Joseph Cahill III is following in both his parents’ footsteps and will be a legacy student at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts next year. Known as “JP,” Cahill committed to continue his wrestling career with the Bears on Wednesday, May 10.

“I’d say 80 to 90 percent of my family lives back in Boston,” Cahill said. “The college I’m going to is not even 30 minutes away from my grandma’s house. Both of my parents graduated from Bridgewater, so it’s a huge deal that I’m going there.”

Cahill called his namesake an “Irish legacy,” and he’s excited to move closer to family in the Northeast. Cahill’s aunt and cousin also graduated from Bridgewater, and his family support has always been meaningful to him.

Cahill’s journey to a wrestling scholarship at his desired school met a few bumps and turns, but everything fell neatly into place in the end.

Since his early days in flag football, Cahill wanted to play at the college level. He started dreaming of playing under stadium lights and in front of big crowds in elementary school, and that’s also when he began doing extra workouts with his dad.

His work ethic carried over into other sports, but Cahill’s football playing days were over before he entered high school. He broke his back in eighth grade and had to pivot to other sports.

“Right when football was about to start is when we fully found out it was broken,” Cahill said. “They said if I went to tryouts, I could’ve gotten paralyzed. I was out for four months, back brace 23 hours a day. It was a lot. That took a real toll on my life for a while, but after I got through it, I got into swim and wrestling.”

Cahill was a three-sport athlete most years and ran track for the Falcons. He did not swim this past fall because he spent that time getting ready for the wrestling season, but Cahill was on two relay teams that either set new school records or came within one second of a new record in 2021.

He also holds the record for the second-best long jump in Fountain Hills history (20’0.5”). Cahill set that record in his senior season and also placed eighth in the state competition in May this year.

Cahill considered track and field collegiately but decided to pursue wrestling after his junior season. He said he got more looks from colleges for track, but wrestling is his true passion, and he’d come a long way from where he started.

“Don’t get me wrong, freshman year wrestling, I got my butt kicked,” Cahill said. “It wasn’t like how senior year was, but it’s just one of those things that you got to stick with and put in the work.”

This year, Cahill had the most wins of any individual on the Falcons’ team entering the state tournament. He placed fourth in the state in the 120 lbs. weight class and finished his last season of high school wrestling with a 42-7 record.

Besides grinding out hours of practice each week, Cahill also had to watch his weight. He said that he’d eat minimally and take salt baths throughout the season to keep his weight down, and he constantly ran on his own after team practices.

Cahill said that there’s no better feeling than winning a tournament after putting in extra work. He missed the state tournament his junior year, and he was motivated to remedy that in his final season. Falcons head coach Luke Salzman could tell Cahill improved over the summer, and he said Cahill would be a standout wrestler before the season even began.

“I’d say a big part of how I got to where I am today is Salzman,” Cahill said. “If you want to hit a certain goal, he wants you to hit above that goal. He’ll push you to the limits. Everyone will leave practice around 5 or 5:30, and I’ll still be up there with a couple other guys cutting weight.”

Cahill went to training camps across the country and expanded his repertoire of techniques by cross training with Brazilian jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters last summer. All his preparations for senior season finally paid off when he stood on the state tournament podium, and again when he verbally committed to Bridgewater.

On signing day, Cahill’s friends, family and teammates celebrated his accomplishments. Signing his name made everything official, and Cahill allowed himself to soak in the moment.

“I knew I just committed to them and everything, but it was kind of surreal,” Cahill said. “It kind of just hit then, but I don’t know. I knew if I put in the work, I could get to here, but I didn’t really realize it until now. It’s kind of just a crazy thing until it really happens.”

Cahill previously told The Times that he was a different person because of his experiences with the Boys & Girls Club for over a decade. He was named the Mary Ellen & Robert McKee Branch Youth of the Year three times in a row from 2019 to 2021, and his leadership and communication skills grew each year.

Cahill will take the lessons he learned from multiple sports, coaches and the Boys & Girls Club, and apply them in Massachusetts. He plans to get a business degree and enter the medical sales industry, with hopes of starting his career through internships in Boston.