With his family background, it would be difficult to imagine Mark Jahad as anything but a wrestler.

With a father who was at one time the national champion of Iran, the junior in sport management said he has been surrounded by the sport since “before I could walk.” However, it wasn’t until he reached high school that Jahad decided to pursue wrestling as a primary sport.

“He played all other sports,” Fred Jahad, Mark’s father, said. “He was great in soccer, basketball, baseball, football; he did all of them. I never really pushed him to come to wrestling.”

Mark’s father explained that Mark originally went to a wrestling camp on the recommendation of a friend and returned with a new enthusiasm.

“Before he came back and wanted to wrestle, he had just gone to Europe to play soccer,” Fred said. “I had just spent two or three thousand dollars for him to get better at soccer, and then he came home and said he wanted to be a wrestler.”

Mark’s father tried to dissuade him from the sport, noting that it was quite unlike those in which he excelled, but it didn’t help.

“I told him, ‘Mark, really, you don’t want to be a wrestler,’ but he said he was serious about it,” Fred said.

From there, the family moved near Cary High School, so Mark could be a part of one of the state’s most reputable wrestling programs. He started slowly.

“At first I thought he might never make the team,” Fred said.

But Mark soon refined his skills and went on to be the state champion at 171 pounds his senior year.

Of course, when he got to N.C. State, it was back to being the small fish. “This is actually my first year really competing at this level,” Mark said. “The past two years I’ve been behind guys like [Ryan] Goodman and [Jeremy] Colbert, who were both ACC champs. It was tough breaking the starting lineup.”

Mark noted he saw the talent around him as an excellent opportunity to learn and benefit from his peers.

“It’s definitely made me tougher,” Mark said.

Mark, now competing at 197 pounds, has had plenty of ups and downs facing his new opponents.

“Getting in the real competition is a lot different,” Mark said. Mark defeated nationally-ranked Joe Williams of Michigan State Nov. 17.

“That was a real confidence booster for me, being in my first year,” Mark said.

Last weekend at the Las Vegas Invitational, however, Mark was not as stellar.

“I had a couple of matches that I should have won, but I lost them at the end,” Mark said. “And that’s a real damper on my confidence.”

Truly, it has been an emotional roller coaster.

Regardless, his improvement since last season is certainly noteworthy, both in competition and as a member of the team. “He’s definitely had his mind set on training hard,” assistant coach Jerrod Sanders said. “He went from being kind of a slacker to being a guy who’s always on time and training real hard, and I think that rubs off on the other guys as well.”

Mark’s potential for further improvement as a wrestler is certainly evident. His father said he hopes to see him in the Olympics some day.

“In wrestling, you really don’t peak until you’re 27 or 28 years old, and he’s only 20 now,” Fred said.

Sanders said Mark is turning the corner from last season.

“He got knocked around a lot last year, and he’s getting knocked around a lot this year. But now he’s facing tougher opponents,” Sanders said. “He’ll see some more success next semester for sure.”