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!