LOUISA COUNTY, Va. — Two Virginia students taking part in a wrestling tournament Saturday were stunned to discover their father, who had been serving overseas for a year, was waiting for them on the sidelines.
Army Staff Sgt. Robert Torbush surprised his sons, wrestlers Nick and Tyler, during their first home tournament of the season.
“Personally, I was in disbelief,” said Tyler Torbush, a freshman at Louisa County High School. “I didn’t realize that he was going to be home.”
The father of seven has been stationed in Korea for just over a year.
“Three hundred sixty-six days. My wife counted every single one,” Robert Torbush said. “Brought me back to when they were a lot younger and I returned home from a yearlong deployment in Iraq.”
After the surprise, the father got to see Nick win his match.
“I pulled a muscle in my chest, so anytime I put chest pressure on a person it, kind of hurts,” Nick Torbush said. “But with him being in that crowd, I just ignored that, put that aside and got that done.”
This story was originally published on WTVR.