The Real deal
Fresh off RPW title, Cummins heads to World Trials

By Bruce Morgan, Record Express Sports Editor
Lititz Record Express

LITITZ, PA - Pat Cummins is still fairly new to international wrestling.

But the 1999 Warwick High School grad got a big confidence boost last October.

A two-time All-American and 2004 NCAA runner-up at Penn State University, Cummins captured the 264-pound title during the first season of Real Pro Wrestling, the new professional league contested within the framework of international wrestling rules.

Standing between Cummins and the title was No. 1-seeded Tolly Thompson of the California Claw, runner-up to Kerry McCoy in the finals of the 2004 Olympic Trials. But Cummins, who competed for the Pennsylvania Hammer, put Thompson on his back twice, built an early lead, and held on to win 10-3.

“He came out really hard, but recklessly,” Cummins said in a phone interview from State College. “He really wanted to get a lead on me right away, and I kind of used it against him. It made it so much easier the last half of the match, where if I got taken down, it wasn’t a big deal.”

Dan McDonald

Nearly 50 boys of all ages crowded around the wrestling mats Tuesday afternoon at Red’s Health & Racquet Club, watching Daniel Cormier and learning.

Getting that kind of up-close instruction from an Olympian, a three-time national champion and a member of the U.S. team for the World Championships doesn’t happen every day.

The quality of that instruction is important to Cormier, but he was happier with the quantity Tuesday. The turnout for the first sessions of the Daniel Cormier Wrestling Camp was nearly twice the numbers that the camp drew last year.

“Maybe my success over the last year helped,” Cormier said, “but I think what was more important was the exposure of the sport. People here were able to follow what I did at the Olympics every day, keeping up with my career, and that’s helped them know that there’s wrestling out there.”

Lafayette native Cormier and USA World Team teammates Mo Lawal and Tyrone Lewis (Lewis on the World University Games Team) worked with wrestlers of all sizes and ability levels during the first day of the two-day camp that wraps up today. Cormier was impressed with the talent level of the camp pool, but he wasn’t surprised.

Dan McDonald

Unlike some Olympic athletes in higher-profile sports, Daniel Cormier didn’t come back from the Games in Athens to cash in.

Wrestling doesn’t lend itself to career opportunities in the sport, and Cormier said that’s why many world-class performers leave the sport at the end of an Olympic cycle.

“The only way to make it financially is to be the number one guy (at each weight class),” Cormier said Tuesday after the first day of his wrestling camp at Red’s Health & Racquet Club. “Even the number two or three guy has to get a regular job. There’s more chances for the top guys through camps, USA Wrestling and other areas.”

Financial gain isn’t Cormier’s motivation, but …

“It has to be an issue,” he said. “You have to be able to make some kind of living.”

One step toward making it financially feasible for some to remain in the sport came last fall, when a group of former collegiate wrestlers formed Real Pro Wrestling. Based out of Ashland City, Tenn., the group brought 54 wrestlers - Cormier included - to a Los Angeles studio for a weekend of competition that was converted into a series of 15 one-hour shows.

Playin’ to his own dream

Nate Bailey, captain of SHS state runner-ups, begins life at United States Naval Academy

By Joshua R. Wilkins
Sports Writer

In Nate Bailey’s last wrestling match for SHS, he led off the state finals with a big pin.

Many who know him couldn’t think of a better way for the captain of the team to go out, especially a trend-setter who is used to reaching heights others may see as unattainable.

On Monday, the self-proclaimed “dreamer” headed North to Annapolis, Md., and the United States Naval Academy, where he hopes lessons he learned in his past adventures help him in his new one. Bailey is the first SHS student to be appointed to any of the service academies in several years.

“I’d definitely say wrestling had the biggest influence,” said Bailey, who fell in love with the sport as a freshman at SHS. “Grades have never been a problem. It’s just what’s expected out of the family. Just do your best. With wrestling it gave me the dedication to something, and the work ethic.”

Former Northern Illinois Wrestler Discusses Planning, Production and Future of Independent Wrestling Film

By Matt Krumrie – Senior Editor
Please send comments, questions or replies to: info@thewrestlingmall.com

Northern Illinois University alumnus James “J.D.” Oliva, who wrestled over five seasons for Coach Dave Grant, is directing a feature-length independent movie titled “7 Minutes” a reference to the length of a collegiate wrestling match. All of the actors who will portray wrestlers in the film actually did compete at the collegiate level.

The cast and crew began shooting at various locations on the NIU campus and in DeKalb, IL., Wednesday, June 22. The movie’s climactic scene will be shot at the NIU Convocation Center.

“There aren’t really any good wrestling movies out there,” says Oliva, who graduated in 2003 with a degree in communication. “The wrestling community is starving for something like this.”

“7 Minutes,” which also will be shot at locations in Ottawa, New Lennox [two towns in Northern Illinois, I assume -- Mark] and Wisconsin, already is generating some buzz. The Chicago Sun-Times published a write-up on the project in May, and the Web site for the movie 7 Minutes has received tens of thousands of hits. Oliva says three corporate sponsors are on board, along with a group of private backers who are financing the project.

Philadelphia – The University of Pennsylvania announces the resignation of Head Wrestling Coach Roger Reina. Reina, who served as head coach for the Quaker for 19 seasons, will take another position at the University as a senior major gifts officer for the PENN Medicine Development office.

Reina will leave the program as its most successful coach in its 101-year history. In 19 seasons at the helm he posted a record of 205-106-6, recording his 200th career victory this season at Columbia. His win total is more than double that of any his predecessors.

Reina’s teams have consistently produced nationally-ranked results and individuals who have achieved national recognition. The Quakers have also established multiple institutional, Ivy League and Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) records. Penn has finished in the top-20 at the NCAA Championships five of the last seven years and has had at least one All-American in nine-consecutive seasons. Since the 1994 season, the Quakers have captured eight Ivy League Championships including an Ancient Eight record seven-consecutive titles (1996-2002). Since 1993, Penn has produced an astonishing 63 NCAA Qualifiers, 31 EIWA Champions, 17 All-Americans, four-consecutive EIWA titles, three NCAA finalists and an NCAA and Olympic champion.

By BEN WATANABE, Staff Writer

Getting involved in wrestling wasn’t difficult for 6-year-old Kyle Samborn of Sanford. He was emotional, the son of a wrestler, and in need of an outlet for his hyperactivity.

“They sent this thing home from school one day about wrestling, and from his first match he just dominated,” said his father, Richard Samborn.

Kyle Samborn claimed his 11th first-place prize in just over a year of competition at the Maine Games at the Portland Exposition Center on Saturday. Samborn is one of an estimated 300 wrestlers expected to compete over the course of the games, which continue today. Saturday’s competition was for younger wrestlers, both boys and girls, ranging from 4 to 13 years old.

Participants high school age and older compete today. The youth competition, though a competitive double-elimination tournament, was primarily about learning, event organizer Tony Napolitano said.

Chris Saucier, Jr., sat contently with his family eating a popsicle after finishing second to Samborn. Saucier said he is looking forward to sleepovers at his friend’s house and riding his bike this summer. His father, Chris Sucier, Sr., a four-time state champion at Penobscot Valley in the early 1990s, will wrestle today.

MAKING HIS WAY: ONE MAN’S JOURNEY TO THRIVE AND ENLIGHTEN

By BILL MOOR
Tribune Staff Writer

Third of seven parts

Chad Kling thought he was being told a sick joke.

The LaVille High School wrestler was in the locker room after an earlier forfeit victory when a teammate came back to fetch him. A guy from John Glenn High School wanted to wrestle him in an exhibition.

That’s when Chad first met Brett Eastburn.

“I looked at him and said something like, ‘Are you kidding?’ ” Chad admits. “And so Brett said to me, ‘Are you too good to wrestle me?’ ”

Chad said he wasn’t.

“But I had always been taught how to use an opponent’s arms and legs to my advantage,” Chad says. “I really didn’t know what to do out on the mat.”

Brett knew what to do, though.

“I pinned him,” Brett says. “I was wrestling in the 103-pound division like Chad, but I had to weigh at least 88 pounds to qualify. I was about 3 pounds shy.”

That’s why Chad had gotten the forfeit, not knowing who his opponent was supposed to be. And that’s why Brett wanted a chance in an exhibition after the regular meet.

By Bruce Campbell
Times Editor

High River Times — A pair of Highwood Mustang wrestlers are exchanging their graduation gowns for singlets and kimonos.
Conrad Jones and Josh Schug missed the Highwood high school graduation ceremonies June 29 because they are in Japan wrestling with an Alberta team.
Schug and Jones were selected to the team by King of the Mat coach Mike Dunn based in part on their performance at the nationals in St. John’s in April (Schug won the Juvenile Men’s 100-kg Greco-Roman division, while Jones was sixth at 85-kg in the Juvenile Men’s freestyle).

“We will be wrestling against high school teams,” said Jones, who said he will either wrestle at 79 or 82 kg. “I think it will be a fun time — we’ll be learning a lot about the culture.”
He said while he has never wrestled abroad, Jones has heard the Japanese wrestlers are of high caliber.

Schug has first-hand knowledge of wrestling Japanese students.
“There were some Japanese wrestlers at the Stu Hart tournament on New Year’s,” Schug said. “There were only a couple of guys (from Canada) who were able to beat them.”
Schug said the Japanese wrestler he came up against was quick and technically sound.
But the trip to Japan, which will include stops in Tsuruga and Osaka, will also be an educational one.

By BENJAMIN HARVEY

EDIRNE, Turkey (AP) - To an Ottoman band’s relentless drum pounding and whirring of clarinets, Saban Yilmaz entered the wrestling stadium and poured two full pitchers of extra virgin olive oil over his hulking torso.

After nearly an hour of slow, deliberate grappling and a few blunt slaps that sent oil and sweat spraying onto the uncut grass, Yilmaz tossed his opponent onto his back in an explosion of strength to win the 644th annual Kirkpinar oil wrestling championship - one of the world’s oldest sporting events.

“I’ve been preparing for this for 16 years,” the new Turkish baspehlivan, or head wrestler, said Sunday, panting for breath after a victory sprint that sent reporters scurrying out of the way and a celebratory lap on the shoulders of other oil wrestlers.

Now Yilmaz said he thinks it’s time to bring what he calls “the world’s most aesthetic sport” to other countries.

“No one can defeat Turkey,” he said, his massive body dripping with of oil and sweat. “This is our ancestral sport. . . . God willing, oil wrestling will be brought to other countries.”