JD Bojanac was getting worked over in wrestling practice a few days before Thanksgiving and felt a mental breakdown coming on.

The Butler senior spent last summer prepping himself for that type of situation.

After going through boot camp in Fort Benning, Ga., after enlisting in the National Guard last summer, Bojanac wasn't about to let wrestling practice get the best of him.

“I was working the bottom for a half-hour straight and was getting beat up,” Bojanac said. “I just kept pushing.”

Bojanac, who will wrestle at 220 and 285 pounds this season, is starting to demonstrate what Golden Tornado coach Scott Stoner hopes the team can find.

Group toughness, both mental and physical.

“We don't have that here a lot. We don't have that confident arrogance, that I'm going to beat you up whether you're my best friend in practice or not by showing technique and things,” Stoner said. “JD definitely needs to gain some more of that. We'll be taking him and Riley (Burdine) and bumping both of them up.”

Bojanac made a big leap when he cracked the lineup during his junior season.

Before that, he had only wrestled two varsity matches.

Rotating between 220 and 285 pounds, Bojanac finished 32-11 with 17 pins.

Bojanac was the section runner-up and a WPIAL qualifier as a heavyweight.

“The expectation is pretty high for him to come back and be the leader that Jeremiah (Bortmas) and Connor (Foust) are going to be,” Stoner said.

Bojanac hopes to improve on his 0-2 performance at last season's Class AAA WPIAL Tournament.

He was eliminated in the first round of consolations with a 2-0 loss to Penn Hills' Michael Ames.

Bojanac expects to enter the postseason at 285 again, which means he will take on much heavier opponents.

“I mean it's challenging, knowing you're wrestling kids that are 40 or 60 pounds more weight than you,” Bojanac said. “It's an advantage having extra speed and being light on your feet.”

Going to boot camp helped Bojanac condition himself for the wrestling season.

But that wasn't the biggest thing he took away from the trip.

“It wasn't mostly the physical toughness,” Bojanac said. “It was more mental than anything. Working out and wrestling is more mental than anything.”

That mentality is what keeps Bojanac going when things aren't going well on the mat.

He's been in tougher situations.

Josh Rizzo is a sports writer for the Butler Eagle.