‘Wrestlers At The Trials’ - excerpt from Gene Mills

Amongst the 90 wrestlers and coaches whose never-been-published stories are captured in the recent book about the 1960 thru 1988 Olympic wrestling Trials is former Syracuse standout Gene Mills. From “Wrestlers At The Trials”, here is a short excerpt from the stories that Gene tells about his experience at the 1980 Trials and his feeling about the US boycott of those Olympics.

“I went to the wrestle-offs in Brockport still thinking we were going to compete in the Olympics. I wanted to pin my way through the Olympic Games and knew I needed to drop down to 114.5 to meet my goal. That was a tough pull for me but I made it. It was only after I won the wrestle-offs that I finally realized we wouldn’t be wrestling in the Games.

“I was so mad. I wasn’t pulling all that weight to have a good time. I was devastated, furious, angry, you name it. I would have liked to have been locked in a room with the president and make him pay. I had worked my ass off, earned the right to go and I wanted him to feel my pain.

By Kyle Klingman, W.I.N. Columnist

Wrestling has the distinct privilege of calling itself the Sport of Lincoln, a fitting tribute to Abraham Lincoln, the man many consider the U.S.’s greatest president.

Lincoln’s wrestling match with Jack Armstrong in the tiny frontier village of New Salem, Ill, is now legendary. At the age of 23, Lincoln took on Armstrong, a local tough guy, in an impromptu wrestling match in the summer of 1831. Whether Lincoln won or lost is inconsequential. It’s that he stood up and fought that matters.

One of Lincoln’s contemporaries stood up and fought too. Frederick Douglass, a prominent figure in African-American history, engaged in a battle with his slaveholder, Edward Covey.

While Lincoln’s match with Armstrong was a “friendly” competition, Douglass’s battle with Covey was not. Tired of the severe beatings, Douglass engaged Covey in an all-out brawl … and won. By his own admission, Douglass remained a slave for another four years, but the beatings stopped. Other fights ensued, but he was never whipped.

University of Nebraska Sports Information

Lincoln — The Amateur Athletic Union has announced that former Nebraska wrestler Brad Vering is a finalist for the 2007 James E. Sullivan Award, an honor given each year to the nation’s top amateur athlete.

AAU officials, U.S. Olympic Committee members and college sports information directors are among those who vote, but this year fans can cast their ballot online at usatoday.com or text AAUVOTE11 to 44636 for Vering. The fan votes count one-third toward the final tally. Voting ends March 10, with the winner announced April 1.

Vering was chosen by the U.S. Olympic Committee as its 2007 Wrestling Male Athlete of the Year after winning a silver medal at 84 kilograms (185 pounds) at the World Championships last September. Vering’s performance was the top by a U.S. wrestler at the competition as he led the U.S. Greco-Roman team to its first world title.

A native of Howells, Neb., Vering became the seventh national champion in Husker history as he defeated Iowa State’s Zack Thompson in a tiebreaker, 2-1, in the finals of the 197-pound bracket in 2000. He is fourth all-time on Nebraska’s career win chart with a 124-26 mark from 1997-2001. Vering was a three-time All-American and won the Big 12 Championships twice in his career.

By JOSH KATZOWITZ

Video: Profile of Dustin Carter from The Enquirer

GOSHEN, Ohio — The scream that Dustin Carter let loose in a gym here last weekend conveyed equal parts pain and elation. It was the sound of glory for a high school senior who wrestles unlike any of his opponents.

Carter, a high school senior, uses prosthetic legs when not wrestling. He is 41-2 this season and is competing in Ohio’s state tournament.

Carter, 18, is a 103-pounder whose legs end at his hips, whose right arm stops just after his elbow and whose left arm is even shorter. He had the rest taken from him at age 5 because of a blood infection that required extensive amputations.

His life is not easy, but he gets by just fine — particularly on the wrestling mat. His scream was his guttural recognition that he had earned a berth in the state’s Division II wrestling tournament, finishing third in his region and carving out his place among the best wrestlers in Ohio. On Thursday in Columbus, he won a match in triple overtime to reach the quarterfinals.

By Travis Johnson Email
Collegian Staff Writer

A gray-haired man in his 60s sits on a bench in the Lorenzo Wrestling Complex beneath championship plaques. He watches intently as his grandson, an elementary school wrestler, rolls around the mat with a kid twice his age, but not much taller.

Earl Harris’ eyes shift from the mat when someone beside him wants to talk wrestling. He was Pennsylvania state champion in 1958 and he could talk wrestling for hours. He also knows a thing or two about his grandson’s coach — Penn State wrestling standout and 2008 Olympic hopeful, Brad Pataky.

If Pataky and Harris weren’t generations apart, they would likely be the bitterest of enemies on the mat. Harris’ and Pataky’s high schools, Philipsburg-Osceola and Clearfield, are longstanding rivals who’ve often matched each other, champ for champ, title for title. But Harris says he always rooted for Pataky, even against his alma mater. There was something special about Pataky, the elder champion says.

“Pataky?” Harris grunts, as his white eyebrows perk up. “I always say, the best wrestlers can take a punch and, damn, he was a barn burner. Man, he was tough.”

Flowers Wrestler Learns to Overcome Disability

By Alan Goldenbach
Washington Post Staff Writer

Michael Spriggs grabbed on to a teammate’s shoulder and headed for the gymnasium wall, where William Ngakoue, a 215-pound junior on the C.H. Flowers High School wrestling team, rested after winning his first match. Leaning in closely, Spriggs peppered Ngakoue with questions about whether the advice he had given him before the match had helped.

“I wanted to know what he was thinking out there, what kind of moves he was using,” said Spriggs, a 189-pound senior. “I’m glad he used the techniques I taught him.”

Ngakoue carefully chose his words to describe the match to Spriggs, including the reversal that led to the eventual pin. He had to be very specific, because Spriggs couldn’t see the match.

Spriggs, who is nearing the end of his final season as a high school wrestler, has been blind for more than five years. For two of those years, he also has been one of the most valuable members of the Flowers team.

“He shows me how to do things instead of telling me,” Ngakoue said. “He knows what he’s talking about.”