It was a very gloomy day sometime near the end of
football season in 1982 when my life was about to leap into a world of
exceptional and unexpected talent in a sport I knew very little about. That
sport was wrestling. I was fifteen and there was a lot to learn.
I credit that sport for changing my entire outlook on life. A life
filled with the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.
I walked down a dark hallway at Steelton-Highspire
high school with butterflies gathering in my stomach just as they would
before most of my matches during my career. I approached the junior
varsity basketball coach about his decision whether or not I would be a
member of the 1982-83 Steel-High basketball team. As I walked the hall
toward the lower-level locker room, coach Yetter had already journeyed
toward the gymnasium to help begin the last day of basketball tryouts.
Three years prior I was denied the opportunity to
play the sport I loved because the ax fell on me. Steel-High was known
throughout the state of Pennsylvania for its competitive basketball teams
and it was "the sport to play" if you were a student there.
In fact, basketball and wrestling were the only two sports to compete in
during the winter sports at Steel-High for boys.
The Steamrollers had a very powerful and well-know
football team as well. When I attended school there we had a little
over six hundred students from grades 7th through 12th. The 1972 flood
wiped out the greater part of the population especially since the west side
of the town failed to exist, even today.
Although Steel-High was a very small school, the
Rollers competed in Quad A sports competitions with schools that were much
more populated than us. Steel-High had its share of championships too.
In the late 1970's and early 1980's, their football teams were rated number
one in the state of Pennsylvania (Saylor ratings). Once in 1978, in
which I shared the glory as team manager. And secondly, in 1982 when
Steel-High shared the title with rival Cumberland Valley high school and
another school located in western Pennsylvania.
Nevertheless, in my fourth attempt to make the
basketball team during my sophomore year of high school, I wasted no time
waiting for the cut. I went directly to coach Yetter at the beginning
of the final day of tryouts and asked if he was going to cut me again.
He looked at me for a moment.
"Wait until after practice." He said.
I could see in his eyes that I wasn't going to make
the team. Instead of going to the last tryout, I gathered my things
and quit the team- 0thus not allowing coach Yetter the opportunity to
officially cut me for the fourth consecutive season.
Although I didn't make the basketball team, I went
from the bright lights and big crowds of Steel-High basketball to the hushed
tones of Steel-High wrestling. The following day I was on the
wrestling mat preparing for the up coming season. I knew very little
about post-season tournaments, therefore, I had no goals whatsoever for
wrestling.
Steel-High wrestlers practiced in the gym at the
same time the basketball players practiced. We didn't have a wrestling
room. Initially, it was hard for me to accept the fact that I didn't
make the basketball team, especially since the fellows on the team made fun
of me. However, it gradually went away.
My first varsity match was at Carlisle high school
against Mike Wagner. After grappling the six-minute match with him I
was out-scored, 5-3. Also, after the match, I learned that wrestling
was probably the toughest sport a man could compete in. Never-say-die
effort wins for you on the wrestling mat. Did I ever die! I was
never so tired in my life. I couldn't even spit. My mouth was
dryer than a desert. Furthermore, my body ached from head to toe.
I'll never know what morning sickness feels like, but after excepting the
physicality of the sport and nursing my bumps and bruises, a chronic
nauseous feeling bombarded my body. I was sick as a dog, thinking I
would soon die.
The following Saturday I caught glimpses of victory
on the mat. Each year while wrestling at Steel-High, we'd wrestle a
tri-match with York high school and Scotland School for Veterans Children.
I captured two victories that day, clamping my first opponent with a quick
fall then coasted to my second victory with a 12-4 decision. I was
very excited after the meet, although I was unsure about being a wrestler.
I couldn't wait to tell mom when I got home. She was always happy to
see her children achieve.
The following weeks of wrestling I over-powered
nine consecutive opponents, compiling a 10-1 record. I captured the
Capital City Christmas tournament at Harrisburg high school as well,
defeating Brian Starner from Bermudian Springs high school, 5-1. It
was my first tournament championship during my career. I started to
develop a great degree of confidence characteristically as well as
athletically. I was happy to be a wrestler, especially since I was
winning. I don't believe I would have continued with the sport if I
had a loosing record.
As a youngster in the world of sports and prior to
becoming a wrestler, I experienced a great deal of rejection during my
beginning stages of competition. When I entered the competitive sports
world at eight years of age I received the opportunity to play football,
baseball and basketball as a starter.
In peewee football my team was declared co-champs
at the end of the season. What a feeling as a youngster. I was
winning and loved it. After that season as an all around jock, my mom
declared me ineligible. She thought highly of her children obtaining
the proper education, and I had a hell of a time in the classroom. I
had to sit out of sports the next few seasons despite my constant begging
and bugging I did to mom. Eventually, I accepted the condition.
When I entered the eight grade at Steel-High, my
mom allowed me to play sports again. I went back out for football, in
which I was still able to compete in the midget program. By that time
I had lost so much physical ability in the sport. Also, I stopped
growing, except in my heart. Ironically, however, the Steelton Raiders
captured another league championship even though we lost to Red Land in the
Super Bowl.
I enjoyed the overall accomplishment but knowing
that my contributions to that championship weren't effective, it wasn't all
that great. I sat the bench most of the season and only got in for one
play during that game against Red Land. Reluctantly or so the fate
continued. I could never make a basketball team at Steel-High, and in
teenage baseball I sat the bench. I hated rejection and I didn't
understand it, even though I had the biggest heart in the world. Yet,
I was still determined to be a successful athlete someday.
It's understandable why I was grateful during my
ten match-winning streak during the 1982 wrestling season. Wrestling
was a molding phenomenon, which provided a means of teaching, developing,
training, encouragement and confidence for my character. I began to
develop a positive image for myself. In fact, I started developing a
love relationship for the sport.
The next match we had was against wrestling
powerhouse, Cedar Cliff high school, located across the Susquehanna River on
the west shore. I had to wrestle Dave Orris. He was undefeated
and I read about him a lot in the paper as being a very tough and
outstanding wrestler.
He came after me right away, building a 9-1 lead
toward the end of the match. Cedar Cliff's coach Bob Craig instructed
him to give me a one-point escape in order for him to work for a superior
decision, which gave a team five team points back then.
Craig's wit as a wrestling coach backfired though.
I don't recall what happened but I remember Orris struggling to get of his
back. He recovered at the sound of the buzzer. Actually, I
thought he was pinned. The scored ended at 9-7 with my five-point
move.
Wrestling was my sport. Nobody could tell me
I wasn't good. Not any of the coaches who sat me on the bench.
Not any of my friends or enemies. And most of all, not coach Yetter,
the junior varsity basketball coach nor coaches Shonewolf and Baronoski, who
coached the junior high basketball programs at Steel-High. I was on a
mission and anybody who got in my way was going to suffer severely.
Thanks to that match with Orris, my life was changed forever. It was
strange too, because I never wrestled any other opponent during my career
than I had wrestled Orris. I only had the pleasure of beating him
twice.
That season changed my life in other aspects
as well. I almost killed one of my best friends, and my mother was
dying. She was diagnosed with cancer.
At the end of the season I lost to Kevin King
from Milton Hershey high school for the third place consolation match, 10-2.
I was unable to advance to the District Championship. Our Sectional
Tournament advanced three wrestlers per weight class. My final record
that season stood at 18-6. Not bad for a first year varsity wrestler.
Although my season was over, my wrestling coach,
Nick Govelovich allowed me to go to the District III wrestling championships
as a manager for the Steel-High team. Although I was jealous of the
98-pounders who did advance, going to that tournament psyched me up.
It made me want to come back and win it the next year.
