NCAAs...'08 ---I see
the local paper did cover this somewhat, but sorta left out the
ending. Nobody locally really won too much, other than Gregor, who
finished up not where he wanted to be, but a very respectable 5th
place. I did watch some of the other local wrestlers, but honestly,
there's so many great matches working at once there, its impossible
to keep track of everyone. Trevor Chinn I believe won 1 or 2 matches.
I watched him win l and lose one, but am not sure how he ended up
win/loss wise. There certainly wasn't anything wrong with his
wrestling, and any section five spectatator who had watched him in
HS, would think he looks just as tough as ever in college; its just
not tough enuf to beat a lot of guys at that level. It doesn't
diminish Trevor; it just proves how tough it is. Torsten went 0-2,
meeting eventual 7th placer Rivera from Minn right off the bat. That
didnt' go super well, as Tor was just a bit overwhelmed by Rivera's
top position -- and honestly, Tor just needs work on his bottom,
believe me. Stuff he got away with in HS, against about anyone, just
doesn't cut it at that level.
Gregor's wrestling
wasn't as sharp as last year in the crucial matches. At that
tournament, if you face guys who are right on and in the top l2, and
you aren't, you lose. There's no room for anything but l00% great
wrestling. Leen, who really hasn't been superimpressive this year,
had his best tourney ever. He was incredibly ready for Gregor in the
quarters, and Gregor wasn't as ready for him. Leen went on to win
against Poeta, who as much as he's an awesome wrestler, certainly has
an unnecessarily arrogant attitude about where he's at relative to
everyone else. Because of his mouth, watching him lose wasn't too
disheartening. Gregor met U-Pitt's Kocher for the 4th time this year
in his lst wrestleback, and won l-0 -- I mean what a horrible lst
wrestleback. Kocher was 5th last year at l57, and obviously has
Gregor's style nailed. He also deserved to all-american, but someone
had to go. Gregor wrestled Sanderson from Iowa next, who a real
strong, funky wrestler; Gregor caught him as he was diving under for
his leg (Gregor had an up single), and pinned him in 40cs...nice! He
lost a pretty miserable match against Penn. State's Vallimont, 2-1,
then tech falled Stanford's Zupancic for 5th. Overall, certainly a
very successful tournament, and his 3rd all-American year, which is
fantastic. But to anyone close to him, the quarter loss to Leen was
just crushing, after having won it last year. So recovering from that
and moving on was monumental.
In perspective, 5th is
still a great effort. The value of being there rather than lst, if
there is any! --is that now there's more emphasis on getting back to
lst, and evaluating why he wasn't there. That's something that when
you have won, you aren't as apt to look at. Jordan Leen sure did,
after being hailed pretty highly last year, and finished 8th at l49.
The kid was an absolute dark horse. And how well it worked.
This is a super
competitive 3 day tournament, and this time it was in St. Louis, MO.
I probably won't be helping the St. Louis tourism agency, believe me.
I don't really know what it is, but kinda yuk. Its not like the
actual venue as bad. Everyone who talks about it says 'oh its just so
nice. You are right downtown ( I mean ok, so what? That in itself, in
St. Louis, is sorta without substance...) and you can do everything
right there...why would you want too? Oh, there is the 'Union Square'
mall thing, which is ok. Its like a smallish halfway enclosed mall
where you can eat and crap like that. Its actually an old railroad
station -- and if you look around enuf you can see how impressive it
was, then. The historical aspect of it is impressive, and I really
learned some stuff about what an important service those railroad
stations served at one time...ok, so the super competitive thing I
mentioned at the start of this paragraph: its 3 days of it. This year
the finals were obviously not as exciting for us -- but its not just
because Gregor wasn't in them. I think its because there is so much
intense, super competitive action for 2 solid days prior to the all
day wait for the finals, I could almost do without them. That sounds
pretty wierd. But I think in most instances, if I had a round to
skip, it might be that one.
Heck, you're tired, the
3rd day is about the limit, you have to wait around all day -- I mean
watching the consis is certainly great -- but they're over by l pm
ish. You could head home and probably be ok.
Plus, it was St. Louis.
I prefer the tundra North of Detroit, where the Pistons
play...
...and so many matches
as this thing unfolds, decided by seconds of riding time! And many of
them occur to the dudes who end up in the finals. Regular time end,
tied score, OT x 2, then its whoever has the most riding time. So if
you have 3 seconds over your opponent, you win. How critical is it to
know how to ride? Mat wrestling becomes so essential...and, if you
are on bottom, unable to move...the clock ticking away....you have to
start feeling sick about it. I imagine Tanneanbaum did, at l65, when
Perry took him down off one of Tannenbaum's shots, and rode him for
the entire period!! Ouch, match already decided -- well, if Perry
takes Tannenbaum down, its a done deal anyway; because Perry isn't
going to lose on the mat.
3/13/09
Further ranting... Hey, I know that my contributions to this
page have been inexcuseably infrequent, and I would like to offer my
apologies to all 3 of my readers. Now can we move on?
I've
beendoing this wrestlng page for years and
mostly set about it during my own kids wrestling, during the pee wee
phase somewhere. This year it's sat pretty idle as I am watching them
wrestle in college. I mean up until the state thing I hadn't touched
it since mid-Dec. of '07. I'll probably continue to handle in in this
manner. I'd like to do more, but just really haven't had the time.
Most of my incentive to write anything is based on experiencing
tournaments with local wrestling. Hence the state writeup. Now let me
explain my method. I pretty much write what I see and judge. I've
been around wrestling for a long, long time. I've coached a lot of
wrestlers, some of them who have had quite a bit of success; I am not
a team coach (and I know Jacoutet is pretty upset about this; I'm
pretty sure I was his first pick to take over whenever he leaves
off!!!) his but an individual coach. I enjoy doing it, I enjoy
helping young wrestlers. When they compete, I let them know what I
think about their performance. And most of the time it's not front
page accolades. Its honest. Just like what I do here. I don't put a
pretty spin on it to make wrestlers feel good. I don't really see any
point in that. Anyone I work with understands that, and although he
might be a little rocked by my observations,he realizes I'm right,
and that I'm not making him think he's someplace he isn't. One thing
I could just never get comfortable with was saying to a wrestler I
have worked with is 'Hey, nice match!' if he wrestled poorly, yet
still won! I'm more apt to say, 'Well, you won, but what was that
about?' I mean if you win because you could hardly lose, who cares?
Good wrestling isn't just about winning. Its about wrestling well!
The best part of wrestling is wrestling well, when you have to, and
winning. That's what makes me feel good about watching wrestlers.
The upside of this is
that when he does well, and I let him know, and I do so gladly! --he
knows there's nothing artificial about it. I mean if he sucks , I let
'em know. If someone I coach goes out and gets ridden with legs for 6
minutes, I ask him how he could possibly do that? Why not just go
out, open up a let, allow the guy to put it in, and lay there? That's
pretty much my question. Since I have taught whoever it is how to
stay and get out of legs, more than enuf to assimilate it, I guess I
can reasonably expect him to not freeze up and do nothing about it
during a match.
There's no question
that if that individual's mother were standing there listening, I
would be hash.
When I observe
wrestling at tournaments, I pretty much do the same thing. Sometimes
its not too nice. WHen I see wrestlers I think represent the area's
best, and perhaps the state's best, I expect them to look that way.
If they don't, I might comment on it -- well I will comment on it.
What I'm saying may not please everyone, but its what I am seeing as
the truth; others may disagree with it, and probably will, but I'm
writing it, and its my perspective. I don't expect it to be the only
perspective. But its not like this is a group page. On the other
hand, if a wrestler wrestles like I figure he can, or exceeds it, I
am all applause about it. I know its a goofy way to be.
Now I sure don't think
I'm God. But I think I have been developed enuf wrestling savvy to be
fairly objective about it. I'm sure many folks thought last week's
state finals were wonderful. I didn't. I thought a lot of the matches
were in slow motion, and technically poor. In all but a few, there
didn't seem to be a lot of gusto and zip. In the matches that could
have been great ones, something was missing -- like in the D2 matches
with great state talent Ekstrom -- he's a thrill to watch, but who
was he wrestling? (I don't know --help me out if I'm wrong..) I'd
like to see him wrestling someone near , at , or beyond his own
level. I don't think that's happening in the small school div. What's
the fun of storming thru states without being tested? Unless, of
course, you really are that good, that noone out ther can challenge
you. I don't think that's the case though. There were others. He just
so totally dominated, he stood out. Paddock was another, but his kid
(finals) was pretty good; heck after he took Paddock down, watching
Paddock get his revenge with the reversal and cradle was incredible!
Ok, there are also matches and scenarious I just don't comment on.
believe me, there were plenty in states. Since I have nothing
positive to say, I say nothing. When it came to Bryan Bourne, I
commented on how I expected a little more umph in the match -- this
doesn't mean I think he's a poor wrestler; and it surely doesn't
imply that I am trying to subtract from his moment of winning states.
I just thought the match should have packed a little more punch, and
that I'd seen him wrestle livelier before. I sandwiched (in the
original writing-- its different now) quite a few comments about his
level of wrestling and I didn't think anyone could mistake that I
considered him a very high level wrestler. He is. That's why I wasn't
totally enthralled with his match. Bryan is also someone you might
expect someone who is writing about top area wrestling to comment on.
But I'm not the newspaper, and don't do the 'High 5 ' thing to all
local wrestlers who win state titles. The joes at the newspaper don't
really know much about wrestling, so their perspective on the quality
of a match, beyond the score, means very little.
I also commented on
Ruggirello. I know his father and have watched his kids wrestle for
years. Louie is a nationally ranked (div 1 )animal on top. (he's the
oldest one). Cody, who was 2nd at ll9, is obviously younger. And he
shares his brother's instincts on top, but perhaps isn't as
relentless. I commented on his takedowns -- which showed me they are
the weaker part of his game. They weren't on par with his mat skills,
and his shots were poor. His bottom moves were neat -- I realy liked
them; I love watching kids do moves that aren't just standups! He
understands bottom position more comprehensively because of this. We
didn't see him on top, because this was the one position his opponent
seemed to excell in (negative? Well other than his final shot, in OT,
when Ruggi was out of bounds, what else did he do? He couldn't finish
a shot otherwise because of very poor position and a complimenting
finish...). Now its possible that Ruggi's shots have been better
elsewhere. But I'm not talking about that, and am not there seeing
them.
..So where was he? I've been hearing
it all year, the constant drone about that little hairless yak taking
me out !! I waited around in the area behind the War Memorial for
awhile (actually, I got lost in the aqueducts and spent about 2 hours
prowling around in the subterranean tunnels beneath the city; wow,
what a tour; you'd think otherwise, eh? But if you go in deep enuf,
say about a qtr. mile, there is actually some guy who greets you and
takes you into the frightening depths, where it suddenly gets warm
and pleasant food odors waft about. I asked if he had seen a polished
headed little twit anywhere, and he said well no, most of his
visitors had scraggly beards and hats...). I had a quick dinner and
excused myself. I was guided back to the real world by those
deletable Dino Grill odors..but I just wanted a chunk of baldie!! I
thought I saw the lights shimmering off his chrome dome a few times,
and and I did a few shadow rounds with a street pole; well then I
sorta slipped and fell.. I thought I broke my elbow, but even one
armed, and the wrong arm, what was that little tatoed rodent runt
going to do to me? -- but anyway, it just some street lights bouncing
off a garbage can. That's ok. I know cowardice when I smell it...or
was that a Dino rib? ... maybe that was it...anyway -- I abandoned
the waiting ordeal and headed over for some Dino eats. Thanks Rich!
You know I still love you! Maybe next year...and hey, bring the whole
gang! Piedey, Zimmer...whatever! I'm here man! I'm
waitin....
...
3/10/08
-- end of season stuff.. .......
Watching the finals of
states here in Rochester, I was pretty glad it was here in Rochester.
I had spent most of the weekend in Pittsburgh watching the EWLs
(qualifer for nationals) ..and well, I'll get to that later. But I
just wasn't very excited by most of the wrestling I witnessed. I
wasn't very excited anyway, having driven both ways in a friggin
blizzard! -- and arriving home at 3:20 am Sunday -- so it would have
taken quite a bit to excite me. Dierna's match did. That was a fun
match to watch -- the back and forth, reversals, escapes, backpts. --
it was neat! Quite a contrast to most of the matches that followed.
These little 96 lb dudes were moving well! Not maintaining very good
control -- but that was part of the fun-- and, being young gives you
that latitude!! If I move up to ll9 -- where local favorites Ellis
and Marianetti faded pretty quickly, I was figuring on watching some
real exciting, go getter action in the finals. One of them was little
Ruggi -- who's brother is a Div. l force, with great off the whistle
shots and a ride that kills. Little Ruggi is tough on top, and his
bottom stuff is very interesting -- he's not just your typical
standup dude. No, he does his short sits and head hunts, and is
amazingly successful with it. He made space very well in the 3rd
period off bottom and escaped -- it was a situation I don't see
often, and I appreciate it. But his shots are poor, basically just
reaching and diving. So whoever he wrestled (I know, I should know,
and if I wasn't so lazy, I would check it out, but I don't care that
much...) -- you figure this kid would have good shots. No. Low
ankles, across the body, always ending up with his head outside, as
Ruggie did that awkward knee bend thing. Over and over. It just
wasn't pretty. His only good shot was at the very end, and won him
the match. The kid did have a good escape -- and other wise, he
woulda been hammared, since Ruggi has tough, tough bars. But he never
got to work there.
Zach Clemente, at l40,
is a solid good, ranked nationally; he has commendable technique, and
he was wrestling a kid who was very long -- and who, with very
awkward cross over shots (where you hang around one leg, sorta
setting it up, then shoot on the other), he did manage to get
Clement's leg a few times. I was surprised at how close this match
was. I just didn't think he was in the same league as Clemente; I
guess most of it was how technically awkward the kid appeared -- his
execution was not very precise at all, yet Clemente struggled to
defend against him.
The best match of the
nite on the large school side was Capone at l52. I don't know who he
wrestled, but he totally dominated, in impressive fashion, the entire
match. He wrestled at l35 last year, and didn't do much at states, so
he has grown a lot, in more ways than one. Long, great crab ride, and
seemingly competent in all positions. He was the gift of the nite.
I think pretty much the
same thing about big and small school states that I thought when they
instituted it. I still don't see the point of it, other than making
sure that kids from small schools can win states; that's nice, of
course, but the entire pt. of making changes in NYS wrestling was to
involve wrestlers who could place or win in states, and who were from
the same section -- do you don't have the top guys in one section,
and only one guy going to states. The big school small school thing
seems like a compromise on that issue, and its most likely here to
staty. As I mentioned before, kids like Ekstrom and Paddock sure
don't need to hide in the small school brackets. They can compete
with anyone. And if they don't win against anyone, then they really
aren't true state champs. They're only small school state champs. And
this also works the other way: if the toughest kid is in the small
school, the dude in the large school bracket is only the large school
winner -- since he would get beat by the smaller school kid. It just
can't be proven now! And the yik yak about a post season match
between the two may go nowhere; and if it does materialize, what will
it prove? Wrestlers tune themselves for the BIG, final, state
tournament, not the fake ones after that. Those who are trully
focused on the states, won't be as sharp by any means. Its like
beating a top wrestler in the Summer tourneys: that always makes the
kids who lost to him during the season feel good, but they won't beat
him during the actual season, when it counts. Great wrestlers rarely
stay in top shape beyond when they absolutely have too.
I will be writing up
some Div. l collegiate stuff very soon....no, really, I will!!! Just
check back and see... (oh, here we go....see below)
The div. l college
stuff is heating up rapidly, with nationals in a week and a half in
St. Louis. Honestly, just qualifying to participate in this is a huge
experience; and just because you have gone before, and even placed
before, perhaps as high as 2nd, does not insure a return trip. Greg
Henning, Wisconsin's 2nd placer at l57 last year, failed to qualify
at the big l0 this past weekend! I think it might be the lst time he
hasn't gone, and he's a sr.! Ugly stuff like that happens quite a bit
at this level. Jason Borshoff qualified -- wild card, 4th place,
EIWA; his brother Kyle, 6th place, didn't qualify, and last year he
wrestled very well at nationals against 6th place finisher Branden
Rader. Trevor Chinn, Wild card (4th place, I think,EIWA...) made it
again also. Torsten goes for his lst time and Gregor returns, Tor
having placed 2nd at the EWLs, and Gregor winning -- in a weight
stuffed full of top 20 kids, one of them placing 5th last year at l57
(nationals) --
Ryan Needle seems to
have finished up his collegiate wrestling at UB, failing to secure a
trip to nationals. He, Lloyd (another NYS wrestler), and Gingerich
all shared 149 this year, and Lloyd finally moved up to l57 --
finished 2nd in the MAC, good enuf for a spot at nationals. Desi
Green was wrestling at UB, redshirting apparently, and I see he went
1-2 for the year -- which means perhaps he isn't wrestling. I don't
know. I know he did have an issue at the Edinboro Open, and didn't
finish the tourney. Kevin Smith of Mexico wrestles there also, and
has about a 50/50 record -- he isn't starting. Mandara is at Ashland,
a D-2 school, and seems to be struggling at l33; I guess he couldn't
make the lineup at 125. In their regional qualifier he went 0-2,
losing by pins each time, the second one in 47 seconds. So it doesn't
look like he's doing very well. And for anyone who wonders what D-2
is, it's sorta like D-3, but perhaps a bit better. Mercyhurst is a
D-2 team, and they are ranked fairly high in the D-2; they wrestle
every year at the Edinboro duals (Avolon duals), and I don't think in
the 3 years I've watched that they have won a match as a team in that
dual quad. They do absolutely have some very competitive wrestlers,
and they win individual matches. But they aren't competitive with
reasonably good D-l schools -- btw -- this isn't something that
anyone on the D-l level is really thinking much about. Any discussion
of where D-2 might fit in takes place mostly with those who those on
the D-2 level, because it can take place on that level; whereas, the
wrestling really can't take place on the D-l level. Edinboro has
wrestled in dual meet tournies with Pitts-Johnstown and some other
very tough D-2 schools, and they have some very tough wrestlers. But
they do not compete well with good D-l teams.
More
later....
Although I have no kids wrestling in HS
anymore, I do plan to update this once in awhile -- hopefully more
often that I have been!!!........Obviously, most of my wrestling time
will be spent observing collegiate matches, mostly involving
Edinboro, where Torsten and Gregor wrestle....I mean so far this
year, I have been to the Edinboro duals, which is a nice way for
Edinboro to kick off it's season. This year was at the college, and
Erie's one div. 2 team, Mercyhurst, was there, along with Army and
Maryland U. They take these matches in order of presumed difficulty,
so Mercyhurst was lst, then Army, then Maryland. This weekend also
features a pretty popular coaching clinic. There are actually come
local coaches there, which I think is pretty cool. It's a great
weekend, not just for learning some great team stuff, but seeing some
top notch wrestling.
Torsten is starting at
a true freshman, and at this point is ll-8. He's doing pretty well,
but has hit a few bumps. You see, some of the things you do in HS and
get away with that aren't super smart, cost you big time when you
wrestle some of the better guys around the country. He wrestled at
the Vegas Invite, which in somc weight classes, was a very real
practice run for an early season nationals! In his 3rd round, he lost
a very exciting 9-6 match against Hoftsra's Griffin, who was 3rd in
nationals at l41 last year. Tor was also behind 5-0 after the lst
minute of that match. He wrestled back well, and lost a match he
should've won against Old Dominion's Ryan Williams who is currently
ranked llth by Intermat/NCWA.
Gregor's bumped up to
l57, and that seems to have been a great move. Struggling to make l49
towards the end of last season, and showing it big time in late
season duals, l57 is much more comfortable. The top 3 ranked
wrestlers in the nation were at Vegas, and that's where they finished
also, with Gregor losing an extremely exciting match against Illinois
wrestler Poeta in a mad scramble toward's the end of the match --4-3.
Next weekend they wrestle at the Southern Scuffle, Greensboro, NC.
It's also a very tough tounie, and they'll meet some of the very same
wrestlers, give or take a few. Also at that tourney, may be a match
between the new rage at l49, Darrion Caldwell, and Dustin Schlatter.
It's a matchup of totally opposite styles, with Caldwell 'usually'
throwing caution to the wind, and storming right in flinging
everything he has. And that's a lot, especially where speed is
concerned. Schlatter is one of the best defensive wrestlers out
there, which shows in his l pt. matches; but when someone attacks
him, he usually ends up scoring a lot more points. We'll just see if
he's sharp enuf to volley with Caldwell, who has been without
inhibition in the matches I have seen. I also see that the wrestler
he was beating 8-1 heading into the lst half of the lst period of the
quarters of nationals, has shifted up to l49 - that's Ryan Lang, who
pinned Caldwell at 1:42 of lst period after having been behind by
that much! So Lang will add some dimension to the weight also. He has
a tough, brawling style of wrestling, that perhaps isn't as fast as
Caldwell's, but may involve a bit more strength and
determination...who knows.
While at Vegas, I had a
sandwich with Ryan Needle in a deli and wondered aloud to him, just
what the heck is going on at l49 over at UB? Well, he seems to be
back in now; Gingrich (sp), who was out last season because of Lyme
desease, must have lost in a wrestle off. And Lloyd is floating
around somewhere, l41 he says????...but I doubt it. So they could
just end up with a few extra decent Srs. all at the same weight! Wow.
They (Edinboro) also
wrestled at the PSAC tourney, in Clarion, two weeks ago. That's an 8
team field with Div. l and div 2 Pa. schools -- Tor was kinda sick,
so he struggled with a 4th place finish; Gregor wrestled Bloom's
Moley in the finals, and beat him 12-0 I think. Moley isno slouch,
and had been ranked as high as l0th up to the Vegas tourney. Last
weekend the War by the Shore took place in Erie, and they wrestled
Eastern Mi., a sort of reborn again team, consisting of a fair amount
of ex- Slippery Rock wrestlers who followed their coach to EM.
(Slippery Rock discontinued their program 2 years ago, to the chagrin
of many; as a matter of fact, I recall reading about it online on the
Monday or SUnday following the PSAC tourney, which was held there;
during the afternoon the president of the college was strolling
around the fieldhouse asking us wrestling spectators how we liked the
event, and making us feel real comfy and welcome....sorta wierd,
reading about him announcing they were cancelling wrestling the very
next day! I mean what's up with that crap?
Trevor Chinn is still
at l49 at Lehigh. Cory Jentzen is wrestling 141 for Harvard. The
Borshoffs are at American, Jason at l25 and Kyle at l41. I'll try and
keep this updated a bit more on time. Andrew Krieger was wrestling at
l41 -- but I don't see him in the past couple of matches at all; I do
see an 'Andrew Saunders' at l49 for Greensboro, so maybe he changed
his last name and bumped up a weight! More info on that later. Feel
free to email me if you want anymore info.....Brad
A word or so about
collegiate weights: at the D-l level, sometimes the really tough
hombres don't look so hot in dual meets. This is because they weigh
in and and the match starts pretty soon afterward, so they might have
an hour to absorb liquids and other things that actually make them
feel human again. In tournaments, if they are top tier, they get easy
first rounds, and can struggle thru them, until they get their mojo
back. But the middle of the lst day, they are usually getting
tougher. But the middle of the second day, even though they have had
to weigh in again that am, with l lb allowance, they are pretty much
good to go. Now, if they aren't doing too well at their weight, they
won't have any advantage in tournies because they won't get a break
on their early matchups. So in that instance, wrestling too low
doesn't make much sense.
Off season
training
We've had our share
of success with wrestling around here. You might think this is
because of a year round ritual of wrestling, but it is not. Probably
somewhat to the contrary.
Don't get me wrong,
I surely believe connecting the end of one season to the beginning of
the next with a certain amount of wrestling is desireable; what good
is it to wrestle for only 3-4 months, and then forget about it? Not
many wrestlers will ever be too successful doing that. But for many
wrestlers, it's a year round ordeal. Is that good? Perhaps, for some,
but not many. There is the old rule of diminishing returns working
for many wrestlers, who plod along month after month, right up to the
next season, wrestling and perfecting their skills, only to see that
when the next season arrives, they are missing something. I mean who
woulda thunk? All that endless effort, and for what? Being about the
same relative to the competition -- which includes guys who hardly
did anything at all in the off season!!?? How can that be? But it
absolutely is! Many athletes actually improve with time off -- well,
maybe all of them.
Anyway, around here,
wrestling during the offseason has never really been a superserious,
very structured endeavor. Yes, naturally, we have done it, but to a
limited degree. Prior to Gregor going to Edinboro, after his HS Sr.
year, he didn't wrestle once from Sr. nationals until sometime in
October at Edinboro -- hmmmmm...did that time off hurt him? He
lifted, yes, and got stronger -- which is probably as important for
Div. l wrestling as wrestling is! And last year, he worked some
wrestling camps....and lifted. No real concerted effort was made to
do a lot of serious wrestling. It happened, naturally.
Who wants to head
into the wrestling season already half burnt out? Think about it.
This year American Univ. Josh Glenn didn't compete until second
semester, I am told -- and won nationals! -- with a seriously messed
up knee (something that happened during the actual match in the
finals....or so I heard) . Was he fresh? Sure! Was he burnt out?
Hardly. Was he hungry? Most intensely so!
Now I realize that
wrestling during the season at Edinboro and at other hi-level
colleges is not the same as it is at your local HS (unless it's
Spencerport of course!) -- but the very same principle applies. You
want to stay hungry. And giving your body time off, to recover and to
integrate, and to mature without wrestling -- is absolutely
essential. So feel free to take some time off. And lift, of course! I
do realize that for a lot of athletes, much of the value in a sport
is in the actual pursuit -- the training, travel, ritual...and this
does have value; certainly it has more value than just doing nothing,
or doing things that get you into trouble. But if you are really
serious, you have to put aside the mania and chill sometimes. Chasing
frantically after a goal causes some serious wheelspinning at a
certain point.
Variety in wrestling
is also a good thing -- except if it comes in the form of too many
coaches, coaching you thru different ways. At some point in
wrestling, you have to settle into a pattern where you can execute
what you know. Having l4 different coaches telling you various things
is about frigging useless. And honestly, it doesn't matter a bit if
they are hot shots from wherever or not. If they confuse, and you
can't execute, whatever you are learning is useless. Unless of course
you just like feeling good about learning something from the latest
guru! I mean for sure, if you are into that, go for it!
And if you don't
wrestle in between wrestling seasons -- you just won't be very
successful at all, unless you are an extremely talented athlete, and
even then your success will be limited. You have to wrestle some. I
think even intermitent wrestling is fine -- and you don't have to
wrestle freestyle, even though in the Spring it is the in thing. I'm
not real sure about the benefits of beach wrestling, which is closer
to Sumo than actual folkstyle.
It all really boils
down to being somewhat sane about it, and not some true believer who
thinks only chronic, intense wrestling will make him the wrestler he
needs to be once the season rolls around.
What some of you highschoolers might want to be
thinking about for college -- if you are planning to
wrestle
After spending a
fair amount of time absorbing division 1 wrestling (the
past two years) I think
it's possible I might have some insights that might be worth a
looksee to those of you who might have some inclination to actually
wrestle on that level. Wrestling successfully on the div. l level is
an incredible accomplishment, but not everyone is cut out to do it.
Not even some of the state's most successful wrestlers! So, am I
suggesting that you aspire to be less? Well, perhaps. But most
importantly, what I am suggesting is that you wrestle on your own
level, a level you can actually compete at, and not become just a
frustrated, mediocre level (and by mediocre, I am not saying you
aren't any good, just that when you compete against the nation's top
studs, you might feel no good!)
There is a lot of
pretty heavy duty talent in section 5 -- at least as it pertains to
section 5, and to a pretty strong degree, how it pertains to the
overall state -- as evidenced by the showing this year in states of
section 5 wrestlers. It's pretty impressive. And now that section 5
actually has a div. l national champ -- should everyone aspire to
that? No. Maybe a few should. Div. l wrestling is the highest level
you can wrestle at in this country, and becoming an all-amercian
is the supreme accomplishment --even if, after you have wrestled 4
years and are into your 5th year (assuming a redshirt year), you can
claim 8th place -- it is an immense achievement! But it is enormously
difficult to attain -- almost beyond the comprehension of those who
have not participated on that level. And for those to do compete at
that level, after having been very successful HS wrestlers, becoming
an average wrestler is frustrating -- and certainly not what they had
in mind. So what do they do? They really can't drop back to div. 3,
or go to a Jr. college. They are stuck, and unlikely to improve their
status.
There are a lot of
really hard working wrestlers around who are quite successful. They
work year round, and get better, to some degree, because of it. Who
would expect otherwise? That's fine. Everyone will tell you that hard
work pays off. But that's just not the end of it. You can work your
ass off year round and still not place in states, or take 5th or 4th
or something, but you might very well be at your limit. You might
have dreams of becoming the a real stud on the div. l scene -- but
your actual potential may already be near it's max. Sorry, but it's
the sad truth. Sure, heading off to Penn State or Edinboro will
improve you. But you will be working your tail off against other
wrestlers who might have more potential than you do, but who haven't
exploited it as you have by working so hard in HS. They may have a
lot more room to improve, so the intense effort is going to move them
beyond you quickly. This is a a hardcore reality, and one that smacks
many aspiring section 5 studs in the face and forces them to thrive
in a state of frustrated mediocrity once they do try competing on the
div.l level.
There is literally
tons of languishing talent in div. l wrestling rooms -- state champs
and guys who have national recognition, who don't even compete! And
if they do, it may not be for their second or third year of working
out in that very competitive room.
It's hard to assess
where a wrestler might be headed once he leaves HS. Will he have the
stuff it takes to compete on the div. l level? Or is he better suited
to div 3? I say div. 3 because around this area, it's viable --there
are enuf div. 3 programs to make competing on that level a very real
possibility. There is also NAIA -- National assoc. of independent
athletics -- but most of these colleges are midwest and have very
different (much more relaxed) standards for competition. There's
nothing wrong with that -- many very competent wrestlers wrestle in
the NAIA -- it's probably similar in this regard to Div. 3.
But I can tell you
one thing: many of the wrestlers thinking on div. level, should be
thinking more about div. 3 -- there's many top level wrestlers from
NYS who compete on that level, and haven't won a championship, or
even placed yet!! And they were every bit as successful, if not
moreso, than many of the local dudes thinking of the big time right
now around here.
You need to ask
yourself where you might be in your wrestling life: Have I maxed out?
Am I near my peak? Or am I a flower that hasn't had enuf water, and
will bloom in the div. l environment? That's a huge question. There
are certainly coaches around who can assist you in answering it. Try
Coach Cook or Leone or Jacoutet (just some I am sure of, but there
are certainly others...) - I'd say they can give you objective views
on where you are and where you might not want to be.
The reality of
wrestling it's much better to wrestle on the level you can compete
at. For the handful of real studs around here, guys who do have what
it takes to compete on the div. l level, going out and being an ok
wrestler for a year or so and then really getting into the mix,
that's fine! But there are few and far between. For the rest of you,
if it's on the JUCO level or Div 3 or NAIA, when you are competitive
at that level, it will be enjoyable, and that will be your wrestling
world. It's not as if the world ends if you don't wrestle div. l.
----feel free to email me if you have any questions about this...I am
most happy to share my thoughts....
Brad
The larger news is
that section five, with it's army of wrestlers, totally dominated
states. And now you know what? Because of this absolute domination,
Section 5 will be the only section allowed at states next year, which
is nice, since they are here in Rochester. I think they'll continue
to be here forever now with the wild card system. Why should we have
to go anywhere else? I mean honestly, I could care less, since my
kids are done with HS wrestling as of this year, and as a matter of
fact -- I mean what is up with that? After having gone to states 6 X
with kids, and never once having had them in Rochester, they are here
next year? Wow, what a kick in the ass that is...
But continuing with
the section 5 dominance, I think it's time to take this whole section
5, big school/small school thing to it's logical conclusions: have a
frigging match between the two, so that there will be one state
champion, like they was for 87 years. How many great matches would
there have been this year, had it not been for this division stuff?
Or, I mean, take it the other way. Have 4 state champs. Why should
really, really small schools have to suffer?
Best match in state
finals: Mariacher and Tobias -- l30. Easily. Those were two excellent
wrestlers who let it all hang out, and were very evenly matched, and
who had two totally different wrestling styles.
Hey, is it really
true that after a wrestler had lost, the little cretins with punches
went around punching their tags so they wouldn't be allowed on the
floor anymore? I gotta tell ya: If I was a wrestler who had just lost
his final state match and some idiot was chasing me around with a
punch so soon after my match trying make sure I didn't get back on
the floor, I think I'd do a little punching of my own. What the heck
-- you're outa there anyway....
Physically fit, 41 year
old wrestling coach hires old lady to shovel driveway??
Yes, it's true! Dean Salvaggio, head wrestling coach
at Webster Schroeder, noticed that his 94 year old neighbor was out
dutifully shovelling her driveway nearly everyday of the week on an
hourly basis, snow or no snow, and decided on the spot to do her a
favor! Realizing how tough it is for elderly people on a fixed income
(the lady has 2 brand new Cadillacs in her 6 car garage) he relented
to a fit of sudden compassion and asked if she'd like to shovel his
driveway for $8. Yes, $8. It was a blizzard outside, and her hearing
isn't what it used to be, and perhaps she heard wrong, but she
agreed; she probably doesn't know yet that it's $8 per shovel. And
now Coach Salvaggio has the most probable position of being the only
41 year old perfectly fit wrestling coach in the nation to have a 94
year old lady shoveling his driveway! How
awesome is that?? I mean that's just
awesome!!
The aborted
sequel.... Ok, so perhaps you
missed it, the ending of our little ongoing saga here, between
Braggin Brad and Rich the Hammarhead. Someone had worked out for them
some space during the wrestlebacks at Supers on one of the mats,
right around the l03 lb weight, Div l. (space) I was anxiously
awaiting it, for sure! Not many knew about it, as it was sort of a
fan surprise! WOW~!~ what were they in for?? So anyway, shortie was
buffing up his dome and brushing his new wig, in a state of complete
frenzy as he pumped away with his little piston arms in front of the
mirror. Now was
his chance. He had his little song all going on in his head and was
running thru his imaginary dance when ding,
it was time to go. So out he went, and out
went BB also -- for the finale! There was an empty mat right next to
the 103 consi match, and this was where they were headed....I mean
were headed...
but what was going on? As they started across the mat, there was a
sudden rush at his side, along with a lot of enraged gibberish, when
someone nearly tackled Hammar! He responded by...well, by
falling (uuughh.) , (somewhat ungraciously I might add). But what the heck,
he hit a standup like he never had, figuring BB had blindsided him,
but no....there was this other little guy, kinda skinny, hollaring
for all he was worth at what seemed to be either the ref of the coach
--- his kid was
wrestling and things were taking a turn for the worse -- obviously
the ref's or the coache's fault!>? He'd just flown off the
bleachers...totally besieged by a fury so dark and overwhelming that
flinging himself thru spectators and out nearly onto the mat seemed
just like the logical course of action! Granted, not many other
parents were doing this, but how many other parents had kids who were
being coached so badly?? Naturally, the ref disagreed, and with a
swiftness and steadiness about him that was rightfully authoritative,
he ordered the crazed father out of the gym! A couple of flourishes
later, and mission accomplished! And the horribly coached match
finished, pretty much the same as it would have had a competent coach
been on hand or not. Chrome dome looked around. His moment of fame
had been stolen! Where the heck was that twissly little squirt.....
he headed out of the gym in hot pursuit!
End of
season thoughts (oo7....)
--having spent a pretty hectic season following both the local HS and
not so local Div. 1 wrestling situation -- gosh, I am ready for a
real huge nap! One thing that made this HS season a lot more
enjoyable was the rule changes for weighins at tournies. Having to
weigh in on the second day seems to have have a nearly univeral
effect on kids staying much closer to their normal weight, and wow,
what a huge relief that is to anyone around the household!! I guess
when you look at all the different rule adjustments that have been
made over the years to combat ugly weight loss, and you see how
little they have actually achieved, seeing one that is so simple and
that actually works, is just stunning! I am sure that it won't be
around long, just because of this. Rule makers cannot be content with
simple success, and if they have any purpose in life, it is to tamper
with anything forever.
When you look at the rules for collegiate
wrestling, they are perhaps the least sensible. As a matter of fact,
once you have been exposed to higher level wrestling, and most
eggregiously a lot of the reffing, you start to yearn for what you have
accepted for so many years as so much lower level punk junk on the HS
level. But it is not, I assure you. The reffing, at least on the
regional level, is nearly absurd sometimes. Is it tainted by
prejudice ? Perhaps. But most of all, it is idiotic to an extreme
degree when it comes to, believe it or not: Stalling!
Ha, I am sure most of you are thinking,
hey-- Gillespie, have you gone nuts! But no, I do witness it, and it
really elevates some of the local reffing. You think, oh, it's the
big time animal Div. l college wrestling! You must get hammared for
stalling. Well no. You can stall your ass off on bottom most of the
time, even fall asleep, and a lot of the refs either do nothing, but
maybe warn the staller once, or warn the top guy....even, yes! -- at
nationals things are certainly different, as they are at states on
the HS level. Things must happen, or you are zapped for stalling.
They just can't have guys laying around out there! And usually, the
right guy gets zapped. However, if you take a good look at what
happened to Michigan's Churella against Okie's showy Hendricks last
year in the finals (NCAA), you might wonder what is up with NCAA
refs....
College
weights?....But ok, let's move on. It's the weight thing that really
makes almost too much sense! A lot of years ago when a few div.l
wrestlers were draining nearly all the fluids from their bodies to
make weight, and some died as a result, rules and changes were
suddenly implemented. This is what happens in our society --
something drastic occurs, and draconian measures are instantly
instituted, never to be altered beyond that, no matter how ridiculous
they are. I mean just look at the weight classes. They used to start
at ll8, then 126, 133, 142, 150.....and because of the deaths, they
were immediately bumpled up 7 lbs....not just for the duration of
that season, which may have made sense, but forever, I guess, which
makes none. Any small guy was forever relegated to midgetized,
noncompetitive status in collegiate wrestling. And anyone wishing to
wrestle 150 the following year, now had to make 149 instead, so they
overall effect was to force wrestlers (above the now no longer
existent ll8 lb class) to lose l more lb. than they would have.
Hmmmm. Interesting. But when you couple this with the science of
hydration tests and all the other horsecrap that makes the wrestling
bureaucrats feel like they''ve accomplished something, you can see
how very little sense it makes.
Some brilliant sideline ideaman actually, and
continually, keeps pushing for 'matside' weighins. I guess when he
wants to see is lethargy rather than wrestling, because college
wrestlers will wrestle the weights they think they can compete at
nationals the best at, not the during the season matchweights. This
sort of thinking could really put some zip into those heavy duty
college dual meets! It's nearly unthinkable that a 133 lber who is
struggling to make weight for a dual meet, will automatically bump up
to l41 if he has to make matside weight. The simple reason is that
dual meets aren't his big focus: nationals are. Hence, he will
sacrifice his dual meet possibilities for national potential. Maybe
instead of this sort of useless nonsense, someone could introduce the
old weights back? That would automatically give wrestlers a pound!
And, it would give small guys a weight class. Small guys who weigh
l20 or l25 don't really have a weight class, because they compete at
l25 against behomoths who drop down from 140 plus, plus....Maybe they
would even adjust the weights up some more -- make 133 135 or 6? It's
much more likely that someone who is hurting to make l33 will be more
comfortable a few pounds heavier, than it is that he would drop to
the next lower weight.
In college, by the way, they do have
everyday weighin at tournies. This doesn't alter much on that level.
The wrestlers will compete at lower than acceptable HS levels,
because they have to in order to be even marginally competitive in
most cases. I remember being in the (well, in the seats kind of
around the podium) at the Southern Scuffle this year (big college
tourney) after Adam Frey's match -- Cornell, l33, outstanding HS prep
wrestler.....well he's just losing tons of weight, probably would
make a reasonable sized l49 lber (used to be l42, now seems like a
light l50, but whatever, it's pound more wrestlers have to lose...);
anyway, Frey loses a lot of weight, but still manages to wrestle
admirably, believe me! He'd won and was up hugging Ma and telling her
he was now about l7 lbs over! So that would have put him at l49!!
(and he had to make weight that am also!). He's a super tough l33
lber, and should do well in nationals. At l41, where is might
reasonably belong -- who knows? He might just be another very good
wrestler (like 50 or so others...).
Supers! -- 2007 -- Held at the Gordon
Field House at RIT-- which proved to be quite a suitable location.
I'm not real sure about any negatives, other than perhaps price.
(which I don't know much about anyway) The absence of a warmup mat
Friday afternoon and eve was one major shortcoming, but was quickly
rectified by a single phone call by Webster's Coach Salvaggio-- and
voila! -- one magically appeared the following morning. I mean
really: why should wrestlers have to warm up like they are competing
in a track meet? Having a mat around is essential, not merely
something that may or may not happen. The place is large, well
lighted, spectator and wrestler friendly! What more could you ask
for?
Hey, we have some tough
dudes in this section, right across the board, large and small
schools. Who from either division could not help but watch both, with
some of the exciting bouts? I mean what about 125 on the far mat
(small school for me)? Was that a state final match, with Condidorio
and Ekstrom? ANd Condidorio seemed to have the edge in the waning
seconds, getting a takedown with about 30 secs to go! Ekstrom, div. 2
state champ from last year, retaliated very quickly with an escape
and a takedown with about 5 secs left! Wow, you talk about rising to
the occasion! Meanwhile on the Div. 1 side, Mandara was showing why
he might just be the #1 man in the state this year at the same
weight, disposing of a tough Rutan 13-l -- in what seemed to be a
pretty tough match. It's not like Rutan is any pushover, and he
wrestled very tough. Mandara just won the hard scrambles, after a
pretty serious head bang in the lst go. This was my first view of
Mandara this year, and he's pretty steely and determined --
absolutely a notch or so above last year.
SOme folks didn't seem
to impressed with Cory Borshoff's match, as he seemed to be stalling
toward the end of his match -- but he suffered thru last week and
this one with a noticeably debilitating leg problem. His choice was
to wrestle with it, and it's limitations, and endure the
consequences, or to just relax and bag it. He manned it up, and he's
going to states. He was obviously not up to par last week or this
week, with less movement on his feet and half finished takedown
attempts. That's a tough scenario -- and probably shouldn't be booed!
The better wrestler won there.
Little Zack (spelled
yes, with a 'k' -- I know Mr. and Mrs. Ellis know how to spell, and I
have talked with them about this issue....)- squeeeeeeeaked by with
another OT -- wanting desperately to get back to states and place, or
better. I think he's had more one pt. OTs this year than anyone!!
And that little Dierna!
Oouch he's tough -- and pretty impressive stuff for an 8th grader. He
handled a seasoned and obviously physically mature Melia from
Spencerport with surprising ease.
And hey -- Desi and Tor
are finally going to states! How cool is that?! I think I'll get Tor
a new shoe to carry around.....
I was asked while
munching away at Mysenko's around 12:30 am which match was the most
surprising. After a moment's cogitation, it came to me with
overwhelming obviousness: Fratto's! I honestly figured Viglioti to
beat him, which he was at the point things turned dangerously the
other way, and with mind numbing suddenness. Fratto does things on
botttom that are interesting and somewhat unique (i.e., he does other
stuff than standups, the old ubiquitous standby for anyone who
wrestles around here.....arghhhh!) He does short sits, tucks under
you, rolls you, escapes, or worse -- petersons! And I mean, well,
then things turn kind of ugly for the top man. Now this who
circumstance was setup with an awesome semis match between Vig and
Veleri -- which Vig managed to just barely pull off a win in. Veleri
went on to not place, surprisingly, while Vig seemed destined to a
state appearance. Vig has great leverage, and used it to take Fratto
down. Fratto did start the year at l45, so he's not a huge l52 lber.
Vig moves with surprising speed and has good position -- I've been
more impressed with every match I see him in. I watched Fratto get
all tied up with the Fulton kid this year in underhooks, unable to
execute his bottom stuff, and kind of fade away. But he looked good
-- and if he can keep his bottom stuff working, might do something in
states.
Ok, Schuth and Lamagra
has lost it's luster. Schuth --- has he finally just decided he's
better? Or has Lamagra lost his touch? He looked kind of unrefined
last nite (it's Sunday am. here...) but I am not sure why. Did Schuth
make him look that way, or is he just not sharp from having been ill
the prior week, or is the weight class too big, or has got worse? His
movements didn't appear to have a lot of zip, and Schuth crushed him
on top -- while the last time they wrestled, Lamagra had really
exhibited some good movement and positioning on bottom, and Schuth
couldn't control him. Not so last nite. Is this the end? We'll see in
two weeks!
And Hodge -- what might
a good, well executed double do for you? One that you not only
initially get, but that you push thru instead of kind of staying
still and pulling? I think good doubles would be killers -- faster,
closer, driving thru....and you can't avoid the ref near match's end
when you back up -- maybe for l0 secs, but not 20. You gotta keep at
it dude!
There was a bit of
pyschodrama during the l03 lb match, when psycho dad didn't like his
son getting beat. This thing is getting a bit old-- he was booted,
but later allowed back in. This guy is getting his own security squad
watching him during his son's matches. Hey, if you can't behave when
your son loses, don't show. And if you misbehave -- you should be
booted, and not allowed back in.
The Bath Boys! --
What's goin on down there in Bath? 3 guys heading to small school
states! That is impressive. And watching their large boys do their
work you can just imagine them tossing each other around in practice!
Madigan, who I believe placed in states last year at unlimited,
dispatched his opponent at such a feverish pace, I was wondering if I
was indeed watching the Sumo class! Now there was a big boy match
with some real impressive movement. And hey, they have a 152 lber,
Hutchinson, who seems to be a real throwback -- (not quite as far
back as I am....but gosh, it's like true, indigenous, Bath style,
from the old days -- and hey, if you haven't grabbed it yet, I'm from
there...) did some real oldschool stuff real well. Visseli, the l89
lber, is a beasty looking lad, with some great position -- and he's
the dude who took Lamagra into OT this year at Penfield's tourney.
And speaking of old
school, the Cannon/Ingraham match was a heavy contrast in styles.
Cannon is slick, but new sorta new era slick; Ingraham, on the other
hand, is definably oldschool, with his heavy reliance on the whizzer
-- and I mean heavy! -- and the low leg, on the mat finishes (well,
attempts to finish, since Cannon countered well). This match, BTW,
was aguably close until around period 3, which Ingraham seemed to
fade and Cannon caught his stride, and drove it home with wicked
cross faces on takedowns. This was to me a very good potential
matchup, and I had Cannon with an edge -- which he demonstrated he
did have. Were Ingraham in better shape, it would be even more
interesting.
AA
sectionals......2/13/07 ------It's kind of unfortunate when an
otherwise great evening of wrestling has to end with a match that was
dominated more by goofy crowd noise and awkward wrestling than good
wrestling itself. This match was heading downhill as Hodge seemed to
have exhausted his chances of scoring with underhooks as Woodward
defended well -- in that regard; I mean the match had mostly just
that dimension to it, so Hodge threw in a bit of excitement by
walking off the mat in disgust and then returning, and as he did so,
saying something the ref didn't like. Socko, a penalty point, which
put the match well out of reach at 3-1! Maybe Cook didn't hear or see
Hodge say what he said ( I did) but he argued with the ref, and I
think got socked with a team pt. And then, to add to the lackluster
ongoings, an innapropriate mouth from the audience made reference to
how it all starts with the coach -- Coach Cook, I assume was the
target of this oddly misplaced utterance. You have to wonder if the
person uttering this realized how stupid it was, since Cook is one of
the most respected coaches around, and I think anyone who watches him
realizes that bad behaviour does not start with the coach in that
instance! This wasn't even one of those soft things that mixes in
with the regular hum of the crowd: it was right out there, for all to
hear, during a moment of near silence. I looked around after the
comment, figuring the mouth probably melted into the stands out of
embarassment, but saw no melt spot...so he must feel pretty well
aligned with a sense of righteousness.... This kind of stuff, mixed
up with another parent of an unvictorious wrestler, yelling across
the mat to the celebrating parents of their victorious wrestler, to
"shut the hell up",that's just plain bad stuff! The celebrating
parents didn't hear it. The celebrating wrestler didn't hear it. But
I did, and certainly others did. And yes, your son lost and you feel
bad -- but why look bad also?
In some instances AA
sectionals are a repeat of Counties, or close to it. In others, the
classes are weaker, diluted by the big school/small school thing, so
the real matches have to wait until next week. Lamagra has been sick
with bonchitis and some other lingering ailments, so he didn't
wrestle Schuth in the finals -- and that was a good move. They should
certainly meet again if he heals up. I don't think Schuth minded much
either. The Vigliotti/Veleri matchup was a good one, as Vig sharpened
up his defense and rode very well. I think they are 2-l on the year,
with Veleri having the edge so far. He'll have to add a bit of
dimension to his bottom 'move' if he wants an escape from Vig's tough
ride! Penfield's Salmon actually did a pretty good job against
Bourne. The takedown thing at the start was a bit bad for him, as he
was taking Bourne down, when Bourne did a nice granby as he hit the
mat, kind of forcing a landing right on the back of his head; Bourne
was fine with it, and may have had success with it, but the ref
jumped in and stopped it. He did land on his head, but things were
fine, and it certainly wasn't Salmon's fault, which the ref realized.
There was no score -- but may have been had the reffed not stopped
it. Bourne wasn't in trouble during the match, winning 6-1.
A reffing issue: Coach
Cook seemed pretty upset by Razenbach's pressure on Tracy's
shoulder-- and I can't blame him! I've certainly seen that stopped
earlier, and it's a good thing Tracy is flexible. There were a few
instances such as this that I didn't quite understand. The main ref
jumped in so quickly when Torsten G and Cholura were wrestling, and
Cholura fell backwards after a scramble, like Tor G was going to
cripple him in some mad attack! -- yet they kinda missed some
dangerous knee action in the same match, until it was nearly too
late; and the shoulder incident with Tracy was a bit questionable.
Otherwise, hey, these are good refs -- and I don't want to sound
picky. But the safety calls with wrestlers are either too
overcautious when it doesn't count, or not enuf when it might in a
number of instances. (A quick not to Tracy, or anyone else who is
wrestling a strong leg rider: keep your arms in, not out, and never
let them get in front of you, unless you have a strong hold on a hand
for defense -- it's much easier than getting tortured!)
I'm wondering
something: did anyone ever figure out how to get soap out of the
dispensers in the bathrooms at Spencerport? In the guy's room, one
was dismantled totally, while another was only partially dismantled,
with no apparent way to influence the soap out of the container. I
hear the girl's bathroom was just as bad, on top of several other
complaints. How hard is it to have soap dispensers working at a
sporting event? Shouldn't people be able to wash their hands after
going to the bathroom -- I mean it's not like we're talking about
some backwoods gas station!
I see Ingraham is at
l45, after flirting with l40; I wasn't sure how he'd do l40, with the
50% m atch thing. But I was excited about watching him and Desi
Green. No go now, as he's back in the mix at 145, with Martin and
Elvin. If Martin isn't hampered by a bad ankle, he would be the pick
here.
145 getting
hotter... No sooner do I open my big mouth about Fratto
slipping and he strikes back, with a 4-1 win over Ingraham! I guess
he plans to stay in the mix!
1/17/07 -Finally....I do
apologize for the rather unforgiveable hiatus in what can otherwise
only be regarded as one of the most to the point and uptodate bits of
reporting you can find!! Eh??- Well anyway, so many cool things have
happened in the world of wrestling since my last entry, that I am not
going to bother trying to cover much of it! My attention was torn
this past weekend between Eastern States and the Virginia Duals --
the latter of which only rec'd cellphone attention, while the former
I managed to actually experience. And that tourney is always an
experience. So many huge matches -- there really are some better than
states weight classes here, since you have kids from Vermont, Pa,
Va., and loads of 'em from downstates, including as well div. l and
2...........so matchups that one might not see in states do occur
here.
....well let me must
say this about the finals: you had the l52 lb final with Wade and
Delgardo -- I guess Wade was 2nd in states last year and Degardo was
lst at l40 -- ok, there was that match, then two matchups beyond was
Hunter Meyes and Macarthur's Mahoney. IN between you had a match
worth watching ... well actually, a wrestler, Chaires, who is smooth
and slick! He's fun to watch. I'm sorry, but the other two matches
were just boring; not much happened, and when it did, I was sleeping,
especially with Meyes. I know he pins tons of kids really fast, and I
have yet to see it, but this match was just so
slow........zzzzzzzzzzzzz, what with blood time and lack of technical
moves . After watching innumerable blood times (which can happen, and
in a match worth watching, I woulda stayed!) I just packed up and
headed home. There was half minute left!, when I left. I didn't even
care who won anymore. Hunter is a very deceptive looking person. He
doesn't appear to have much if any muscle tone -- you know like when
a wrestler assumes the bottom position, most of them have triceps
that show. He doesn't! Yet he seems to be strong as hell!! Must be
some kind of weird farmer strength --that was the kind of strength
you saw 30 years ago, when noone lifted, but lots of kids threw hay
bales. I mean he seems to be made of something that other kids
aren't. He just goes and goes and goes, but there isn't anything too
amazing happening ashe does so..
Watching Chaires
wrestle was quite a contrast. He's a very slick machine, executing
seamless setups to takedowns. Nothing too overwhelming, but
exceedingly effective. I rarely saw him miss what he was aiming for;
initially, it may not have succeeded in a takedown, but eventually it
would.
And Edinboro metup with
Penn State in the Va. dual finals, after crunching V>Tech -- I
mean they shut them out. Pretty awesome. And then they handed PS a
19-17 defeat, after having lost to them pretty significantly in the
Penn State duals earlier this season. The national duals were also
taking place -- with some pretty heavy hitters for sure! I see Dustin
Schlatter won a few matches by a point or so, including his final
(Mn. /Mo.) with Wagner, who he beat in the Southern Scuffle by virtue
of l:o3 riding time. Must have been a similar match in the finals, as
he won by a single pt. I can't imagine how boring that must have
been. As excellent as Schlatter is, he really isn't much fun to watch
-- he's a great defensive machine, perhaps the best in that area. His
offense seems to consist of just grabbing a point or so here or there
when the other guy gets a little out of position. He's great at that.
His matches just don't generate much excitement. I think I'd rather
have a wrestler who loses more often ( or at all) and hangs it out
there -- someone who is more dynamic. The trouble with this deal is
that if you go to watch one of the best wrestlers in the country, you
will probably wonder why you did so afterwards. The point of this is
certainly not to diminish Schlatter. I just can't help wondering
about what good wrestling is about. I watched Schlatter and Gillespie
wrestle the very same guy at the Southern Scuffle. Although this
tourney doesn't seem to be Gillespie at his best, his consi final
match with Wagner (Mo.) was chock full of action from the gitgo With
a l7-10 score, you gotta figure. This was one match after Schlatter's
3-2 win over the very same kid -- with the l:03 riding time being the
deciding factor. Watching Deonte Penn (Edinboro 165) wrestle is
exciting! (although sometimes troublesome also) -- he does the big
moves, like he did to the Cornell wrestler in the finals of the SS --
moves that can make or break you -- but have all the drama and
tension of real sport!! They aren't just sleep fests, where you just
keep praying for the next match....
And locally, is l45
heating up or what? With Ingraham back, this weight all of the sudden
opens up. Can he compete with Cannon? He beat Elvin who beat Fratto.
Hmmmm. One could say that Fratto has noone to work with I guess --
since all the heavier heavy hitters at Geneva have moved on. But I
think we have had that scenario going on here for about 5 years now,
and although it's not wonderful, we make it work pretty well.
Ingraham has been out for a year and a half now! After winning states
at l25 3 years ago, he took second at l35 to O'conner, then didn't
return last year; he has been absent so far this year, up until
Clayton. I guess a lot of what happens with him depends most of all
if he manages to finish the season, and how cnsistently he works at
getting back what he's lost if he does.
This is about it for
now. If you don't like my lack of attention, or have a question, feel
free to ask me! Otherwise I get pretty busy doing other stuff,
running around to wrestling tournies....blah blah........Brad
Southern
Scuffle....This tournie in North Carolina seems to be one of the
biggest now in college wrestling. Last year I woulda said Vegas, but
in many ways, this tournie surely was tougher this year. Beyond the
lanky, hard to define, incredibly awkward styles of the large Askren
brothers, there actually was some very good wrestling taking place!
Head of Hair has been the poster boy of collegiate wrestling for the
past year now -- and anyone who hasn't seen him wrestle, might
actually think that he was a great wrestler -- and clearly, for his
collegiate peers, he is insurmountable; he won't be beat in college,
but not because he is a great wrestler. He's not the sort of fellow
you would look to for technique, since most of his wrestling is
defensive, overhwhelming, funk. He is nearly impossible to take down.
Shooting on him is like throwing a takedown away -- no matter how
well executed. His younger brother is actually more fun to watch,
since his wrestling hasn't totally morphed into the anti-technical
funk of his older brother yet -- plus he looks more like a regular
person, and not someone who just likes to walk around sporting a huge
head of hair that appears to be larger than the actual person beneath
it. (although actually, he has trimmed his hair and it isn't so big
anymore -- but you still wonder if the college wrestling media has
anything else on their mind...)
All the Patersons were
in the tournie! Mike kinda ran into Conrad Kole of Mn right off the
bat and that just didn't end too pretty. Nate was doing a heckuva job
with Jon Bonnila bowman, another NYS state kid from V-tech, when he
seemed to fizzle in the last period, and gave up quite a few points,
losing very quickly in OT. Josh had an excellent match against the
2nd seed, Dretsch, and I think lost in OT -- but had to drop out
because of a bad ankle. He looked very impressive!!
Chinn and Gillespie
were also there. I only saw Trevor in two early matches, and he lost
the second one in OT to a Duke wrestler -- they were wrestling clones
pretty m uch, in body style and technique, and Trevor just came up on
the losing end. Gillespie was doing well right into the waning
seconds of the 3rd period (semis) with Cornell's Leen, with a 3 pt
lead including riding time, totally dominating the match, when he got
dumped off a leg ride with 7 seconds left! And that pretty much
altered the complexion of that match for good! It went from a totally
Gillespie oriented match to a mad scramble! After a very questionable
call by the ref, Gillespie failed to get a deserved late period
takedown in the 3rd, sending the thing into OT, and after a wicked
scramble, he got caught up in the cradle.......he beat Aaron Martin
8-3 in a wrestleback, then had one of his hottest collegiate matches
yet, with Missouri's Wagner. This wild match went every which way,
with Gillespie behind ll-7 somewhere into the second period, or early
third. But he rallied, piling up some big points in the third, and
winning l7-11. 149 was a super impressive weight class, with lots of
top 20 and top 10 wrestlers, so there was plenty of very competitive
action. Schlatter wasn't looking too much like a national champ in
his quarter and semi matches -- and looked very beatable, winning
only and barely by a pt. riding time (1 min. 03 riding time) against
Wagner in semis. But in the finals, he looked very much like a
national champ, taking advantage of every little missmovement Jorden
Leen made -- causing Leen to make even more as he fell behind and
became desperate. Schlatter is exceedingly composed, not matter what
is going on. It's an impressive characteristic.
More
later............Cornell is back -- although I think they have more
coaches than wrestlers. It was hard to see -- the coaches kept
getting in the way. I guess Cornell has an unlimited budget for
sending coaches all over the planet. Nickerson won, as did Frey.
These two are only one weight class apart -- but Frey is at least 4
body sizes larger. He is HUGE, Rochester...HUGE!!! ah! -- I mean I
think he mentioned to his mother after his final's match that he was
l7 lbs over! (she was right next to us in the 'finals' venue) -- and
they have daily weigh ins in college tournies, so that's just from
one day!! He looked like a 49 lber! Nickerson, by comparison, looks
tiny -- fantastic, but tiny.
And for any aspiring
wrestlers out there, Cornell is the place to go! Everyone is doing
it, so it might limit your chances of actually making the team, and
naturally, you do have to have some decent grades to get in. But it
has the most incredible wrestling program in the East; you may just
never start there, but you will improve vastly! With so many coaches,
one for each wrestler, at least, you can help but improve -- but it
might only be so you can be a workout partner for a starter. Hey,
it's a choice (just not one I would encourage...)
The big
Match --ok what's up with this? After viewing the heavily
anticipated utter devastation of Webster S. at the hands of a fully
manned Spencerport squad , one could only wonder why the little Bald
guy decided that this might be a great opportunity to trully rub salt
into the wound?? But there he was, Rich the hammarhead, dancing
around the wrestling ring after the match, calling out Braggin Brad!
Who woulda thought? Lights dancing brightly off his newly buffed
dome, nearly blinding those in the upper levels, he ripped off his
festive skirt, revealing a singlet from god knows when!! Not in too
hot of a mood, and still sour from their last meeting, when getting
winded in the first l5 seconds cost him the match, Braggin Brad
whipped up his anger and pounded out onto the mats, grabbed the
little dorky runt by the wrinkled and out of date tatood and
undersized arm, and flung him to the mat, immediately pouncing on him
and getting a 43 count, before hordes of sympathetic Spencerport dads
stormed the mat -- grabbing Braggin Brad and helping him to his feet,
brushing him off, and asking if he was ok....Hammarhead laid their
stunned, burnishing his scalp with a gimpy paw, wondering what the
heck was going on! Yes, this was the hi-lite of the nite! Well, there
was the UFC announcer, who was doing his best to make something of
nothing, in a manner that trully belied the excitement of the actual
event....and hey, did he actually say what the final score was? I
don't know, but if he did, who needed to know -- I mean in this case,
the visual is more than enuf!!
Penfield.....Since this
tournie is a mere l0 minutes from where I live, and is a one dayer--
and has a Starbucks right around the corner -- it was really the
perfect tournie!! I've never actually been to the varsity Penfield
tournie, so this was the first time for me. I don't think I've ever
been to a tournie with so many OTs in the finals. It was awesome!!
What fantastic final's matches.
Little Zach Ellis
avenged his loss last week at Waterloo to Fulton's Slaver; this was a
more controlled match with better completion of moves and not so much
wasted effort -- and of course not tossing away 5 points helped out
quite a bit also. It kind of looked like this might be the weight to
be at earlier in the week, with Marianetti, Ellis, Slaver and maybe
PalMac's Marlow; but the latter two dropped down to l03, which
thickened up that weight quite a bit of course. Marianetti wasn't
having an easy time of it , with Thomas's Oliveri giving him some
fits in the semis, with short sits and headhunts -- ending up with
one half way thru the match and putting Marianeti in extreme peril as
he struggled off his back. But Marrianetti came back with a pin. This
was a very hard fought match -- and Oliveri wrestled tough. The
finals proved even more difficult as Marianetti went into double Ot
with Marlow! -- and this, while Thomas HWT. Eskander was in OT with
Brighton's Disalvo; DeSalvo is a whallop to watch; he's just an
endless bundle of movement and energy -- especially for this class!!
I figured his tijme was up in OT - (double OT I think...), when he
tried a granby and ended up just getting smushed underneath Eskie.
But he recovered very quick, did a short sit, and escaped. Marvelous
stuff for a larger dude!! He won by riding Eskie out. So I'm trying
to watch both these double OTs -- at the same time! Big and small --
both very exciting.
Matt Hodge had Bath's
Madigan barely by a point in the waning seconds of his match, but
after locking up his patented and irresisitible cradle, he decided to
roll thru -- but his decision just wasn't something that Madigan
wanted to comply with, and the whole thing turned into one huge Mess
for Hodge, as he ended up on his back -- and 6 points farther away
from victory, since the match was stopped at that point.
And hey, what is up
with Bath?? -- it's where I'm from, and these dudes are making an
impact on the wrestling world for sure -- starting with their 130
lber, and heading right up thru unlimited. Their l89 lber, Viselli,
took Lamagra to the very limit -- with Lamagra just barely grabbing
another double OT win -- his second of the year. I even mentioned to
him after the match that being a State champ doesn't seem to carry
much weight with these guys!! You'd think he'd have a little
breathing room!! SO another double OT.
Leroy's Condidorio was
next in line for OT wins, eeeking out a close one from Olympia's
Veltre.
And those Fulton dudes
-- what is up with them? It almost seemed like a finals with everyone
else vs. Fulton!! For the most part, they are such excellent riders!
They are fun to watch, utilizing legs extremely well, while usually
working under the arms otherwise, so that no matter what move you do,
they still have an underhook--- extrication is difficult, as
Waterloo's Josh Mateo found out at 160. I didn't watch the entire
match, but it seemed like from the gitgo, FUlton's Mills was leg
riding him to death! This is something that I would have heavily,
heavily anticipated, like way into the week before, since Fulton was
at Waterloo (although I guess Mills wasn't there???) -- but the rest
of Fulton was, and the evidence of strong leg rides was everywhere!!
Mateo wasn't handling it too well, from where I was.
Thomas's Litto's seemed
to be wrestling a more balanced version of himself, with Cal-Mum's
Schiedel pretty much dominating the match.. Schiedel is just smooth
and deadly, not flashy, or even intimidating. He works methodically,
and is deceptive on his feet, as he doesn't seem to be doing much at
all -- his approach is close to motionless.
Webster's Gillespie
won without any serious threats -- and seems to be handling those
match altering moments pretty well -- the sudden moments in matches
that mark a strong turning point. Let's just say he seems to be
pretty strong in those situations....Unfotunately, it appears Tor has
finally made the switch to Thomas!! (according to D&C photo) --
oh well, Cookie grabs another one! (and no, I am not available for
for a Greco match, Cook!)
And the worst place
to be this weekend? On the Spencerport bus back from
Fredonia....arghhhh!!! I woulda walked....
There promises to be
some good action at Penfield this coming weekend (let' see -- that
would be like around the 9th or something...) -- with kind of a
mini-states at ll2: Ellis and Marionetti #2 could be the semis, with
the winner going up against Fulton's Slaver -- this could be good!
And 125 should be good also, with Mandara and Rutan, and Pal
Mac's Ekstrom, perhaps....? Good stuff there also, and honestly, I'm
sure there will be good stuff elsewhere, but that's all I know right
now....
notes from
12/10/06--- Spent the weekend (Saturday) at UB and Waterloo -- how
many of you have ever done that in one day!!!! -- UB and Edinboro met
at the UB arena -- a wonderful place to watch wrestling, by the way.
I think UB came into this match off the energy from last year's
meeting at the 'War by the Shore', where Budd beat Bunch; this sort
of thing carries a lot of weight and momentum with the Bulls,
seemingly right into this year, if you read their press releases.
Buffalo had the better match at last year's meeting, although they
still lost; the score was deceptively close, and I think this had
them thinking they were going to fare better than they did this year.
Budd won again, but it was against Deubel, in a fairly close match,
which Budd was kindof destined to win. Budd can win close, and often
does. He's a grinder, nothing fancy, but a winner in most instances
-- but I don't really think he'll make AllAmerican status. This
year's energy might carry on with the artificial closeness of the
Gillespie/Needle match.
There's a difference between reading press releases, especially from
the releasing college, and actually observing what happens. Gillespie
took Needle down and immediately Needle did the big bird thing --
freestyle bottom. Gillespie kind of sat back and looked at the ref,
who did nothing. The match really amounted to Gillespie riding Needle
and Needle spending nearly all his time on his stomach, blocking
hands and pushing them away, or trapping them. He was warned once for
stalling, and that was it, although from thereforeth, nothing really
changed in his mat demeanor.
You might think, hey
-- is this collegiate wrestling, or what? Isn't part of the match
supposed to consist of the bottom guy trying to get off bottom? Or is
has his job somehow changed to just protecting himself and closing
up? I mean I don't know. Obviously, if you open up and try to move on
bottom, you will also be prone to offensive counters -- sort of how
wrestling is supposed to be. This whole thing is like a wrestler just
standing there in a 3 point stance, blocking, totally, and never
initiating any offense, on his feet. How long would a ref tolerate
that? (although this is not even the same, because in a 3 pt. stance,
you do have to make the effort to remain standing!) Or did this ref
just tolerate it because he was from the Buffalo area? Had Gillespie
been doing what Needle did, would he have been chased out of the gym?
Is this Needle's fault? Surely, his coaches, coached him to do this.
Is it their fault? Surely, in order for the tactic to succeed, the
ref must tolerate it: is it his fault? Or is that what the bottom
position in collegiate wrestling has become? If so, it sucks. Gluing
yourself to the mat because you are wrestling someone who is tough on
top, is really kind of cowardly. And I seriously doubt I could ever
tell someone I was coaching to do that -- just to avoid being scored
on or teched. Why not opt for something a bit more manly. And I have
to tell you, since I do have kids who wrestle, that if I ever saw
them big birding in the bottom position, doing nothing to free
themselves, allowing themselves to be so totally dominated, and to
actually show by their mat demeanor that they were 'afraid' to move,
I would be more than a little pissed off -- and they would darned
well hear about it: the noise they would hear from me would be so
outrageous, they' d be apt to alter their bottom position tactics.
And I'll tell you another thing: if one of my sons was instructed by
a college coach to do nothing on bottom but protect, to grab hands
and lay on them, I'd tell my son to ignore the coach, to act like a
man on the mat, to do something besides sqirm around and look
ridiculous. This was a worst case scenario -- but similar tactics
have been used repeatedly this year. Hey college coaches -- can't you
teach your wrestlers how to move and protect themselves, rather than
just how to protect themselves? I mean how ugly can you make the
bottom position?
Second period same
thing. Third period Needle choose neutral, and accidentally poked
Gillespie in the eye -- which ended any outside efforts at shooting
by the latter- he really couldn't use that eye in the match beyond
that. Needle got off a quick shot off a 'safety' post by Gillespie,a
short scramble ensued, and Needle grabbed Gillespie's ankles --
provoking the ref to award a very quick two. I really think the ref
wanted this match to be closer, since the 2 pts. here was really
precipitous. This made the match 2-2 without the 4 minutes of riding
time by Gillespie. Now what happened next kind of shocked me.
Gillespie, still not really taken down, reached about, grabbed
Needle''s ankles, turned into him as he lifted, and reversed him -- I
just honestly figured he was compromised and it wouldn't work. It
did, and almost too easily. The drama of the takedown was gone. The
5-2 score hides a very boring, lopsided match. But it'll probably
show up in future Bull press releases!!
Anyone who goes to
watch a matchup of former NYS icons, has to be very dissapointed in a
spectacle like this. Needle is probably the best wrestler ever to
come out of section 6, and UB gives him a full ride pretty much just
because of this. And then what -- when a tough rider comes along,
they coach him to belly out and block, but not to wrestle, on bottom?
You know, Trevor Chinn wrestled on bottom -- he was much more
competitive in his match with Gillespie than Needle -- because he
wrestled on the mat! He got teched, and Needle lost 5-2 -- sounds
like Ryan wrestled the better match, was closer...? Nah, the
difference was, Trevor wrestled -- he fought. He didn't belly down
and refuse to partipate. That's not wrestling. It's not engaging.
It's not participating. It's just a way to play it completely safe.
Is that what you do when you face a tough opponent>? You blatantly
hide out on bottom?
And what kind of ref
tolerates this? He had to have known how ridiculous it was. Wow,
shame on that dude.
Thank God not many
people drove over from Rochester to witness this matchup! The
SPencerport foursome (Bourne, Terenzi, Piedemont and Cholura -sp.)
were spared the agony by just happening to show up 2 matches too late
-- and as dissapointed as they were to have missed it, they were less
dissapointed than they would have been had they witnessed
it!
Also, just so you
know, Ryan Needle is an excellent wrestler from his feet -- one of
the best ever during his reign here in NYS. He was also very, very
explosive off bottom, and this was his effectiveness. But his posture
during this match on bottom was to assume a very bullish protective
posture. There was no move off bottom at the whistle. I also happen
to like Ryan quite a bit, so this is has nothing to do with any of
that. It has to do with the bottom position during this
match.
Edinboro went on to
dominate the match, with Buffalo winning only two, 133 and 141, with
Andrew Stella showing very well at l41 -- a much improved, more solid
Stella for sure!
And word just
arrived that Edinboro has shut out Lockhave (4:30ish....Sunday) Matt
Hill at l57 beat Seth Martin 6-1-- which is huge! Hill is on his way
to being someone to beat in nationals. And l41 lber Cocozzo teched
his guy -- which is great also. He's been having a bit of trouble
with his dieting techniques, which has caused him to suffer in
matches, and to lose also.
In order to liven up the nite,
an impromptu match was setup between long time antogonists, Rich the
Hammarhead Terenzi and Braggin Brad Gillespie -- this super
impressive bout took place in between the l57 and l65 lb. regularly
scheduled matches, to the thrill of all. Rich, although small (and
bald) is quite a scrapper, and hasn't really lost much of his old
highschool savy when it comes to drifting around the mat in delicate
fashion. Braggin Brad figured to shake him up quick, with superior
size and a full head of beautiful hair, but Rich scored off a sucker
drag and picked up a two count as his stunned opponent gathered his
wits. The score, now a seemingly insurmountable 4-0, favoring
crome-dome, was something the heavily breathing Braggin Brad just
couldn't fully fathom, and he threw in that doopey white kerchief he
hauls around in his rear pocket -- walking off the mats unable to get
a good breath and wondering just where the devil the nearest
Starbucks was....Rich, still unable to suck up enuf of those Arena
lights, bounced around the mat beating his chest to death as more
hair fell off his agonizingly bright skull -- security finally had to
be called to get rid of the pesky little rodent, and he was carted
out screaming "I'm king!! I was whoopin on Brad!!"
One quick commment
about the reffing: I always thought that the local refs were very
very slow about calling stalling on the bottom man -- if they even
bothered with it. The collegiate refs are even worse, for the most
part. It's almost shocking to watch it! I've never seen anyone
actually go to par terre, gluing themselves the mat, and not getting
at least some admonishment from the ref. But not the case at
UB....hmmm.
At Waterloo there was
plenty of hot Highschool action, along with a few very exciting
finals. First let me just say, Fulton is a tough team, that uses legs
well and rides under the arms well also. Little Zach Ellis (112)
found this out the hard way against a very muscular and potent Slaver
from Fulton. Zach's a little fireball out there, constantly in
motion, but making a few mistakes -- and Slaver took advantage of all
of them, winning 8-1. And at l52, FUlton's Bogardus seemed to be
losing the match halfway thru against Geneva's Fratto. Fratto is
strong and uses tight moves underneath to gain his advantage on
bottom, but Bogardus's underhooks stopped a lot of that momentum and
seemed to wear Fratto down. Towards the matche's end, the match took
a twist, as Bogardus tied it up and won in overtime, with a quick low
shot. Torsten Gillespie is looking like pretty hot scrambler out
there, winning with a lot of energy and savy. Brighton's Rutan, at
l25 again this year! -- will be a force to reckon with this season,
as he is very, very aggressive during the lst period, with solid
moves -- and he is lean and strong. He seems to fade a bit in the 3rd
period. And at Heavyweight, Brighton's DeSalvo is one fun kid to
watch -- all upper body throws, no matter where, with whom, or when.
He just does it. ANd his first periods contain as much action as 4
full heavyweight matches!!
Early ref
thoughts...
I
don't like to complain too much about refs because I think it's a
tough job, and somewhat thankless. I also happen to like quite a few
of the local refs and am friends with them. But I do want to make a
suggestion. In Tor Gillespie's consi match, (Matt Marino) the ref --
who was new and being instructed by the side ref quite a bit -- was
making some unusual calls, and there's no question that these calls
cost him (Tor) points. This isn't a huge issue, and I don't want any
relationships here to make this seem like a personal issue -- I would
have the same thought regardless. Tor was executing a slide-by --
Payne had an outside single; Tor was sliding him by -- it's a very
effective takedown maneuver, pretty common, and hardly a risk to
anyone. The ref immediately stopped the match because of potential
danger to Tor's Knee. That was thoughftul of him, but hardly
necessary, and cost Tor the takedown (actually, reversal..) SHortly
thereafter, he did something equally as shortsighted, by stopping the
match when Tor was right on the verge of another reversal -- because
of a slight abrasion on his back which was showing 'some' blood --
blood which if it was showing then, had to have been showing l5
seconds before. The side ref was instructing him to give the 2 pts as
soon as the other leg was hooked. The ref stopped the match again,
now for blood. I think that's the kind of situation you can stop a
match in, but not when a move is 98% completed. New refs may not know
this, but they should be informed. The only thing it really cost in
this particular match was a tech-fall -- which is important to the
wrestler, but not as bad as if he would lose the match because of it.
This particular ref seemed to be doing an otherwise pretty decent
job. I knew he was pretty new. But I think this is one of those
learning points for him.
A
busy weekend of
wrestling....this'll be sort of like a journal entry!! -- Raced down
to Erie, Pa. Friday nite; well., racing into a 50 mph headwind really
isn't possible in my vehile, so let's just say I went. Edinboro was
competing in the 2nd annual 'War at the Shore', which features a
couple of really exciting HS matches and two sets of collegiate
matches. The HS matches, by the way, are full of exciting fluries and
for the most part are very competitive. It's a degree or so or so
higher than most of the wrestling you will witness locally. The
collegiate matches 'featured' a sort of local rivalry between Erie
teams Mercyhurst and Gannon. This may be a local rivalry, but
Mercyhurst buried Gannon; it was very one-sided -- it kind of
reminded me of when Edinboro wrestled Mercyhurst in the Avalon duals
-- only that was worse (for...hurst...). So anyway, the big match of
the night ran concurrently with the div. 2 masacre , when Michigan
State and Edinboro faced off. Mi St. won the lst 3 matches; the lst
two very decisively, with Gomez at l25 hammaring on Morril. Gomezis
ranked 5th I think, and he is tough! A redshirt frosh, he may give
Nickerson some trouble when the latter returns to action --
apparently he has some back problems now. Simons, #l ranked at l33,
took it to Deubel pretty bad; this dude has leverage I haven't seen
before, and went from neutral underhooks to double grapes in a
mind-numbing split second. That was kind of the end. Or near enuf to
it. Edinboro has a reasonably decent wrestler at l41 -- Cocozzo, who
was 3rd at sr. nationals last year. Lost by a pt. or so to Lance
Palmer (Sr. nationals champ and much lauded nationally). But he can't
get off bottom. I mean it's just horrifying to watch. He's good on
his feet and holds his on on top. Simons was injured, so his backup
beat Cocozzo instead. Gillespie took his man down and rode him for 78
minutes, and then, the kid selected bottom!! I guess you can never
spend enuf time there. His defense was holding both of G's hand
tightly to his bossom. And this ref was the best I've seen this year
in stalling calls!! He actually penalized the kid. College coaches
take the bottom defense position to an entirely new level. It really
looks to me like they spend endless sessions masterminding methods of
protecting themselves from Gillespie's arm bars and whatever else,
without much thought as to actually escaping ever. The rest of the
matches were closer, and featured a lot of the top ten wrestlers in
the country. Edinboro managed to win them all, and handed Mi. a
decisive loss. ... Some of these collegiate coaches are very easy to
excite, for what seems to be very little, if no reason, at all. I've
seen that with the Penn State coach , the Mercyhurst coach -- perhaps
the worst -- I mean this dude is shouting and motioning and going
crazy over virtually nothing; and the Michigan St. coach -- who was
going nuts over his l57 lber being crabbed out of bounds -- how do
you crab someone out of bounds? ---intentionally pulling his man out
of bounds! -- he bellowed at one point. It was one of those
situations I really had to re-focus on, to make sure there really
wasn't anything to even blink about, much less yelling about like
your wrestler had just been kicked when the ref wasn't looking!!
Maybe it's an ego thing. I don't know. But it sure makes very little
sense. And I'd say there must be some connection between the size of
the school and the size of the coach's mouth -- but Mercyhurst sort
of wrecks that theory. But then, these ARE the very same coaches who
spend a lot of time coaching their 49 lbers to do almost absolutely
nothing on bottom....wonder what they'd do if they were the opposing
coach....
back to Webster late that nite -- still very
windy, but at least the jets were landing in Buffalo by now. The Matt
Marino tournie is one of those bloodbaths that whittles down the
barely in shape studs until most of them just want to go home and
sleep. There were some great matups -- SMith of Mexico and Mariacher
of Iroquois. Gillespie and Niagra Wheatfield's Lange. Smith and
Gillespie both ended up with 3rds. Mariacher was just devastating in
this early year tournie, not only beating Smith 12-5, but
tech-falling Razenbach! Gillespie had a great scramble match and
suffered a narrow loss against Lang and then wrestling Victor's Payne
in the consis, with a l3-0 win. (now, even though I know very little
about this Gillespie kid, and didn't even see his loss to Lange, I
did enjoy watching his other matches, which were super intense and
focused. I almost think he and Mariacher may have been an interesting
final's match, had they been at the same weight....)
The battle of the nite
was Lamagra and Schuth, and it ended up being frightfully boring--
not quite an all out skanker, but pretty close to being a dud. I
don't think anyone shot anything during the lst period. The best
flurry was Lamagra's escape, when he did a dramatic twist out of a
crab. I think both these guys were panting pretty heavily...which
might mean something....And by the way, Thomas won all the final four
weights! They are super, super tough up top!!! I mean if there was a
state competition for the last 4 weights, they'd kill everyone!! Alex
Alez Marianetti lost a close bout to Fredonia's ll2 lber. I think he
may have figured he had that one in the bag a bit early. That sort of
thinking can be pretty costly sometimes. Kids like the one from
Fredonia, who you may not even know, might look deceptively, well,
not so good against lesser competitors. They lure you into a false
sense of how easy it's going to be to wrestle them. And that's what
you mentally prepare for.
Here's the fun of big
time wrestling. Tom Brands hopped over to Iowa lickety split; this,
after having spent a 2 years I think at V-tech, supposedly rebuilding
their wrestling program.. A certain degree of faith must have been
involved on the part of V-tech -- good faith based on what they must
have mistaken for some form of reciprocal loyalty. Well Brands
recruited all the top dudes he could, like 5 Blue chippers, who
red-shirted, enjoying all the benefites of a free education and free
coaching, while not contributing a thing to the V-tech program. Well,
that's how redshirting works. But the committment letter signed by
the wrestlers prior to attending V-tech was to protect the school
from precisely the sort of nonsense that happened. The wrestlers
wanted out of what they had agreed to, even though the school had
already heavily invested in them, and they wanted to follow Brands to
Iowa. Cultist like, perhaps. Brands and everyone else on that side of
the situation swears that the school guaranteed them verbally that if
Brands left (obviously a huge possibility if Iowa suddenly fired
Zalesky!) - the wrestlers could follow with no strings attached. Ha
ha! What school would be that stupid? Brands came, the program
figured to be revived, and Brands recruited -- putting some real
energy into the program's future; the recruitees didn't wrestle; they
redshirted. And Brands departed! And so did his devotees. Even
thought he school did not release them, they are suing, and they are
ineligible, but they are at Iowa, enduring another year of not being
able to compete at the Div. l level. The new coach at V-tech -- quite
an accomplished coach! -- but apparently doesn't have that cultist
charisma of Brands, promised the reshirt studs that if they wrestled
for him for one year and wanted to leave, they would be released. No
deal.
I mean wow! How much
devotion to Brands can you possibly have? Yes, this story is real. I
did not make it up. (and oh, since the 5 studs are ineligible, they
have to pay their way....the althletic scholarships go away, until
their eligibility returns...)
And hey, what about
Grey? The 4X NJ state champ who committed to Lehigh -- signed an all.
Decided suddenly that he had to go to Cornell. The Lehigh coach
released him. But how does that work?> Cornell apparently doesn't
feel very obligated, in any sense of the word, to honor wrestlers
committments to other schools, since they do not participate in the
letter of intent program. They have their own Ivy league thing, and
apparently are above what the rest of the wrestling powers are bound
by. They have l0 coaches by the way. One for each weight. In
collegiate wrestling, you can only have 4, legally. They get around
this by having a huge club, and the coaches work that and get paid
for it, and their wrestlers all join the club. Voila -- personalized
coaching! Grey, by the way, is going to TMCC -- a community college
north of Ithace, attempting, I guess, to get his grades up so that
Cornell will accept him. Then he can go there and wrestle under Troy
Nickerson.
The hydration test
performed county wide last sat. seemed to provide a stumbling block
for many local wrestlers -- and when you combine this with the new
Sat. am. weighins (for two day tournies) with a l lb allowance --
this year promises a new level of intrigue. Now I gotta tell ya, I
surely don't hang around while kids are weighin in -- and other than
those who absolutely have to be there, I don't quite understand why
anyone would. But the gaunt, haunting spectacles that may have been a
bit spooky looking at end of season tournies gone by, will probably
not be quite so spooky looking anymore. Having to wrestle tough kids
on the day you make weight won't tempt many to tempt their limits. I
think this is a pretty solid deal. I know if I were a wrestler, I
would like this. It would just simply force me to wrestle where I was
stronger, when I lost weight -- but not too much, because then I'd be
weaker. I mean it all makes sense, eh?
Ok, what about they
hydration thing? I guess quite a few kids didn't pass the test this
past Sat. So they have to do so today. I think it's another $8 per
piss, which seems a little expensive. But it may be worth it if you
actually get to wrestle where you belong.
AND, I heard Henrietta had 60 guys at the weight certs???? Wow! DO
you know how much that cost?? Let's see........well, around $460 by
my precise calculations! Now just imagine: if a lot of those kids
didn't certify??? Who pays? (I don't know how many of these kids
didn't certify -- I'm just sayin man: what if 58 of them didn't????
Henrietta would have to pass another budget just to certify
wrestlers!!)
And 60 kids!! What
-- how do you do that Mickey!! That's a lota wrestlers -- more than
the entire population of Cato-Meridian HS, I betcha....take it easy
there Cato-Meridianites; I'm just jokin! -- but it's probably true
anyway....
Coming up --
thoughts on the Penn
State duals -- Gregor and Trevor meet again!..
Gregor and Trevor met at
the Penn State duals yesterday in LockHaven. Both of these guys are
former big hitters in section five and NY State; they are now heavy
hitters nationally in Div. I. Gregor is ranked #3, pretty much across
the board, and Trevor is ranked #8, give or take, depending on where
you look. Last year when they met in nationals, Gregor had a
dominating match in the top position -- which is something that
happens sorta often. This year Trevor had a whole new masterplan -- I
could see immediately after the lst takedown. He hipped back, trying
to hip over, when Gregor drove forward. Gregor adjusted and
maintained control., with a few tilts thrown in, and won the match. I
will tell you, that this doesn't diminish Trevor's status at all;
he's a tough, solid wrestler, and emerges onto the national scene as
one of the area's top performers ever. Most NYS wrestlers who win
states and head on to Div. I schools sort of fade out of view and
rarely become ranked nationally. Locally, I don't quite remember when
it happend prior to Gregor and Trevor. So we have a couple of real
live candidates out there, competing at a very high level, and doing
very well.
Now, unfortunately, Trevor
did not meet Valimont from Penn State -- I think that would have been
a very interesting match. Gregor did (meet Valimont). Valimont is a
quintessential scrambler and a funk expert -- as he demonstrated in
the Sr. nationals two years ago, taking Cyler Sanderson into OT; they
both are funk-freaks, so it was an interesting match. Gregor managed
to stay pretty well free of any real danger, although there were a
few hairy moments; but hd managed a pretty dominating win at 5-0.
Ryan Needle is at Buffalo,
where he is attempting to make a dent nationally; he had shoulder
surgery last year, redshirted, after moving away from Ohio State,
where he didn't do very well over a two year period. He is at l41 --
and really hasn't faced a serious test yet to my knowledge.
BTW -- does anyone pay any
attention to Rev. wrestling rankings? What's up with all the true
freshmen being ranked so high at l49? I mean these are rankings of
guys who haven't even wrestled yet!!
12/5/05 --
Las Vegas
Invite info coming soon!
Gillespie wins with l4-3 major dec. in finals against Purdue's
Withstandy; Tannenbaum 4th...........more when I am
awake!!
V-tech --
the big loser? I've been reading online about the Iowa
universities firing and replacing their coaches. Cael Sanderson is
the new coach at Iowa State, replacing legendary Bobby Douglas. At
Iowa, where Gable had so many national championships, Jim Zalesky has
been let go, and Tom Brands is due to interview there. Really? Tom
Brands has been at V-tech for the past two years, rounding up as many
of