Former Nansemond River High School standout wrestler Ram McDonnell always wanted to claim a national title on the mat.

At the age of 31, with his high school and college wrestling days well behind him, he made his desire a reality.

Earlier this month, he pinned all of his opponents en route to winning the Greco-Roman 97 kilogram division at USA Wrestling’s Veteran’s National Championship in Las Vegas, Nev.

“It’s kind of surreal that it’s actually happened like years and years later,” McDonnell said of his winning a national title.

He said he did not think he had a chance to do it, because he had not been training as hard or as often as he did in high school and college.

His last tournament he had been involved in was back in 2009, and he dislocated his knee in that event. That had been his first tourney since college.

After he graduated from the University of Virginia, McDonnell got a job offer to be an accountant for Viacom out in California.

“I moved out (here) a month after I graduated, and I’ve just been out here ever since,” he said.

Though it was a big move, he was not distracted from a goal he had formed of making the U.S. Olympic wrestling team, and so he continued to pursue the sport on the West Coast. He is part of a team called the Santa Monica Bay Wrestling Club.

Work-related demands on his time are formidable, though. He no longer works at Viacom, but he noted he works 60 hours a week managing multiple million-dollar businesses.

“I run and operate some bars,” he said.

Nevertheless, in the time that he has been able to dedicate to wrestling, he has been successful.

“There’s a bunch of guys here that are on the Russian and Iranian national teams that I beat all the time,” he said.

They encouraged him to go to Las Vegas and compete, and he said, “With them in my ear, I finally decided to go do it.”

The Veteran’s National Championship is a tournament for wrestlers past the age of 25.

On May 6, he pinned everyone leading up to the final, where he faced an opponent from Pennsylvania.

McDonnell said pretty quickly in the first period of the final, he threw his opponent for four points. Then, he pinned him only one minute and 16 seconds into the match.

“I was surprised I pinned in the finals,” he said.

In terms of what gave him the edge, McDonnell said it was the technique he developed previously and the push and desire he had.

He also took a moment to put a spotlight on his Nansemond River coach, Gabe Rogers.

“He really set the foundation for my mentality in the sport,” McDonnell said, noting Rogers taught him not to focus on who he was facing on the mat but rather to focus on wrestling to his own ability.

He had not been in touch with Rogers for years, but after he won the national title in Las Vegas, McDonnell reached out to him to let him know of his achievement.

Rogers said, “I know that was one of his goals was to, even after college, still continue to wrestle, and then when I got that (text) last night, I was extremely excited and very proud of him.”

McDonnell did not start wrestling until he was a freshman in high school, but he said he was the first wrestler from Nansemond River to reach 100 wins, and in his senior year, he placed third in the state.

He got a partial scholarship to wrestle at U.Va., but he was plagued by injury during his collegiate career, though he has shaken that off with his recent success.

Rogers said that out of all the young people he has ever had the opportunity to work with, “I’ve never had an athlete that had the will to win as great as Ram McDonnell, and that’s a fact.”

“If he wants to go to the Olympic trials, he still has that opportunity,” Rogers said. And though he may consider McDonnell an underdog in that endeavor, “Ram is that kid that I never count out of anything.”