Who on this board was the worst wrestler?

[500 wrestler]

Another odd story. There was a senior 188 pounder (biggest weight at the time under HWT) on our team my freshman year who had wrestled all four years. Not sure how he did in prior years, but for the year we overlapped he lost every match. Got pinned in the first period every time. I'm convinced there was some major mental block going on with him. Our HWT was pretty decent, won a bunch of matches and took 3rd in district, and our 188 guy generally beat him in practice. Even beat him in a wrestle-offs before he cut down to 188. But when he got on the mat, some kind of switch shut off; he would go out all aggressive but always ended up on his back super quickly.  But he never gave up nor seemed to get overly discouraged. Not sure I would have stuck with it with those results.

[Jason Bryant]

Going to Virginia duals as a high school freshman was a ton of fun even though I didn't end up getting used.  We got a lot of time off school and we didn't have to make up the work because it was a wrestling school

Where’d you go to HS?

[flyingcement]

5 minutes ago, Jason Bryant said:

Where’d you go to HS?

St. Marks to start and Archmere to finish (Delaware)

[pawrestler]

1 hour ago, LJB said:

i still regularly tell both my kids that we all the same amount of world medals between us and to maybe slow their roll a bit...

Spin on the famous MJ reference??

https://thesportsrush.com/nba-news-tonight-is-for-the-history-books-for-michael-jordan-and-i-combined-for-70-points/?amp

[flyingcement]

I like hearing all these stories from folks.  Hope we hear from a few others as well

[Idaho]

Back in the day before you knew who a lot of guys were around the country, I thought I was a pretty tough cadet,  so I bumped up to Juniors for Regionals in Vegas....I won some  matches and then ran into a tough kid....Buxton. He leg laced me back to Idaho. 

[Jason Bryant]

I was pretty awful, but didn’t step on the mat until I was 16. You don’t get a lot of mat time as a first-year kid on a nationally ranked team. “On the team” for a short spell was how I best describe it. I wrestled more in the offseason than I did for the HS team (never started, zero varsity matches).

[flyingcement]

2 minutes ago, Jason Bryant said:

I was pretty awful, but didn’t step on the mat until I was 16. You don’t get a lot of mat time as a first-year kid on a nationally ranked team. “On the team” for a short spell was how I best describe it. I wrestled more in the offseason than I did for the HS team (never started, zero varsity matches).

Okay gotta return the question: what school? 

And question B: were you at Virginia Duals in the year 2000

[Jason Bryant]

Poquoson. We were in the Top 25 from 97-99. Only missed four Virginia Duals since 1995 (08, 09, 22, 23). So I was there updating the old version of Mat Talk Online.

[flyingcement]

10 minutes ago, Jason Bryant said:

Poquoson. We were in the Top 25 from 97-99. Only missed four Virginia Duals since 1995 (08, 09, 22, 23). So I was there updating the old version of Mat Talk Online.

I grew up with the guys on the parkland squad and would have been their 103 in a different universe.  I saw those guys there in Hampton and since this was pre-facebook and smartphone, it was pretty crazy after all those years

[GreatWhiteNorth]

7 hours ago, flyingcement said:

I wrestled since age seven but it didn't go well in high school.  

Freshman year: weighed 98 lbs and was behind the returning state runner up

Sophomore year: ineligible due to transfer

Junior year: was ejected from a car and broke my pelvis and jaw into multiple pieces.  Was in a wheel chair to start the season.  Ended up taking 7th at states

Senior year: shoulder torn and dislocated.  Injury defaulted into oblivion.  

College: wrestled club but my shoulder never held up even after multiple surgeries.  

So a lot of nothing

 

When I thought about experienced dudes, I hadn't usually thought of you. But I will now. 

That's some serious experience.

I always liked you as a poster. Much respect to you as a wrestler, too 

[scourge165]

10 hours ago, LJB said:

both of mine outweigh me now...

as do most average 12 year old boys, so...

 

every time the one still left at the house (for the next 4 days anyway) walks by he does a first contact move... or a drag... or a quick 2 on 1...

i am convinced he just likes to see the flash of fear on my face before i go possum...

 

Oh...it's ALL becoming so much clearer!

The "Real Wrestling," vs "Women's Wrestling," and the tough talk. 

Just...putting all the pieces together.

[scourge165]

18 hours ago, Jimmy Cinnabon said:

Minimum qualification is to have wrestled at least 1 season in middle school or high school.

Anyone go 0-fer in their career?  Anyone get pinned every match?

I suppose if you only Wrestled one year and you got thrown in vs some studs, that'd be a good way to run a guy off the team. 

I just have so much respect for guys who started late, stuck with it and grounded it out and helped us with a conference title or could stay off their back at team State.

I had a teammate...started in 8th grade. He was about 180, I was 160 in 7th grade. He just loved it. He wrestled on the Middle School team and I did for the 2nd half of the year as well. Just to hang out with my friends and not take it as seriously. 

This guy was the type of guy who when we'd play handball in Gym class...with those REAL handballs, those hard leather balls. He loved being the goalie and would happily take 'em off the dome! But he wasn't real coordinated and I think he did get pinned or lose JUST about every match very badly.

But he loved it. The next year he's asking me about Northern Plains and Freestyle and Greco State. So after the HS season was done, he came with us. He was...well, he was competing with guys who had more experience. He was strong, but...I don't believe he won a match. He was 0-2 in in both "off-season" State Tourney's, whatever it was. Anything he could get in, he did. I think he MIGHT have won a couple matches at smaller tournaments, but I also played Baseball, so I couldn't go to a lot of those.

Things went much better for him on JV his Freshmen and Soph years...but he was still closer to .500.

But he persisted. By his Sr year he was a starter and in the Regionals, he got a pin in the finals to lock it up for us and our entire team went nuts. Fell short of qualifying for State, but by now, he was close. Just had 2 guys who placed and he couldn't break through.

 

I had more respect for him than just about anyone on our team. This sport can grind you down quickly...which is why I'd imagine there are a lot of guys who quit that 1st year, but he just NEVER gave up. 

I know this thread is supposed to be about posters on this thread, but guys who stick it out and keep working...I don't care if they didn't have impressive accomplishments, THAT is the impressive accomplishment IMO.

 

 

 

[LJB]

2 hours ago, scourge165 said:

Oh...it's ALL becoming so much clearer!

The "Real Wrestling," vs "Women's Wrestling," and the tough talk. 

Just...putting all the pieces together.

keep living your best life, brother...

i hope things turn around for you...

[Tigerfan]

I was good, not great. Above average, I guess. 4 year varsity starter, state qualifier (large school class-MN), won a couple state titles in free/greco as middle schooler. I was better at free than folk, beating multiple state folk medalists in free over the years. I coached a little while in the Marines. HS teammate was Minny’s starting heavy for 4 years in late 80’s. Partied with the 92 Oly team in Barcelona because Kendall Cross and I had crossed paths a few times in free, mostly at youth camps. Started wrestling in 1977 AAU because my dad grew up in Ames and was an usher at ISU matches during Gable’s reign of terror. 

[Crotalus]

1 hour ago, Tigerfan said:

I was good, not great. Above average, I guess. 4 year varsity starter, state qualifier (large school class-MN), won a couple state titles in free/greco as middle schooler. I was better at free than folk, beating multiple state folk medalists in free over the years. I coached a little while in the Marines. HS teammate was Minny’s starting heavy for 4 years in late 80’s. Partied with the 92 Oly team in Barcelona because Kendall Cross and I had crossed paths a few times in free, mostly at youth camps. Started wrestling in 1977 AAU because my dad grew up in Ames and was an usher at ISU matches during Gable’s reign of terror. 

Has me curious how you became a tiger fan. Not that we're not happy to have you (unless that refers to something other than Mizzou).

[Tigerfan]

5 hours ago, Crotalus said:

Has me curious how you became a tiger fan. Not that we're not happy to have you (unless that refers to something other than Mizzou).

Moved to Columbia in 2005 and Coach Smith courted my business for support. I was impressed by him and started supporting the Tigers. I had access that I didn’t even know was possible for fans/boosters. Watched many practices and even became the announcer for a few seasons to jazz up the product. Cyclones are still my other team. 

[Crotalus]

1 hour ago, Tigerfan said:

Moved to Columbia in 2005 and Coach Smith courted my business for support. I was impressed by him and started supporting the Tigers. I had access that I didn’t even know was possible for fans/boosters. Watched many practices and even became the announcer for a few seasons to jazz up the product. Cyclones are still my other team. 

Nice. I'm a Columbia native, myself. But I left in 2008.

[RYou]

My second bout as a freshman was a doozy.  We both shot low.  His head smashed into my knee and fractured my kneecap which shredded a bunch of ligaments.  My knee split his forehead open from the bridge of his nose to the top of his forehead.  It's the only time I've seen or heard of both wrestlers being hauled off the mat on stretchers and off to the hospital.  He went in for surgery immediately.  My doc couldn't do anything until the following day. Suffice to say that ended my season with a 12' inch slice in my leg. I had intended to come back the next season. but my knee was still pretty wobbly.  I played football that fall with an articulated knee brace that ran mid thigh to mid calf.  It kills your 40 yard sprint times. The docs wouldn't let me wrestle without it, and the coaches wouldn't let me wrestle with it since it was a steel brace. It also killed my tennis game.

I spent another year rehabbing it in the weight room and was able to play football without it.  I planned to return to wrestling.  Now I was up to 170 and it put me smack in the middle of 2 buddies and returning state placers.  an 0-2 record and facing 2 top notch wrestlers kind of steered me time back onto the tennis court.  I ran my tennis record up to 18-0 near the end of the season, then it happened.  I moved laterally to return a cross court shot and my sneaker got hung up on the court surface and the force on my knee ended up retearing the MCL.  Season done.  Tennis career done.  In football I had taken all sorts of hits with no problems, not even an ache, then a sneaker and a tennis court do me in.  

Not one to totally give up, my senior year I found baseball wasn't as stressful on the knees so I spent my senior season at second base, batted .380 and helped the team to the state championship.

I don't watch baseball and tennis on the tube, but I will watch any NCAA wrestling and football event even if it's a rerun in July.

[goheels1812]

On 2/16/2023 at 1:33 PM, CHROMEBIRD said:

I went from great in high school to not being the worst one in the room my first 1.5 years in college. I literally couldn't score a point on anyone. 

This happened to me as well. I was good in high school and then walked on in college. I was one of a few practice dummies for a guy that bounced around being ranked 6th-10th in the country. Those practices were long, hard days of being reminded there’s always a bigger fish. I wouldn’t trade one second of it for anything though. 

[boathead]

I lost to longislandmarty

Sent from my Moto E (4) Plus using Tapatalk

[Nailbender]

I am still and have always been incredibly average. Always winning more than some, never as much as others.

[jackwebster]

On 2/16/2023 at 10:01 PM, Idaho said:

Back in the day before you knew who a lot of guys were around the country, I thought I was a pretty tough cadet,  so I bumped up to Juniors for Regionals in Vegas....I won some  matches and then ran into a tough kid....Buxton. He leg laced me back to Idaho. 

One of my best friends was born in 1945 and grew up in Flatbush. He thought he was a solid chess player as a kid. So, he entered a local tournament and got waxed in the finals. He decided that he might not be as good as he thought. Years later he realized that that kid who beat him was Bobby Fisher. True story. Look it up. His name was Paul Cantor and a literary critic of some renown.

[jackwebster]

I was a solid high school wrestler that took advantage of a move from a state and a feeder program that was really good to a state that kinda sucked. I grew up in Bixby, OK and lived down the street (well, down the street in OK means a couple of mile-sections over) from the Roller family. Josh Stubbs and CJ Daniels were also my teammates. Bobby Stites was the high school coach and Ryan was in my grade. The Tulsa Nationals was basically our home tournament (The Bixby Open was pretty good, too). My heroes were Mike Bodily(and his nemesis Keith Nix) and Jeff McAllister. I wrestled Hardell Moore from Coweta (lost), Jimmy Arias from Okmulgee (beat), some kids from Mustang that kept kicking the shit out of me. I was solid, went to elementary states, Tulsa Nationals and won matches. 

Then in '87 the oil companies went belly-up and we had to move to Northern VA. These kids sucked in comparison. So, I ended up winning MAWA Nationals (Foxcatcher sponsored at the time) in middle school and some small school state titles in high school, but I didn't beat anybody of note.

Wrestled in ACC in college and was thoroughly mediocre: e.g. lost to second string kids from Maryland and Army and beat some national qualifiers and a future AA who must have had the worst day of his life in a match that meant absolutey nothing to anyone involved. Quit because of the HEW trifecta: injury, weight cutting, and ennui.

Edited February 18, 2023 by jackwebster

[LJB]

ah...

the rollers...

during the summer months the boys would practice wherever they could while still in OK...

sapulpa one day... sand springs the next... bixby and shane's club... OSU...

shane is one of those guys who still gets a hand shake the two times i year i see him...