What is everybody's wrestling experience?

[artradley]

Did you wrestle in high school? College? Do you have kids who wrestle? Have you done any coaching? How did you become a fan of the sport? My guess is most here wrestled at some level, which puts me at a disadvantage.

Personally, I enjoyed wrestling -- which was a part of PE class in MS & HS -- but Burlington didn't even have a team when I was there. But my son wrestled from the age of 7 through high school. I pretty quickly got roped-into coaching, and ended up running the rec program and even wound up doing a lot of the work running the rec league.

A few years ago I got licensed to officiate in NJ, which I loved; but we then moved to Virginia and I haven't gotten back into it.

So for a guy who has never wrestled I really love the sport and have a huge emotional investment. I'm curious about everybody else's background and how they got into the sport.

 

[funnyfletcher]

Mark Reiland’s mom was a teacher at my school in Goldfield, Iowa. He was in high school while I was in second grade. He came in to our gym class and taught us some wrestling moves. He and I were partnered up for some drills and then we all got to wrestle three matches. I went 2-1.

I started following Mark’s career at Iowa and loved watching the teams he was on. Became a huge fan of the Brands brothers. I was very excited to see Mark win a title!

Over the years I would follow Iowa wrestling, but it became more difficult when I moved to New Mexico. I didn’t wrestle in school at all, I was more in to playing basketball. I did have some friends on the wrestling teams though.

I’ve always followed Iowa wrestling and high school wrestling when my cousins made state, but hadn’t been a die hard fan since about 2 years ago. I’ve been a touring traveling comedian for a few years and I had the pleasure of working with Greg Warren, and the following week I worked with a buddy of mine, Tim Gaither, both of them are huge fans of wrestling. Because of them I started getting more into it, watching some old matches, following recruiting and everything. I wanted to know everything I could, so I found a bunch of wrestling websites and did my homework. Now I consider myself a big fan of the sport. When I go to HR, the wrestling board is always the first one I look at in the morning. I still don’t know some of the lingo during the matches, but I’m learning. Go Hawks!

 

[Coach Mac B]

My dad was a high school assistant coach with a historically good team so I got in early. I think tournaments started about 3rd grade back then.

Went to state three times in high school including a state championship my senior year on a half-healed broken bone in my leg. I did the whole Greco and freestyle tour. Preferred freestyle to everything else.

Wrestled my freshman year at UNI behind an All American. Didnt red shirt because I was only going to be there 4 yrs. Tore up my knee halfway through year. Tough to do friends, girlfriend, academics, and wrestling. I wasn't going to be all world even with a good knee so quit wrestling. At least I married the girl.

I had one son who tried wrestling and said it wasn't for him. I lived with his decision although I think he regretted it once he grew up. I think my daughter would have done it if the girls programs would have started earlier. She had more natural ability to be honest.

I did some assistant coaching on a volunteer basis in the past as well as some kids tourney officiating but neither lately.

 

[MilleGinja]

Tried wrestling in third grade, entered one tournament and went 0-2. Didn’t give it another try until 8th grade. Thought it would make me a better tackler for football. Turns out I was actually okay. Second ever tournament I went 3-0! Couldn’t figure out how to pin anyone though and got called for a couple technical violations for not understanding how certain locks worked. Was planning on playing basketball in high school but it turned out wrestling was a lot more fun! Wrestled in high school and got a little better each year and fell in love with it a little more. Started following college wrestling a little. Qualified for state (Iowa 1A) senior year, but didn’t stick with it after that other than a couple intramural tournaments in college. Ended up following college wrestling more closely and spent much of my free time browsing this message board (lurking) and looking at rankings.

 

[ferentzin04]

I grew up in a wrestling family in a wrestling town. Everyone in my family wrestled. I wrestled from pee wee through high school. No college though, I wasn't good enough to consider that, especially since I wanted to go to Iowa.

I've looked into officiating just never gotten into it, I haven't had the time. Still a huge fan of the sport though. Followed the Hawks when I was growing up. Went to all the home meets and some of the away meets while I was at Iowa. Got my wife into the sport. We take our kids to at least one meet in Iowa City every year. It's probably my favorite sport. My youngest just started pee wee this year, so I have that to look forward to for the future.

 

[Fan In Black]

Wrestled in grade school, HS, but it was seeing Lincoln Mcllravy that turned me into a huge fan of the sport.

 

[Old_wrestling_fan]

Great thread! I was super fortunate to have an elementary gym teacher provide us with an opportunity to learn a little wrestling AND he even ran a small, intramural tournament every year. I won my weight bracket all three years I could do it...without a lot of technique. I thought I might be the best, or perhaps 2nd or 3rd best, wrestler in the world at that point. For real.

I sometimes got called for illegal holds..."What the..."...I could do that on my brothers at home, no problem. I was able to overlook the rules enforcement enough to then go out for wrestling for "real" in jr. High.

I did well and loved it, but then had really painful knee issues in 9th grade and was not able to continue. I have always followed it since and the both of my boys wrestled when they were growing up...so the interest increased following them.

 

[lookleft goright]

Started wrestling in high school as a freshman. In 4 years I think I was one of the only 3-4 kids to have a winning record. We were't a power house. Went to Junior College and was an AA. Went D1 and qualified for the NCAA tourney 1 year.
I have coached as an assistant (7 years) and a head coach(3 years) at the D1 level. We were a fatality of Title 9. After that, I coached at high schools and when my kids were old enough to wrestle, I coached at their school. That means, middle school, high school, then the kids club and middle school and now at a high school again.
I also stated officiating again. I just want to contribute to the lives of these kids and I feel about my only ability to contribute is thru wrestling.
My favorite is D1 wrestling, but I also love watching middle schoolers go at it. The unpredictability and enthusiasm they have is fun, but the discipline and precision of D1 is awe inspiring to me.

 

[pablow]

I had a few girlfriends I wrestled with . . . it just took off from there.

 

[artradley]

Mark Reiland’s mom was a teacher at my school in Goldfield, Iowa. He was in high school while I was in second grade. He came in to our gym class and taught us some wrestling moves. He and I were partnered up for some drills and then we all got to wrestle three matches. I went 2-1.

I started following Mark’s career at Iowa and loved watching the teams he was on. Became a huge fan of the Brands brothers. I was very excited to see Mark win a title!

Over the years I would follow Iowa wrestling, but it became more difficult when I moved to New Mexico. I didn’t wrestle in school at all, I was more in to playing basketball. I did have some friends on the wrestling teams though.

I’ve always followed Iowa wrestling and high school wrestling when my cousins made state, but hadn’t been a die hard fan since about 2 years ago. I’ve been a touring traveling comedian for a few years and I had the pleasure of working with Greg Warren, and the following week I worked with a buddy of mine, Tim Gaither, both of them are huge fans of wrestling. Because of them I started getting more into it, watching some old matches, following recruiting and everything. I wanted to know everything I could, so I found a bunch of wrestling websites and did my homework. Now I consider myself a big fan of the sport. When I go to HR, the wrestling board is always the first one I look at in the morning. I still don’t know some of the lingo during the matches, but I’m learning. Go Hawks!

Very cool about the comedy. Do you ever get to the east coast (Philly, DC, etc?) I absolutely loved stand-up.

I actually exchanged a few emails with Greg Warren once. He had done a wrestling benefit dinner, but it's a drunken affair and nobody knew who he was so it was a rough environment. I apologized to him and he was very gracious -- seems like a genuinely nice guy. Our family has a lot of running gags based on his routines (Big Foot, One Start People.)

 

[thom67]

Wrestled in HS and D1 in college. Brother wrestled at Iowa. No other family wrestled.

 

[KujawaFan]

I wrestled through high school. Even though I qualified in Illinois for State, a kid by the name of Joey Gilbert showed me painfully there is a difference between being decent in high school versus college! Tom and have talked about whether Gilbert had him stuck at the Big 10's. I told Brands he was stuck! He respectfully disagreed.

 

[andegre]

5th & 6th (PeeWee/club) grade, 0-3 in my career.

 

[Qued18]

DBQ Wahlert grad...Wrestling coaches Murphy and Rouse also coached football. They had a sign in their office that said its better to have wrestled and lost than to have played basketball. It always stuck with me that phrase. When I was a junior Matt Burbach pinned Andy Hamman for the title and Steve Stallsmith got second. I watched because I played football with them. Been a fan ever since. Never wrestled a day in my life. In college my friends were all former wrestlers and would always tune in when it was on IPTV.

 

[so cal hawkfan]

Started wrestling in Jr High. My high school coach was a collegiate wrestler at Cal St Fullerton. He started showing us old Iowa wrestling videos and told us that we couldn’t control the level of athleticism we were born with, but we can control how mentally tough we are and how hard we work. He said that’s what these guys do. That stuck with me and I’ve been a Hawk fan ever since. MMA is huge is southern Cali and unfortunately wrestling isn’t. I transitioned to submission wrestling/ Jui-Jitsu to fill the void. I happened to find a school with some former Hawks running the show( Rico Chiaparelli and Chad Zaputil). These threads fill the void in 3 dual loss seasons. Thanks Art

 

[JohnBasedow]

Started wrestling when I was 7 years old and wrestled through 9th grade. Was very average to say the least. I stopped wrestling after that as I focused on football and baseball all year around. I was a casual fan still the rest of the time. After college my sports career ended so I was looking for a hobby to stay in shape and got into BJJ which reignited my interest in wrestling.

 

[ia.sd.wi.hawk]

Started 4th grade YMCA in northwest Iowa wrestling Terry or Tom often. Lost always. Watched Hawkeyes on TV often.
Saw varsity action my junior year and took 3rd in state. Senior year we moved to Utah, took 3rd again. Wrestled at SDSU, 4 year starter but fell short of qUalifying for NCAA tournament. Then no wrestling involvement until after med school, residency and Army. Assistant HS coach in Green Bay for 13 years but now just coaching my son in youth program in SD. Now closet donor to HWC (don’t want Bono to know)but booster/scholarship donor for SDSU Jackrabbits

 

[funnyfletcher]

Very cool about the comedy. Do you ever get to the east coast (Philly, DC, etc?) I absolutely loved stand-up.

I actually exchanged a few emails with Greg Warren once. He had done a wrestling benefit dinner, but it's a drunken affair and nobody knew who he was so it was a rough environment. I apologized to him and he was very gracious -- seems like a genuinely nice guy. Our family has a lot of running gags based on his routines (Big Foot, One Start People.)

I’ve never done comedy on the East Coast, mostly west coast and Midwest. I will be this year though, heading out to Boston, I’ll try line some other stuff around that!

Greg is one of the nicest guys I’ve worked with! I’m sure he’s done a million of those drunken fundraisers.

 

[pablow]

I wrestled through high school. Even though I qualified in Illinois for State, a kid by the name of Joey Gilbert showed me painfully there is a difference between being decent in high school versus college! Tom and have talked about whether Gilbert had him stuck at the Big 10's. I told Brands he was stuck! He respectfully disagreed.

Tom's beat-down of Gilbert in the 1991 semis was gruesome. I think Gilbert established an NCAA record in that match - 17 escapes!

 

[MSU158]

I took 2nd A L O T........

 

[BIG10MANIAC]

Sadly - I started taking an interest to wrestling because it was one of the only sports you could count on the Hawks to win on a consistent basis,

 

[TDJ7]

I only wrestled in JR High. Lets just say no one counted lights more early or often than I did. Luckily I had a good jump shot so that took over once i started high school. 25 years later and my dad still busts my balls and will ask how many lights are in (insert school) gym. That said I loved wrestling and love watching it. TnT grew up across the street from my Grandparents and went to high school with my uncles. So weather you wrestled or not you always followed in our area because of those 2.

 

[jammenz]

I can't tell you because if you knew my level of expertise it would change the way you respond to me.

 

[HawkeyePA]

went to a wrestling meeting in 7th grade...never went to practice,,,the next year they chased me because i was a BIG kid for the 8th grade...went 3 and 8 that year...then wrestled all spring and summer and then into fall...9th grade i went 19 and 1...Varsity starter thereafter ...won a couple Greco State titles and FS runner up... went to a small D1 school...3 years starter and coached jr high for years then varsity...all in all i have been involved in Wrestling for 40 years....I met Gable when he was recruiting the kid i wrestled at Free Style HS Nationals in Iowa...I caught the kid and pinned him...Gable congratulated me and we talked,,,,he signed my book and gave me a shirt and hat...I say soft...very soft recruiting effort... I ONLY WISH !!!! but he was a great motivator and i fell in love with the Hawkeye tradition and have been a fan ever since...even though i live in the middle of the EVIL FUN EMPIRE....i still visit Iowa as often as possible and watch all the matches...My classroom is decorated in Black and Gold IOWA Wrestling memorabilia and sports stuff....its a great tradition and everyone in my area knows me as that Hawkeye Guy...and thats a good thing !!!

 

[lrtbahawk]

Announce high school wrestling and have a step son that wrestled this year as a freshman in high school.

 

[rustynailhawk]

Very cool about the comedy. Do you ever get to the east coast (Philly, DC, etc?) I absolutely loved stand-up.

I actually exchanged a few emails with Greg Warren once. He had done a wrestling benefit dinner, but it's a drunken affair and nobody knew who he was so it was a rough environment. I apologized to him and he was very gracious -- seems like a genuinely nice guy. Our family has a lot of running gags based on his routines (Big Foot, One Start People.)

I’ve never done comedy on the East Coast, mostly west coast and Midwest. I will be this year though, heading out to Boston, I’ll try line some other stuff around that!

Greg is one of the nicest guys I’ve worked with! I’m sure he’s done a million of those drunken fundraisers.

Met Greg at funny bone in Des Moines. Sooooo freaking nice, it was my dads bday and he signed a cd and gave it to me for free.

 

[TailgateTom]

I can't tell you because if you knew my level of expertise it would change the way you respond to me.

Everyone already thinks you're in idiot, just because you never wrestled doesn't change people's opinion of you.

 

[pablow]

I can't tell you because if you knew my level of expertise it would change the way you respond to me.

He might be J Robinson, if so we'd have to address him as Coach Idiot.

 

[artradley]

went to a wrestling meeting in 7th grade...never went to practice,,,the next year they chased me because i was a BIG kid for the 8th grade...went 3 and 8 that year...then wrestled all spring and summer and then into fall...9th grade i went 19 and 1...Varsity starter thereafter ...won a couple Greco State titles and FS runner up... went to a small D1 school...3 years starter and coached jr high for years then varsity...all in all i have been involved in Wrestling for 40 years....I met Gable when he was recruiting the kid i wrestled at Free Style HS Nationals in Iowa...I caught the kid and pinned him...Gable congratulated me and we talked,,,,he signed my book and gave me a shirt and hat...I say soft...very soft recruiting effort... I ONLY WISH !!!! but he was a great motivator and i fell in love with the Hawkeye tradition and have been a fan ever since...even though i live in the middle of the EVIL FUN EMPIRE....i still visit Iowa as often as possible and watch all the matches...My classroom is decorated in Black and Gold IOWA Wrestling memorabilia and sports stuff....its a great tradition and everyone in my area knows me as that Hawkeye Guy...and thats a good thing !!!

I'm going to take a stab at guessing: Franklin & Marshall?

 

[Rustys Dad]

I never wrestled. Not even in grade school.

My passion for the sport happened in college. I was working as assistant sports editor of the Iowa State Daily (always been a Hawkeye but I followed a girl to Ames) ... The ISU wrestling team became by "beat." I had the chance to interview Gibbons, and later Bobby Douglas, on several occasions ... I did a feature article with Kevin Jackson re: his Gold Medal in Barcelona. In between, attending media day and watching practice and interviewing the wrestlers ... Every since then I just became hooked on the sport. The dedication. The commitment. The hard work. And the intelligence shown by the majority of wrestlers and coaches I interviewed.

Now, I always followed Gable and the Hawks but it was more of a passing interest. Now, I would say wrestling is right behind my love for Iowa football. It's a great sport. Great participants ... It's 1 on 1. No taking a play off. No jogging down the court ... Take a second off and end up on your back ... It's a great sport ...

 

[PSU Mike]

I'm going to take a stab at guessing: Franklin & Marshall?

I know Dave Gable, who wrestled at F&M.

 

[artradley]

I never wrestled. Not even in grade school.
Now, I always followed Gable and the Hawks but it was more of a passing interest. Now, I would say wrestling is right behind my love for Iowa football. It's a great sport. Great participants ... It's 1 on 1. No taking a play off. No jogging down the court ... Take a second off and end up on your back ... It's a great sport ...

When I'm trying to sell youngsters on the sport -- especially the ones who are highly talented athletes drawn to other sports -- I emphasis how everything is under your control. If you're playing football or basketball and you want to be a state champion, you have to get lucky. Because it doesn't matter how good you are, you have to be lucky enough to have great coaches and great teammates or you will be reading about the state championship in the newspaper.

But if you want to be a state champion in wrestling it is 100% under your control. You can be on the worst team in the state, with a coach who played tennis in high school, and if you're the best you will be a state champion. No relying on anybody else to get you there.

 

[KujawaFan]

Pablow - I never said Gilbert was better than Tom. I simply said Gilbert ripped me apart and he did have Tom in huge trouble at the Big 10's in Champaign.

 

[CaliHawkFan]

Wrestled from a young age until high school when I grew to 6'5 and took up basketball.

Father wrestled in college, Uncle was a heavyweight and 3X AA at Iowa. A few family members who wrestled in college. Have had close ties to the Iowa program for close to three decades.

Wrestling is a passion of mine. I love the sport. I tend to focus a majority of my time following college and olympics/worlds.

HWC supporter. I was a below average wrestler.

 

[TNTwrestle]

I've often thought of starting this very same thread, but didn't think I'd get much response from the guys I'd really like to know about. This could get really long, but I'll try to shorten it as much as possible.
My older (7 yrs) brother wrestled in High School in California, but since I lived in Iowa, I never saw him wrestle.
I wrestled 8th Grade through H.S., missing State by one place as a Junior, and wrestling half my Senior year with a dislocated shoulder. Very long, complicated story (besides the shoulder) as to how I missed State that year. I and my co-captain (with some help from H.S.coach) started a 5th & 6th grade program when we were Juniors that we coached that eventually became our local kids' club. I met Coach Patten at one of the larger freestyle tournaments and decided to give UNI a try. Tore my knee up big time wrestling (warming up) with our 295-pound backup heavyweight (another long story). I was a 118-126 guy. Had two surgeries over Christmas break and took a semester off to rehab (missed first two weeks with 2nd surgery and was carrying 17 credit-hours), redshirted and planned on going back in the Fall. Well, things (read as girl) happened, and I never went back. Wrestled some Old-timers and open freestyle tournaments after that with fair success. I have helped coach the kids club off and on for years, but not recently because of regulations in place now (too poor to get a coaching certificate).
Went to first Iowa meet as a 9th grader and went to quite a few in the late 70's. My mother (who is now 92) became a wrestling fan when I wrested in H.S. She went to her first Iowa meet in '81 and was hooked. We have had season tickets since CHA opened. Either her or I have been to every H.S. age or older wrestling event in CHA. I missed a few for my sons' meets and mom was sick a couple times, but we've never both missed at the same time.
My oldest son, now 38, wrestled one tournament in Kindergarten, then wrestled in 8th grade and some AAU that winter, then wrestled 10-12 grade. His mom had him in swimming all the other years and he was a great swimmer, and a very good wrestler, but was stuck in the middle of 4 State Champions and a 3rd place guy on his State Championship (twice) team, and didn't wrestle a lot of Varsity. He went to U. of I. in the Engineering school.
My youngest son, now almost 22, is currently at U. of I. He wrestled 7th-12th grade and some AAU in 7th & 8th. He wrestled Varsity his last two years and was lucky enough to have 32 matches against State qualifiers and place winners. He came up a bit short of a winning record those two years. He is on track to get a Neuro Biology degree next year and plans now on being a missionary.
I have been to 31 of the last 32 NCAA tournaments, and over 25 B1G tourneys (lost track of exact number) and close to 30 Midlands. My mom has been to all but two of those NCAAs and a few less of each of the others than I have. My sons, daughter, sisters and brother-in-laws, and other family members have gone to many NCAAs with us, and we've had as many as 9 family members at once with us.
We're a Hawkeye family forever. Believe it or not, that was the short version. I could talk wrestling forever, too.

 

[spm51567]

Started wrestling in 5th grade and stop after high school. Beat Jason Kelber at districts and state 1 year. Been following since then.

 

[CowboyUp61]

Started wrestling when I was 4-because my brother started at 6, so I just tagged along. Started with a brand new coach just out of college, and we were together for the next 13 years. 3 time state runner-up in HS, 4 time placer at national freestyle age group competition. Wrestled 2 years in college, both seasons ended with injury. (Funny note, in 1980 in a tournament in Lincoln NE I got pinned by Chris Campbell and one of the Bill Scherr brothers in back to back matches, put me over on demerits-had to win one to hit the round robin). Wrestled a little "fun" local freestyle until 1985

Started helping coach little kids when in HS, and also registered as an official when I was 16. Coach made me to help work kids tourneys, and I loved it, so stuck with it for the next 22 years, working HS state tourneys in both folk and free for 16 years straight, as well as some age group nationals and open free. Coached kids for 3 years in HS, helped the local HS team after I was done in college. Then started coaching kids again in 2000, and still work with both them and the local HS/JH teams when necessary.

So, have been consistently involved in the sport since 1965 as either a competitor, coach, or official (sometimes all 3 at once). Coach brought us down to an OSU/OU dual, and since he knew Myron Roderick we all got to do some other fun stuff while we were here, and been OSU fan since.

Don't know if that counts as experience in Iowa or not!

 

[tigerguy_]

My oldest sister dated a guy that wrestled. I thought he was the coolest guy ever. Showed me some stuff on our living room floor, and after that every time he came over, I would try to wrestle him. For a first grader I was loving it from the word go.

Successful high school career, that should have been even better, but chasing girls and drinking beer started taking up more time the further I went in high school.

Wrestled in college but never did much, wasted that opportunity to really be good, and it bothers me to this day. Thought I could skate by my redshirt year and went to an open tournament where I got just hammered by a freshman that I had always beaten before. Came off the mat discouraged as hell and the coach says to me, "Well at least your escapes were working."

Got involved in broadcasting and have had the opportunity to cover wrestling at the highest levels and love doing it more than football or basketball

 

[PSU Mike]

Very limited. Elementary school for the most part. At 74 pound body weight had to be matched with guys over 90 before I lost - should tell you how weak we were at wrestling. Switched schools to a local/regional powerhouse and sort of ended up playing some hoops instead. Some regrets, but wouldn’t have been a good weight cutter long term.

Anyway, being around a good HS program, then living with one of my classmates who was a room guy at PSU only increased my interest. Later at Iowa for grad school we sublet part of our place to Ken Klein, who spent a few years at the upper weights. So I’ve seen some great wrestling up close despite being a baseball and track (sprints, LJ) guy myself.

 

[is_there_whiskey_in_heaven]

Wrestled freshman year of High School. Could beat the really bad kids and the really good kids made me look really bad. So I was average at best. Went through a growth spurt and decided not to wrestle anymore. Wish I would have stuck with it. I truly appreciate the sport because of the discipline required. I did do intramural wrestling in college at 80lbs more than what I wrestled in High School and finished runner-up, out of two , in my bracket.