Standout LI wrestler finally meets son at Mastic get-together

Johnathan Dyer is 35 years old and had never met his biological father, who in the late 1970s was a famous Long Island high school wrestler, state champion and Olympic hopeful.

On Saturday, Dyer finally got his chance. He flew in from Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and embraced Michael Giustizia at a family gathering in Mastic. Giustizia had no idea his son was coming.

“This is unbelievable,” a stunned Giustizia said as he reunited with Dyer at the home of Giustizia’s sister, Maria Giustizia. “This is the surprise of surprises.”

Giustizia, of Mastic, was a standout wrestler at Walt Whitman High School, winning the state championship and eventually earning a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. But the team never competed because President Jimmy Carter boycotted the 1980 Games in the Soviet Union after that country invaded Afghanistan.

Giustizia, 57, then went into a tailspin. He became homeless for years, living for long stretches in a cardboard box on the Bowery in Manhattan.

When he was in college at the University of Tennessee, Giustizia had gotten a young woman pregnant, but left before the baby was born.

That child was Dyer, who went on to become a Marine and was part of the invading force when the United States launched the 2003 Iraq War. He was wounded within the first two weeks and received the Purple Heart, but went back the following year to serve for another seven months.

All along, since he was a boy, Dyer — who is divorced and has two children — had wondered about his biological father, and wanted to meet him.

“Ever since I’ve been alive I’ve always just wanted to at least know that side of the family,” Dyer said in an interview several days before the reunion. “That’s just a part of me that was missing.”

He started looking for his biological father more actively around the time of the war, but made little headway. Then, a few years ago, with the internet and Facebook, he got lucky — he located Giustizia’s sister.

Maria Giustizia said she nearly fell off her chair at Thanksgiving dinner in 2012 when she got a Facebook message from Dyer asking whether she had a brother named Michael.

“This is his dream, to meet his son,” Maria said of her older brother. “It’s closure.”

The father and son had spoken briefly over the phone and texted each other over the past few years, but had never met in person. Dyer said in the interview that it was time.

On Saturday, the reunited father and son hugged, and talked about the years of separation and the past, including Giustizia’s wrestling career and his days on the Bowery. He is no longer homeless and does occasional odd jobs, spackling and painting houses.

“Thank you for your patience, and for [forgiving] me [for] not getting to” Tennessee, Giustizia said. “There’s no excuse. I’m just thankful that he’s here, and this is happening now.”

Dyer, who was a wrestler and played soccer in high school, said meeting his father was “good. I know more about myself now.”

“I don’t feel bad about being short,” he added, joking. “I also know where I get the wanting to work out, wanting to be physically fit.”

Though neither father nor son cried, Maria Giustizia was in tears as she watched the reunion she helped orchestrate. She told her brother: “I love you. He’s here, and I’m happy for you because this is closure, for you, for me, and you have to be so proud of your son . . . having created such a wonderful young man.”

Dyer said earlier that he harbors no ill will toward his father. “Whatever happened back in the day, it’s in the past as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “I don’t need any explanation as to why people did what they did. That’s why you just move on and make the best of what you got.”

His mother, Rosemary Dyer, died in a house fire when Dyer was a sophomore in high school. Even before that, he was raised by her older sister and her husband, because Rosemary Dyer was not prepared to take on the responsibilities of motherhood, the Giustizia family said.

Speaking of his son, Michael Giustizia said, “This is a miracle, for what he’s done in life.”