Have you ever participated in a sport before you've even seen it played? I mean, before I played my first baseball game I'd seen a lot of baseball games. Before I played my first football game I'd seen a lot of football games in person and on TV. Before I went golfing for the first time I had watched it on TV many times. But for me, that's not how it was for my first wrestling match. Here's how it went down.
It was the day of our first meet and I was nervous. We were to wrestle Peoria Manual that night and I had no idea what to expect. All I knew was I was the 95 pound varsity wrestler. Now my normal weight was right around 97 or 98. All I had to do to make weight that night was to skip lunch and go easy on the water. The match was scheduled for 7 p.m. and weigh in was at 6 p.m. Well, I made weight with no problem; I think I weighed about 94 1/2. But when Manual weighed in I noticed that they didn't have a 95 pounder. My teammates told me that meant I was going to win by forfeit. I was a little disappointed because I was ready to wrestle, but at the same time relieved because I had been pretty nervous. Everything was a new experience for me, from team warm-ups to introductions. As we were warming up on the mat my coach, Mr. Gross informed me that he was bumping me up to wrestle at 103. He was moving me up to 103 because since I could beat our 103 pounder he figured I had a better chance to win. My first thought was, "I could have eaten lunch".
Okay, now it was time to get nervous again. My teammates informed me that my 103 pound opponent was a junior named Steve Empson who was the conference champ last year. "Conference champ?” I thought. "You've got to be kidding me." So here I was, a freshman with two weeks practice under my belt, weighing 95 pounds, and wrestling up a weight class against a junior who was the defending conference champ. I knew I was in trouble. "Oh well, maybe not too many people will watch my match". You see, I thought wrestling matches would be like practice. In practice everybody wrestled at once, 20 or 30 guys on the mat. I figured there would probably be four or five matches going on at a time and maybe no one would notice me. That's how naïve I was.
The mats were cleared, coach told me to take off my warm-up top, and shook my hand. He gave me a slap on the rear and sent me out to the mat. As I went out to the mat I turned back to look at my teammates. I noticed that no one was following me. It was then that I realized I was going to wrestle out there all by myself! Well, me and my opponent. As I walked out to the mat, I took a good look at my opponent. He was muscular, had hair on his chest and shaved a full beard. Heck, I had barely reached puberty. I was a baby faced freshman boy going against a hardened, veteran young man. We stepped to the circle, shook hands, and waited for the ref to blow the whistle. Everything was a blur in my mind, I couldn’t think. I was trying to remember the few moves I had been taught. The sound of the whistle interrupted my thoughts and I instinctively began to shuffle stiffly in my stance. Before I could blink, wham! He was in on my legs and taking me to the mat in an instant. As we hit the mat I turned to go belly down but he caught my shoulder and I couldn't get off my back. The gym was roaring with cheers and I was fighting for my life when the whistle blew. We had gone out of bounds and the ref was taking us back to the center for another start. The whistle blew again and he was in on me before I could move, this time we landed in the center of the mat. Again I was on my back fighting for my life. I struggled to keep at least one shoulder up so I wouldn't get pinned but he kept tightening up his hold on me. As I battled I could faintly hear the crowd and my teammates urging me to get off my back. Suddenly the whistle blew and I heard the ref slap the mat. I had been pinned in 56 seconds. We shook hands and I walked dejectedly off the mat. There had been nowhere to hide; everyone in the gym saw it. That’s when I learned it takes a special person to walk out on a wrestling mat.
I sat down on the bench and looked at the mat. Our 112 pounder was getting ready to wrestle. I was finally going to get to see my first wrestling match of my life. I can’t remember if he won or lost, I was still thinking of my disastrous start. As the meet wore on it was a back and forth battle between us and Manual. The meet came down to the heavyweight match with us trailing 27-25. Our 180 pounder and one of the studs of the football team, Larry Elmore, had been bumped up by coach to wrestle Manual’s heavyweight. Elmore was one of my heroes. I didn’t think anyone could whip him. He won a hard fought 3-2 win and we beat Manual that night 28-27.
Many years ago President Theodore Roosevelt gave a cool talk about “The Man in the Ring”. He talked about how people on the sidelines can talk all they want but until you’ve been in the ring yourself, you can’t really understand what it’s like. Well, I got a taste that night, even if I was just the boy in the ring.
Check out www.chiefpigskin.com for more good stories about football and life.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
Gladiator
Mr. Gross, the high school wrestling coach, had done a pretty good job of recruiting me for the wrestling team. Mr. Gross was also the varsity line coach for the football team. He knew that wrestling and football went hand-in-hand, although at the time I had no idea. Even though www.chiefpigskin.com is a football site, I’m sure that more than a few of you football coaches out there are familiar with wrestling and its benefits for football players. So when I was recruited for the high school wrestling team, it made no sense to me. (Please see my last column to learn of my recruitment for wrestling) My two favorite sports were football and baseball, but I always enjoyed playing basketball also. So much so that I played on the grade school basketball team from fifth through eighth grade. Now back in those days where I lived we had a lightweight team and a heavyweight team. Since I was a little guy I always qualified to play on the lightweight team but tournament time I also played guard on the heavyweight team. Well, there was no lightweight team in high school so I had already decided that I wasn’t going out for basketball in high school; I saw the writing on the wall. I was an okay basketball player but very small and knew that I would never make the high school team. I figured I would just take the winter off, perhaps play baseball in the spring or perhaps just focus on football. I certainly didn't envision myself being a wrestler, but Mr. Gross had different ideas and he did a great job of recruiting me to be his 95 pounder on the wrestling team.
So here I was, football season was over, and I was in the wrestling room. Now if you've never been in a wrestling room you can't quite imagine the atmosphere. The ideal wrestling room is kept warm and in the case at our school, very warm. I found out wrestlers liked it that way so they could sweat off more weight. Mr. Gross would wrap a cold towel around the thermostat every day before practice. This would ensure that the heat kept running the entire time practice was going on. I never knew how hot it was in that room, it felt like 100 although I'm sure it was only around 80 to 85. It was almost like a steam bath sometimes. By the time you got 30 to 35 guys in there working out hard and sweating you could almost see the steam on the walls. Guys that were cutting weight would wear those old rubber suits which would make them sweat even more. We would all be soaked in sweat, beat up, bloody, and battling each other on the mats. It was a bit crowded in the room and guys were always running into each other and tripping each other up. If a couple of the heavier weights got out of control and were really in a scramble, they would fly all over the mat knocking us little guys down. It was a pretty rough environment, to say the least. The smell of the mats with all that sweat also made its own unique smell. So there I was, steamy, smelly, bloody and tired. If you’ve ever seen a movie about gladiators training for the arena, that’s what I felt like, a gladiator. I was learning a few takedowns and some counters, which simply means ways to stop takedowns by your opponent. I had also learned how to line up in the referee's position, top and bottom. I learned a few pinning combinations from the top position and a few escapes and reversals from the bottom. And after the first practice or two, I didn't throw up anymore when I got tired. But after the first week, I was still wondering what in the world I was doing in this strange new sport. Although it was the hardest sport I had ever tried, there was something about it that appealed to me. For one thing, I was beating the other 95 pound candidates and also beating the 103 pounder. So it gave me a sense of accomplishment, toughness if you will. My dad had been a good boxer, maybe I could be a good wrestler.
Week two, Mr. Gross announced that we were going to have challenge matches. I asked the upperclassman what challenge matches were. They explained to me that we would have matches, “wrestle offs”, to decide who would be in the starting lineup against our first opponent. The coach wouldn't decide the starting lineup; we would by our performance in our challenge match. Whoever won the wrestle off was the starter. I liked that idea. I felt I deserved to be getting a little more playing time on the freshman football team but the coaches decided I was too small and not good enough I guess. Now I had a chance to earn a starting spot by simply winning. It was in MY hands.
On Tuesday night it was time to begin challenge matches. Our coach had written all the pairings on the board and I was scheduled to wrestle Jim Thompson for the starting spot at 95. Since we were lightweights, we were up first. However, it wasn't just us wrestling our challenge match, there were about four others going on at the same time. You had to conduct your match in just one little section of the mat. There would be two of us wrestling and an experienced, veteran wrestler was the official. So there were always probably about four or five matches going on at the same time. I was ready to go. I had been practicing against Thompson for the last week and knew that I could dominate him. This was the first wrestling match of my life, and I wasn't even sure how they conducted these things. Our ref had us shake hands and gave us the command, “Ready, wrestle!” After a little bobbing and weaving, I found a good opening and shot in for a double leg takedown, the only takedown I really knew. It was just like a tackle in football and I hit it deep and took him down to the mat. Two points for me. I controlled the match the rest of the way and wound up winning 4-0. The starting spot was mine. I was completely exhausted but happy. Simply put, wrestling was the most physically demanding sport I had ever attempted in my life. I know what you're thinking, "Heck, it's only three two-minute periods, six minutes. Should be easy”. Well, let me tell you, it's the longest six minutes of your life.
The rest of the week we continued our gladiator type training preparing for our first match the following week against archrival Manual High School. All I knew was that Manual was from the south end of town and had a reputation of being a bunch of tough kids. They had whipped us in football, but our upperclassman told us this was our chance to get them back. I could tell this was going to be a big deal. I hoped I was ready and now I was getting nervous. I mean, come on, I was big time. I was the starting varsity 95 pound wrestler!
So here I was, football season was over, and I was in the wrestling room. Now if you've never been in a wrestling room you can't quite imagine the atmosphere. The ideal wrestling room is kept warm and in the case at our school, very warm. I found out wrestlers liked it that way so they could sweat off more weight. Mr. Gross would wrap a cold towel around the thermostat every day before practice. This would ensure that the heat kept running the entire time practice was going on. I never knew how hot it was in that room, it felt like 100 although I'm sure it was only around 80 to 85. It was almost like a steam bath sometimes. By the time you got 30 to 35 guys in there working out hard and sweating you could almost see the steam on the walls. Guys that were cutting weight would wear those old rubber suits which would make them sweat even more. We would all be soaked in sweat, beat up, bloody, and battling each other on the mats. It was a bit crowded in the room and guys were always running into each other and tripping each other up. If a couple of the heavier weights got out of control and were really in a scramble, they would fly all over the mat knocking us little guys down. It was a pretty rough environment, to say the least. The smell of the mats with all that sweat also made its own unique smell. So there I was, steamy, smelly, bloody and tired. If you’ve ever seen a movie about gladiators training for the arena, that’s what I felt like, a gladiator. I was learning a few takedowns and some counters, which simply means ways to stop takedowns by your opponent. I had also learned how to line up in the referee's position, top and bottom. I learned a few pinning combinations from the top position and a few escapes and reversals from the bottom. And after the first practice or two, I didn't throw up anymore when I got tired. But after the first week, I was still wondering what in the world I was doing in this strange new sport. Although it was the hardest sport I had ever tried, there was something about it that appealed to me. For one thing, I was beating the other 95 pound candidates and also beating the 103 pounder. So it gave me a sense of accomplishment, toughness if you will. My dad had been a good boxer, maybe I could be a good wrestler.
Week two, Mr. Gross announced that we were going to have challenge matches. I asked the upperclassman what challenge matches were. They explained to me that we would have matches, “wrestle offs”, to decide who would be in the starting lineup against our first opponent. The coach wouldn't decide the starting lineup; we would by our performance in our challenge match. Whoever won the wrestle off was the starter. I liked that idea. I felt I deserved to be getting a little more playing time on the freshman football team but the coaches decided I was too small and not good enough I guess. Now I had a chance to earn a starting spot by simply winning. It was in MY hands.
On Tuesday night it was time to begin challenge matches. Our coach had written all the pairings on the board and I was scheduled to wrestle Jim Thompson for the starting spot at 95. Since we were lightweights, we were up first. However, it wasn't just us wrestling our challenge match, there were about four others going on at the same time. You had to conduct your match in just one little section of the mat. There would be two of us wrestling and an experienced, veteran wrestler was the official. So there were always probably about four or five matches going on at the same time. I was ready to go. I had been practicing against Thompson for the last week and knew that I could dominate him. This was the first wrestling match of my life, and I wasn't even sure how they conducted these things. Our ref had us shake hands and gave us the command, “Ready, wrestle!” After a little bobbing and weaving, I found a good opening and shot in for a double leg takedown, the only takedown I really knew. It was just like a tackle in football and I hit it deep and took him down to the mat. Two points for me. I controlled the match the rest of the way and wound up winning 4-0. The starting spot was mine. I was completely exhausted but happy. Simply put, wrestling was the most physically demanding sport I had ever attempted in my life. I know what you're thinking, "Heck, it's only three two-minute periods, six minutes. Should be easy”. Well, let me tell you, it's the longest six minutes of your life.
The rest of the week we continued our gladiator type training preparing for our first match the following week against archrival Manual High School. All I knew was that Manual was from the south end of town and had a reputation of being a bunch of tough kids. They had whipped us in football, but our upperclassman told us this was our chance to get them back. I could tell this was going to be a big deal. I hoped I was ready and now I was getting nervous. I mean, come on, I was big time. I was the starting varsity 95 pound wrestler!
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