31 March, 2017<\/p>\n
Revised 22 July, 2017<\/p>\n
Distinctive Features of the Sport<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the great blessing of wrestling is instruction in humility.\u00a0 Everyone takes a beating sometime. Thinking back, \u00a0I believe I also learned through wrestling about the value of volunteer work: those coaches who put so much time and patience into my efforts to perfect my “moves.” I learned humility, discipline, and personal responsibility.<\/p>\n Most popular sports today include the use of toys (balls) and depend upon timing and coordination with\u00a0 teammates in passing the object from one team member to another.\u00a0\u00a0 Such is the case with the big four: basketball, football, baseball, and soccer as well the less regionally played hockey and lacrosse.\u00a0 Individual success in these sports occurs in conjunction with team success. There are other sports in which an individual can win even as a team may lose: golf, tennis, gymnastics, swimming, track, wrestling.<\/p>\n Wrestling is the most basic survival skill a protector of his family must have.\u00a0 It is the best skill and most available means for defending an attack in the most unexpected occasion. \u00a0It seeks to restrain and overpower, not necessarily to injure or destroy. And it applies a means which seeks to stop the aggressor with the least harm.\u00a0 Wrestling requires the most stringent demands for diet control and the discipline of fasting.\u00a0 It\u00a0 combines most efficiently those aspects of competition which develop attributes of personal accountability, discipline (of appetite as well as the mind and body), and sacrifice.<\/p>\n I do not speak as one unfamiliar with other sports;\u00a0 I excelled in skiing, football, baseball, swimming, diving, baseball (and even basketball before I abandoned it in favor of wrestling as the two were in the same season).\u00a0 No brag; just fact.\u00a0 I inherited athletic aptitude from my parents; I didn’t earn it.\u00a0 Dad was a city boy from Paterson, New Jersey.\u00a0 Basketball was the only sport accessible and he played it and lacrosse \u00a0at USNA.\u00a0 I did not make use of my ability as fully I might have.<\/p>\n We might well ponder a comparison between track, swimming, \u00a0boxing, gymnastics, and wrestling.\u00a0 These require brute exercise of muscles and the extension of energy.\u00a0 And all five highlight the singular athlete and call him individually to excellence in physical conditioning.\u00a0 In each of these sports he is fully responsible for his success or failure. \u00a0\u00a0Wrestling and boxing are unique, however, in matching one person directly against another. \u00a0The demerits of boxing are the injuries and serious risks it brings to the competitors – the pounding directly to the head and the risk of \u00a0injury to the brain. Indeed, it is a sport which moves the competitor not just to overpower, but to deface and harm the opponent, attacking his very countenance.\u00a0 It promotes a type of combative antagonism, even a maliciousness, one with another, and provides little opportunity for the team factor to be worked into the sport.\u00a0 Wresting opponents, in contrast, \u00a0do not seek to damage or do harm to one another.\u00a0 The goal is to prevail over one’s opponent, to overcome and subdue him, yet without inflicting injury.\u00a0 The singular person may win or lose solitarily and contribute, nevertheless, to the teams’ victory or defeat.<\/p>\n To reiterate:\u00a0 wrestling is, simply, the BEST SPORT.\u00a0 I would offer further discourse in praise of the sport referencing here my own wrestling experience.<\/p>\n Rise and Fall of Wrestling in the Maryland\/D.C. Area<\/strong><\/p>\n Wrestling came to our county about the time it came to Wilmington – in the 60s.\u00a0 Bowie High School, from which I graduated in 1970 is in Prince George’s County, a suburb of Washington D.C., was the fastest growing county in the nation during the 60s and 70s.\u00a0 John McNelis, the coach at DuVal, brought it down from Pennsylvania and coached these three other\u00a0 men at DuVal High school. \u00a0Dave Phillips went to Bowie; Joel Kuharick took over DuVal as McNelis went to newly formed Parkdale High School;\u00a0 and Larry Bozella went to Northwestern. \u00a0For two decades they enjoyed great rivalry and Prince George’s County was the dominant county in state and a fount for good wrestling. \u00a0“PG” County enjoyed great competition with the\u00a0 adjacent Montgomery county both of which bordered the D.C. line.\u00a0 Then, \u00a0as the counties’ schools were degraded under the effect of busing, so went the wrestling programs.<\/p>\n Personal Involvement<\/strong><\/p>\n I was privileged to share in the friendship between\u00a0 Kuharick and Phillips on the occasion of he NCAA wrestling tournament of 1970 in Iowa.\u00a0 The two \u00a0drove me and another student, Scott Burgett (a graduate who had came back to work out with me during the season), to that tournament to watch the renowned Dan Gable along with the other top college wrestlers in the nation.\u00a0 What a trip!\u00a0 I will never forget the reaction of the fans in that stadium when Gable lost to Larry Owings.\u00a0 They were so awestruck; \u00a0they paid no attention to the next final match.\u00a0 Strangely, I don’t\u00a0 remember the names of the competitors who followed that bout and I probably didn’t know them the day after it happened.<\/p>\n Later that year, I would see Larry Owings again when he joined us at wrestling practice at the Naval Academy where he was visiting.\u00a0 Two years later I would watch Gable in Germany wrestling in the Olympics.\u00a0 Oh the appointments and opportunities in life!<\/p>\n I think a particular motivating experience was in my loss to a fellow named Mike Underwood my junior year when we lived in Rochester (1969).\u00a0 I had racked up a 10-0-1 regular season record.\u00a0 The tie was to Greg Fuller, whose father coached the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) team.\u00a0 But as we went into the Section V tournament in the state wide competition, I lost handily to Underwood.\u00a0 After dominating the match and racking up a number I am happy to forget, he shook my hand and said, “Nice match.”<\/p>\n Well, it wasn’t.\u00a0 Excelsior <\/em>(“ever upward”) is the motto of many-an institution including New York state.\u00a0\u00a0 And at the time of that loss, I was motivated to improve, return to Maryland, and to triumph.\u00a0 My last year.\u00a0 I was coached in the off season by Frank Oliveri, the wresting coach for the University of\u00a0 Rochester.\u00a0 He devoted personal one-on-one time for several months to me I worked hard beyond that season, spending time with Oliveri and attending USNA Coach Ed Peery’s wrestling camp.\u00a0 In my mind it was my big opportunity.\u00a0 Performing well in wrestling was a goal motivated by several factors: 1) the opportunity of a Naval Academy appointment effected by wrestling success (the coaches have pull<\/em> in this matter), 2) the possibility of\u00a0 a scholarship to alternate regular colleges.<\/p>\n I was blessed with similar assistance in Maryland where I graduated from Bowie High School in 1970.\u00a0\u00a0 Coach Dave Phillips recruited an older ex-wrestler, Mike Fowler, whom he had coached at DuVal High School, to be my partner at our team practices.\u00a0 It was these special opportunities, through such volunteer work, that enabled me to excel.\u00a0 I am very grateful to Oliveri and Fowler for their volunteer work.<\/p>\n Wrestling was a great boon for me, even if I did not make the best of that opportunity. Undefeated and voted the Outstanding Wrestler of Prince George’s County in 1970, I became the first of 17 state champions from Bowie High School 1970 to 1989.\u00a0\u00a0 It was that success that probably clinched my appointment to the Naval Academy.\u00a0 I left left Bowie at graduation,\u00a0 was a midshipmen at Annapolis for one year, spent a few years in Germany where my folks (navy) had been transferred, then lived many years in Colorado and married Jayne Green before finally returning to Maryland in 1980.\u00a0 In Germany, I watched Dan Gable in the ’72 Olympics; Lloyd Keaser was an alternate for him. \u00a0Lloyd won the world title in 1973 and the Pan American Games of 1975.<\/p>\n Back at USNA, \u00a0Butch Keaser was my partner at our 142 lb class.\u00a0 Three-time NCAA champion Ed Peery was my head coach.\u00a0 And another NCAA champion, Bob Kopnizki from the University of Maryland, was the Plebe coach.\u00a0Keaser was the starter on the varsity and I started for the Plebe team at 142 until an injury put me out for two months.\u00a0 I spent several weeks on the mat with him in the summer of 1970 while the “youngsters” (sophomores) were out on cruise. \u00a0He was a relentless worker, but the most prominent aspect of his character was quiet humility. \u00a0His style was nothing fancy; he was simply\u00a0incessant\u00a0and tenacious.\u00a0\u00a0 He was a Christian, even tempered, soft-spoken – the perfect Academy man.<\/p>\n I remember the day of that injury.\u00a0 I was “riding” Dave Homiak, a fellow plebe and \u00a0the New Jersey State Champ at 154.\u00a0 We were drilling as a team and it was my turn “on top.”\u00a0 I was lazily doing nothing to turn him, just countering his moves, making no energy-draining efforts to “turn” him. (The lazy course of action was to avoid expending the effort to turn someone and risk a reversal and all the energy of the fight.) \u00a0He lost patience, “key-locked” my wrist and arched around, twisting my elbow as he escaped my ride toward a reversal.<\/p>\n I could feel and hear it. \u00a0My right elbow had ripped elbow, and I was out.\u00a0 It was no loss to me, as I had no will to wrestle.\u00a0 There was another path for me to take: continued disinterest in my setting, a desire to wander around free from the regular rigors of life.\u00a0 I was, to be sure, rather hippie-minded, unfit at that time for the military life!\u00a0 I needed to travel, to wander. \u00a0And I did.<\/p>\n For many years thereafter I paid little attention to the sport except for a few months in Germany during a two-year stay there in the late 70s. \u00a0There I entered a regional tournament joining a local Stuttgart team and was beaten soundly by the Swiss national champ. \u00a0He applied an unforgettable “suplay” taking me clear into the air and back to the mat for a fast touch-pin – with such smooth efficiency as I had never experienced.<\/p>\n A resurgence of interest in the sport came when\u00a0my sons came along.\u00a0 There were only two: Jonas (born in 1983) and Isaac (born in 1993). \u00a0Both were excellent workers and talented athletes. \u00a0Neither of our boys had opportunities comparable to those I had, but both did better with what they were afforded.<\/p>\n Wilmington in Contrast with Maryland<\/strong><\/p>\n I did not witness those declining years of Prince George’s County wrestling which began in the\u00a0 late 1980s. \u00a0They were a function of\u00a0 busing along with a general failure of\u00a0 public schools in large metropolitan areas.\u00a0 The disruption of neighborhood schools and the transferring of students to other regions put a strain upon after-school sports programs.\u00a0 The public school administration seemed to look with disdain upon those who were in the competing private system and received transfers like returning traitors.\u00a0 That was my experience as I\u00a0 was enrolling my children into that system after schooling them in our church school and by home-schooling.\u00a0 Noteworthy also is the fact that, in contrast to what we have witnessed in Wilmington, the teachers in Maryland public schools did not enroll their own children in the very system in which they taught.\u00a0\u00a0 The children of teachers were always, in every case we examined, enrolled in private schools or public schools elsewhere.\u00a0 There was a fear of aggression toward a teacher’s child from other students.\u00a0 The hostility and general dysfunction of a system toward those who had not been continuously enrolled n public school but were transferring from a home-school setting was evident.\u00a0 For example, our daughter’s (Epiphany) credits in language were not accepted by the country school and even when she was tested successfully by their own standards, they gave her no credit for Spanish I and II while admitting her, on the basis of their own test, to Spanish III.<\/p>\n This hostility expressed by the public school administration – at least in Prince George’s County – toward private school transfers was a stark contrast to the gracious treatment we received in Ohio – at least in Wilmington.\u00a0 We were welcomed by the teachers and administration.\u00a0 They were accommodating with the transferring of grades.\u00a0 Our transition from “private” to “public” was smooth. \u00a0And we were pleased to see that the teachers were confident enough with their own teaching environment that they entrusted their own children in the system in which they taught!<\/p>\n When Jayne and I had moved back to Maryland from Denver in 1980, our first child was born the next year and by the time wrestling was a consideration, for our second born (a male child, Jonas), \u00a0the school options were few.\u00a0 We had been\u00a0 home-schooling and Bowie High, our local public school and my alma mater, was much reduced from its glory days.\u00a0 But in terms of a place for Jonas to wrestle, it was our only option.\u00a0 We worked out an arrangement so Jonas could take enough classes to wrestle and play football.\u00a0 He did as well as he could have with the training and competition available.\u00a0 \u00a0He graduated, was appointed to the Air Force Academy, and enjoyed wrestling for the team for the first year.\u00a0 But he found an alternate interest in acrobatic parachuting and joined the illustrious Air Force Academy skydiving team, Wings of Blue.\u00a0 All went well, but I wonder what other course his life would have made had his high school wrestling program been better.<\/p>\n I wonder, likewise, what differences would have been made in Isaac’s life. \u00a0\u00a0In his case, the program was run with great camaraderie and encouragement.\u00a0 But the level of sophistication in instruction and the opportunity of extension of training beyond the regular season was not available.\u00a0 Indeed, we might have pursued off-season opportunities, but such were not easily accessible. \u00a0As it turned out, he continued to wrestle four years under an excellent coach in college, Jim Gruenwald, whose high honors include two top-10 finishes in the Olympic Games for Greco-Roman wrestling (6th in Sydney \u201900; 10th in Athens \u201904).\u00a0 Isaac worked hard and wrestled well.\u00a0 Finally starting his senior year at Wheaton, he was disappointed by injuries and was not able \u00a0finish out that year in active competition. \u00a0\u00a0But he is devoted to the sport and is an excellent coach spending one-on-one time with wrestlers, just as Oliveri and Fowler did with me. \u00a0\u00a0He knows how to teach others to discipline themselves to persevere toward the goal of winning, but, more importantly, to develop other attributes: faithfulness, hard work, and self-denial.\u00a0 And he continues year round with a\u00a0 small group willing to work off season.<\/p>\n I know that in my case, it was the benefit of excellent and devoted coaches in the off season that made the difference.\u00a0 I was not the best exploiter of the opportunities given me, and I know others have done much better with less.\u00a0 But I am hoping for good things for Wilmington as a new zeal and know-how are infused.\u00a0 And I am happy for the opportunity to witness what I believe will be the development of a program that will issue not only in the production of state champions, but will continue to develop men of character.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 31 March, 2017 Revised 22 July, 2017 Distinctive Features of the Sport One of the great blessing of wrestling is instruction in humility.\u00a0 Everyone takes a beating sometime. Thinking back, \u00a0I believe I also learned through wrestling about the value of volunteer work: those coaches who put so much time and patience into my efforts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,12,37,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bowie-maryland","category-character-or-not","category-wilmington-ohio","category-wrestling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2193"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8130,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2193\/revisions\/8130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}