CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Now that Cameron Stinson's high school wrestling career has concluded, even the most experienced at this level of the sport can't believe what they saw.
"He's a generational talent," Mavericks head coach Ben Barry said. "I've never experienced anything like this. I don't think anybody has."
And despite what he looks like on the mat, there's one emotion coursing through him before he wrestles.
"I'm always nervous before I wrestle a match," Stinson said. "In wrestling, anything can happen. You can be the number one ranked person in the country and next thing you know you get on your back and get pinned."
The thing is, he never did get pinned.
Stinson didn't lose a single match in four seasons of high school wrestling, going 205-0 with four state championships.
"I think I was just able to really find myself and be like, hey I'm undefeated," Stinson said. "Last year, senior year, like, hey, let's finish it."
Statistically, Stinson is the best high school wrestler in state history.
He's the third to ever win four state titles and finish with an undefeated record, but he's the first to do so with over 200 wins.
"I think it's still kind of overwhelming," Barry said. "He's wired for it. He is very driven. Talented, yes. Everybody's going to be talking about the statistics, the state championships but what I was kind of captured by recently was he never missed a practice."
Stinson began wrestling at seven.
"He hated it," his father and Mallard Creek assistant Cameron Stinson Sr., said.
Stinson Sr. wrestled at South Meck High School and introduced the sport to his son.
"I didn't win at all. I'm surprised I stuck with it," Stinson Jr., said. "When you're not good at something, you don't really want to stay with it, you want to get rid of it and try something else. But I stuck with it."
Now all of these years later, he can make the case for North Carolina's greatest high school wrestler of all time.
"It's amazing," Stinson Sr., said. "I don't think I could find the words that could actually explain it. Going through this whole time watching the different things that he's accomplished and he's always kept proving himself to be better."
The younger Stinson will now enroll at North Carolina and wrestle for the Tar Heels, where he soon hopes to be an NCAA champion.
"You never know what the outcome is going to be until the outcome happens," he said. "Don't let people set limits or barricades for you, and if they do just keep pushing. You never know what the result will be."