemingly doesn’t need to take up a new sport very long to be pretty good at it.

"He's got certain intangibles that you can't coach," Gary Wilson, Kinnick's head coach, said of his first-year wrestler. "He's eager to learn, learns fast and looks like he's been doing this for three years."

But Paylor's a rookie who never gave wrestling a second thought. Instead, he was busy setting DODDS Pacific rushing records.

Paylor became the second running back in Pacific history with a 2,000-yard season in 2013 (2,002 yards on 250 carries). In the 2014 season, he had 1,573 yards and 18 touchdowns on 157 carries. He also holds the Pacific’s single-game rushing record, 445 yards on 27 carries in a 36-23 win on Oct. 3 at Yokota.

His football coaches recommended he give wrestling a try after the season ended.

"I'm heading to Texas next year," Paylor said as he explained his reasoning to try wrestling. "The [football] players there are going to be bigger and have more experience against top-level talent. Wrestling will allow me to use leverage more to help take down players and how to better control my body when someone hits me."

He got a little more than he bargained for, though.

He still remembers "the kid from Kadena." Ricky Salinas wrestled for E.J. King before transferring to Kadena not long after becoming the only wrestler this year to defeat Paylor.

And there was "that Zama guy:" Sam Preston. "Oh man, yeah, he hurts you," Paylor said with a smile, running his hands over his dyed-red hair.

"From the bleachers, some of it looks like it's not such a big deal,” Paylor said. “You're thinking 'yeah, I got this.' But on the mats, you're so tired, you're bleeding and the hits are violent. One minute of wrestling feels like one half of football."

It's the conditioning wrestling requires that has seen him drop from his football playing weight of 175 to 180 pounds down to 168.

"I'm probably in the best shape of my life right now," Paylor said. "But I'll need to put that weight back on for football, especially if I can only make the team as a linebacker."

Of course, that weight probably needs to stay off in the spring, when Paylor is a sprinter for the track team.

"He's just such an incredible athlete," Wilson said. "He's always calm, relaxed and never worried about the score or what position he's in. He just finds a way to win."

There's no telling where Paylor would be if he had wrestled since his freshman year, but as raw as he may be at times, he's not going to sneak up on anyone at Far East in two weeks at Osan.

"All I can do is leave everything I've got on the mat," Paylor said.

Kimber.james@stripes.com

Twitter: @james.kimber

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