While I'd typically land on the side of administrators when it comes to protecting wrestlers on the mat, the latest rule clarification from the National Federation of State High School Associations is a little bit of an overreach.
The rule states that an arm-trapped body lock from the rear position should be considered potentially dangerous and monitored closely by referees. The impetus for the ruling seems to be the assumption that a defensive wrestler may be injured without finding an arm to post out in defense. However, the rule already in existence which states that a wrestler must return a wrestler to the mat safely already exists.
Why the extra clarification for this position?
That's unclear, but with a multitude of referees around the country with varying level of expertise, the results will be predictable. My guess is that coaches on the losing side of the exchange will appeal each trapped-arm maneuver, including chest-to-chest throws. Referees, with only limited training, are going to overcall the holds, which could eventually work to see it eliminated by coaches unwilling to take the risk.
The time spent on this clarification may have been better spent on a multitude of other areas. Banging of the head with the back of the hands has a much more detrimental effect on the athlete and the sport than a once-a-dual-meet type of situation. There are clarifications that may also be made to pulling on ankles from funk defense or where hands can be positioned in a front headlock.
Certainly the NFHS meant the best in recommending this latest rule adjustment, but this one clearly misses the mark.
To your questions …
Q: Why was Frank Molinaro selected instead of Dave Habat for the Olympic spot, when both won bronze at the 2nd World Olympic Games Qualifier? Was it because Molinaro lost to the eventual champion (who won by default in the finals)? Assuming that this is the case, any chance UWW sees the potential problem here (i.e., Garcia doesn't want to potentially wrestle Habat again, so he defaults in the finals), and move to true third (or for that matter, true second) place finishes in future qualifying tournaments?
-- Irvonian
Foley: The adjustments were made well after the event and to your point, Boris Novachkov qualified in Mongolia two weeks earlier, not by his top placement in Turkey. While I see where the qualification system was weak to these types of doping citations, I don't know that there was any established protocol that would have elevated Habat to the OG qualification spot given the circumstances.
True second and true third place finishers have been discussed for years, but they leave a lot to be desired for many reasons, not the least of which is concern for injury in what would 99.9 percent of the time be a meaningless match.
Remember: MANY fans were wondering aloud online why ANYONE would wrestle in the repechage of a tournament. Well, now we see, but that isn't always the case.
Frank Molinaro battles Aaron Pico in the finals of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials (Photo/John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com)-- Steve T.
Foley: Frank's story isn't done. He should be the type of athlete that coaches point to as an example of never giving up on a dream. Not only did he continue competing after placing sixth at the U.S. Open in December, he kept competing at the tournament in Turkey and took third, which is what cemented his trip to Rio.
Q: Any insight into why Carl Fronhofer resigned as Columbia's head wrestling coach? What's next for him?
-- Mike C.
Foley: Carl is the man. I ran into him this week at the Beat the Streets New York event and was told that he's leaving coaching to move closer to family in California and take an exciting new job. We see this happen in wrestling all the time, but in addition to long hours and stress related to the Division I job, he was battling the costs of raising a family in NYC. There are pre-schools in NYC that cost $30k and have a two-year waiting list, according to my sister-in-law.
Life on the West Coast seems like the logical choice. Excited for him and hoping for a great hire in my alma mater at Columbia.
Do you see any resemblance between Wade Wilson and Cael Sanderson? Is Deadpool Cael's doppelgänger?
-- Dave D.
Foley: I have not seen the movie, but doesn't the character of Wade Wilson have a terrible burn on his face? If so, then I disagree. If you mean Ryan Reynolds with his correct skin, then maaaybe.
As a note, I don't watch movies at home or in the theaters. With the Olympic Games coming up I've been traveling every weekend (Tokyo tomorrow) and keep these unwatched movies as a way to pass the time in flight. I'm telling you it's really something when you start tearing up to Frozen crammed between two large Turkish men on your way to Istanbul. (My claim is the airplane was "dusty.")
How good is Logan Storley as an MMA fighter? Do you see him being in the UFC or another organization? Will he be as successful as other wrestlers turned MMA fighters?
-- Gregg Y.
Foley: I like the idea of Logan Storley making it in MMA. There are a few fights online and though he's not very good at jiu-jitsu and still exhibits the grind-em-out style we've seen from too many wrestlers, he has one hell of a killer instinct.
Remember that what makes these wrestlers effective is their ability to execute a new skill set and then use their wrestling as their best defense. For example, what makes Aaron Pico so interesting to fight fans is that he can box so effectively as a stand-alone skill. Also, when adding that to a VERY MMA-ready wrestling style there is no real attack that fighters can quickly find to make Pico vulnerable.
Can't strike with a guy like that and you can't take him down.
What's the next best option, a head kick?
MULTIMEDIA HALFTIME
Logan Storley in the cage
Q: Sparked from the 65-kilo weight class, it looks like TWO people with U.S. citizenship will be competing in Rio with Boris and Tank. Since there are TWO wrestlers who failed the doping test in Magomedmurad Gadzhiev of Poland and Andriy Kvyatkovskyy of Ukraine, could Dave Habat be the next in line to fill the void? Then it would be THREE wrestlers in that weight ckass with U.S. citizenship. Who are the notable competitors in the Olympics who can claim more than one country? Names that come to mind are the aforementioned, plus Haislan Garcia from Canada (by way of Cuba), Bekzod Abdurakhmonov and Tervel Dlagnev.
-- Dan C.
Foley: There are pretty strict citizenship rules when it comes to international athletic competition. Yes, there has been a dramatic increase in wrestlers competing for other countries, but those you mentioned I think are all wrestling for their home or adoptive countries. From my understanding, athletes must spend 180 days a year in the country for which they compete.
I could be wrong, but I'm not sure Boris is an American citizen. Same with Bekzod. Tervel is, which is why he competes for the USA. Habat is a dual holder since his mother was born in Slovenia. Garcia (I believe) is a Canadian citizen, post-defection.
Q: Which weight class (any of the styles) intrigues you the most in the Olympic Games?
-- Mike C.
Foley: Women's freestyle at 53 kilos is incredibly intriguing! On the top of the heap you have three-time Olympic champion Saori Yoshida -- untouchable, unbeaten in major tournaments and a total killer. Next, you have Sofia Mattsson, the Swedish superstar who has lost two close matches to Yoshida the last two years, but who is closing the gap and fast. Then you have Helen Maroulis, a talented, multi-dimensional wrestler who won the World championship at 55 kilos.
But the most compelling wrestler is Odunayo Adekuoroye of Nigeria who took bronze at last year's World Championship at 53 kilos. She had an incredible India Professional League tournament, was 6-6 with Helen Maroulis at the Golden Grand Prix … and has only been wrestling FOUR YEARS!
Do not miss this weight. Do not, do not, DO NOT blink.
Inspirational stuff.
Rant of the Week!
By Irvonian
Why is wrestling so insecure that every time we find a minor celebrity (Ray Lewis, Billy Baldwin, Mario Lopez) with any sort of tangential relationship to wrestling, we want to bring him front and center? Does the community really think that mainstream media are going to start paying attention to BTS because we're trotting out Ray Lewis?
OK, rant over. But really, Ray Lewis? Now look, I went to Penn State, so I understand that anytime you try to honor somebody, even someone with a lifetime of good works, there could be huge skeletons hiding in the closet. (Hastert is another example of this.) But with Ray Lewis, the skeletons are already public knowledge. And anyway, what are his "lifetime achievements" that we want to celebrate? Playing a professional sport (that isn't even wrestling)? I'd imagine that with a 60-second Google search you could find a dozen former high school wrestlers who have achieved things over their lifetimes that actually benefited society (and didn't just enrich themselves while entertaining others). So I guess the rant wasn't actually over before, but it is now.
"Thrown to the Wolves" Submission of the Week
By Jacob R.
Lee Greenwood's anthem "God Bless the USA" (also known as "I'm Proud to Be an American") has a special place in my brain housing group. It was not too long ago in 2002 that I found myself coaching some kids at a freestyle tournament in Lowell, Michigan, when as usual before the beginning of the competition a voice on the sound system asked that everyone in attendance in the gymnasium stand and remove their hats for the national anthem. For all of my life this was simply standard operating procedure for any wrestling event that I had attended, but something different occurred. Instead of hearing a subpar recording or the brilliant rendition of Whitney Houston singing the "Star Spangled Banner" from Super Bowl XXV the aforementioned song by Mr. Greenwood was played. In retrospect I am not too shocked that song was played. Considering the overt sense of nationalism that was abundant in the country just under a year after 9/11 it makes perfect sense. But, at the time I was baffled.
Nearly, fourteen years have passed since this event which have allowed me to observe and critique the phenomena of national pride and nationalism that are displayed within not only our political spheres, but also within the minutia of our daily lives and from the scope of things sports and in particular wrestling events are a rather minute detail of our lives here in the U.S.
So, where is this little rant taking me you might ask (or maybe not?)?
With regards to wrestling in the United States or what many fans refer to as the "wrestling community" (personally the term "wrestling community" inhibits an air of masculine hegemony.... for more on this I'll refer you to Blake 2013 and Walton & Helstien 2008) there appears to be an abundance of persons -- coaches, wrestlers and fans -- that adhere to what I consider antiquated ideologies based on concepts such as colorblindness, meritocracy, rugged individualism, masculine hegemony, christian hegemony etc. Considering this I am not too shocked that comments submitted by readers from your mailbag last week were riddled with criticism of your comment on Trump. Walton & Helstien 2008 discuss the need to do away with communities of identification (e.g. the wrestling community) and instead move towards communities of articulation. I second that and challenge you and your readers to engage in this paradigm shift with regards to your discourse revolving around your views of the sport (both the political and the minute aspects).
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