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Discussion Topic: Your favorite moment(s) in the sport of wrestling...
Dan Cosimi added to this discussion on January 14, 2009
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What are your favorite moments that you've personally experienced in our great sport? They don't have to be listed in any particular order. Mine aren't.
As a coach...
- Qualifying 10 of 11 wrestlers to the district tournament in 2008 with 4 sectional champions (including all 3 seniors).
- Qualifying 9 of 9 wrestlers to the district tournament in 2007 with 4 sectional champions (including 3 of 4 seniors, the other one was out with a broken ankle).
- Don Stocum winning the state championship 7-0 over Caldwell's Derick Hesson.
- Stocum blanking Otsego's Jacob Southwick, a co-favorite in the weight class, 6-0 in the state semifinal.
- Stocum pinning Chanel's Mike McElligott in the district semifinals. I think, if healthy, McElligott could have been as high as second in the state.
- Tim Straus, qualifying for the state tournament (and after being JV as a junior!).
- Straus racking up 11 points in a controlling win over Ethan Oliver from Versailles.
- Straus beating highly-touted freshman Kurt Schaefer from Northwestern, a junior high state champ the year before, 3-2 in the district quarterfinal.
- Straus defending an upper-body onslaught from VASJ's Nick Viola and eventually pinning him to win his sectional semifinal.
- Straus winning the sectional title, his first tournament championship, with a 15-5 major decision over Ledgemont's Ben Murch.
- Gary Steigerwald, my former drill partner, placing fifth in the state as a senior.
- Steigerwald winning the district championship as a junior with a dominating 17-10 showing over two-time state placer Jared Neff from Waynedale.
- Steigerwald qualifying for the state tournament as a junior.
- Steigerwald winning the sectional championship as a junior.
- Steigerwald as a sophomore upsetting state qualifier Ken Bevington from Cardinal.
- Steigerwald winning by technical fall over eventual state qualifier Joe Nester at a dual. This was big because, the week prior, while Steigerwald was leading 9-2 in the Division 3 Classic semis, Nester caught him in a roll and pinned him.
- Steigerwald - as a freshman, in his first-ever varsity tournament - scoring a takedown with 0:03 left on the clock to win in the placement bout!
- Zack Allen defeating Grand Valley's state alternate Ken Cutler 6-4 to win the sectional championship.
- Clay Davis doing so well at the Husky Invitational Tournament as a junior that Mr. Allen, a great wrestling dad, began chanting, "M-V-P! M-V-P!"
- Dan Brown pinning his way through the sectional tournament as a senior.
- Brown and Steigerwald's awesome work ethic in practice. Brown especially because he just came out for the sport for the first time as a junior. He was tough as nails and never stopped going 100%.
- Dan Young showing how far he had come in the sport by winning an important sectional bout 13-2 over a VASJ wrestler (who was strong as an ox) by tilting him all over the mat.
As a wrestler...
- All five wrestlers in my senior class wrestling in the sectional championship match.
- The junior high school wrestlers all sitting matside at the district tournament on Saturday morning, cheering me on.
- Brett Rahz, from my graduating class, winning the sectional title 6-5 in double overtime over Geoff Hannan from Wickliffe.
- Matt Fearon, also from my class, winning his third sectional championship by pinning Berkshire's John Osborne in 49 seconds.
- Fearon placing fourth in the state at 145 pounds... in his second year ever wrestling!
- Fearon's whole sophomore year. He was Mr. Third Period. He would average probably 3-4 takedowns on everyone in the third period.
- Fearon almost pinning two-time state champion Marcus Gordon from Mapleton in the D3 Classic final with a pancake.
- Chris Kalina, another from my class (but he transferred in from Mentor) was undefeated until an awesome bout with two-time state finalist Nick Dierkes from Jackson-Milton, giving him all he could handle in a 16-11 final at the Division 3 Classic.
- Kalina winning the Bill Dies Memorial Tournament.
- My team winning every individual match against VASJ my senior year.
- Me winning my first competition of my senior year, a home dual, with five takedowns and four kick-outs. It wasn't who I beat, or that I won, it was special because it showed me how far I came to get to that point.
- Making it under 200 for the first time my junior year. I then went and watched the Buckeyes beat Michigan in football; that was the national championship year. (I dropped from about 235 in football to 185 in wrestling, so it was a benchmark.)
- Making 189 for the first time and learning a very important lesson...
[[I hadn't eaten all week. Since I would get really worked up before matches, I wouldn't eat (because I'd throw up if I did). So I decided that all I'd have is two Red Bull energy drinks. That day we had a superquad. The first match was a one-point decision... the second match was a one-point decision... the third match was a one-point decision. About this time I was running on pure willpower because I had nothing in my tank. In the fourth match, I got bumped up to 215 to help the team. Somehow I ended up winning 17-4. I distinctly remember being so tired that I made a cardinal mistake - my coaches were yelling and I turned and looked at them for a split second. My opponent saw that and bull-rushed me as fast and hard as he could. I turned back in time to react and I threw him right on his back, luckily.]]
- Winning all the wrestle-offs my junior year until tearing cartilage in my ribs, then having to win a best-of-three series before the sectional tournament. My opponent was my good friend, Dan Fay. I won the first match by a few points. He won the second match by a point. I won the third match with a third-period dump (to the back) and just held him there as time ran out for the 5-0 win.
- Fay's quotes/situations which were so hilarious, we joked about actually starting to jot them down as "The Book of Fay."
- Telling Fay that we would limit him to 10 words per day, then charge him a quarter for each word after that.
- As a sophomore (my second year in the sport), pinning a kid from Wickliffe who teched me the weekend before. That pin won our team the dual in front of the home crowd.
- Going to Vargo's (a restaurant in Richmond Heights owned by Fearon's stepfather) before tournament finals and participating in The Pizza Challenge. In all, we did this 12 times. We can't do it anymore because Richmond Heights no longer has wrestling.
- Richmond Heights D3 Classic tournament director Keith Manos' introduction speeches and showmanship. He made it very memorable for us wrestlers.
I'm sure I'll think of many, many more.
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Last edited by Dan Cosimi on January 14, 2009; edited 2 times in total
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Discussion Topic: Your favorite moment(s) in the sport of wrestling...
Mike Taylor added to this discussion on January 14, 2009
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My first actual win in 8th grade (went 1-8-1 in 7th w/ lone win coming via forfeit)
My first tournament championship (8th grade)
Breaking into the varsity lineup as a freshman by beating a senior and 3 time letter winner to do so.
Qualifying for districts as a freshman.
Qualifying for the state tournament by beating 6th ranked New Lexington guy in the District Semifinals
The view from the State tournament floor (when it was still at Wright State) right as you walked through those curtains underneath the main scoring table. It is a sight I'll remember for the rest of my days.
My twin brother placing 3rd at the state tournament (I had to live through his accomplishments because of a poor performance of my own at districts left me as the state alternate)
My first coaching job (this is a current one). Nothing like seeing your work make a difference in someone else both on and off the mat.
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Discussion Topic: Your favorite moment(s) in the sport of wrestling...
Dan Cosimi added to this discussion on January 14, 2009
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Quote from Mike Taylor's post:
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"Nothing like seeing your work make a difference in someone else both on and off the mat."
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I couldn't have said that better myself!
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Discussion Topic: Your favorite moment(s) in the sport of wrestling...
Luke Moore added to this discussion on January 14, 2009
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Winning a MAC title in double OT
Wrestling on the floor of Carver Hawkeye arena in the round of 12 (don't ask the score)
Watching Cael live win his fourth title (the scene was truly amazing)
Seeing our freshman heavyweight get his first varsity win last year.
Any time right afetr weigh ins!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Discussion Topic: Your favorite moment(s) in the sport of wrestling...
Mike Taylor added to this discussion on January 14, 2009
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Edging out my twin brother for the Most Outstanding Wrestler award at a tournament we were at our senior year. Boy was he ticked.
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Discussion Topic: Your favorite moment(s) in the sport of wrestling...
Hank Kornblut added to this discussion on January 14, 2009
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As a coach, my favorite moment took place at the 1996 Mentor District meet. My 171, Ben Greenspan, was wrestling Victer Sveda in a semis match. Sveda had beaten Ben 7-2 the previous weekend. The loser would have a very tough cons match an hour later to make state. It was a big weekend for our squad as we were hoping to get out 3 wrestlers. That doesn't sound like a lot now but it used to be that getting 3 guys out of Mentor was a big deal. I feared that Ben would wrestle all out, lose and have nothing left for his cons match. For five minutes, my fears appeared correct. The match was a war with both guys going all out. Sveda would score, Ben would score--back and forth. The score was 7-5 in Sveda's favor with less than a minute to go when Ben hit a knee pick for the third time in the match. The first two times, Sveda was able to hip out of trouble. But for some reason this time he couldn't. Ben kept driving and I watched in amazement as Sveda slowly went to his back. Then--equally stunning it seemed--the ref called a pin. I hadn't even noticed that Sveda was close to getting stuck. The only thoughts in my head were about how much time was left and whether or not Sveda might somehow get off his back and score.
It was my fourth season as a head coach and this was the best group of wrestlers I'd ever had--or would have. At that moment--when Ben became the third Shaker wrestler to qualify for state vanquishing a great foe in the process--it seemed as if four years of effort had come to fruition. The great fear--that all the hard work my most talented kids had put in would come to naught--proved fruitless. I was so happy for Ben and proud of what we accomplished that I turned to about 30 Shaker fans seated behind his mat and shook my fists wildly in the air. They stood and applauded. We all got it. It was a sublime moment.
Incredibly, there was more to come. Our 215, Alphonso Durden, had made it to the cons semis match. Long story short--he hit a duckunder with three seconds to go in his match and became our surprise 4th state qualifier.
We finished 4th year at the sectional and 4th at the district. One week later, Ben took 5th, Kore Sharpley and Josh Greenspan took first, and we finished 4th in the state.
Victer Sveda ended up losing that cons match to James Vanni from Garfield Heights in the closing seconds. But the following year he won state and Sr Nationals. He also was a 2x AA in college for Indiana University.
So to a certain extent, the story had a happy ending for everyone.
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Discussion Topic: Your favorite moment(s) in the sport of wrestling...
Anthony Windsor II added to this discussion on January 14, 2009
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Finally!!!
I get to tell the story...
My (new) favorite moment was beating E.J Mowen 6-2 in the consolation Semi's at the 2008 GMVWA Holiday tournament.
The reason that I enjoyed it was because before we wrestled, he told another kid in my weight class (103) that I "wasn't going to be a problem." I ended up taking him down in the 1st period and twice in the 3rd. "I
AM
a problem!!!"
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Discussion Topic: Your favorite moment(s) in the sport of wrestling...
Mike Taylor added to this discussion on January 15, 2009
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Quote from Anthony Windsor II's post:
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"Finally!!!
I get to tell the story...
My (new) favorite moment was beating E.J Mowen 6-2 in the consolation Semi's at the 2008 GMVWA Holiday tournament.
The reason that I enjoyed it was because before we wrestled, he told another kid in my weight class (103) that I "wasn't going to be a problem." I ended up taking him down in the 1st period and twice in the 3rd. "I
AM
a problem!!!""
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Ahh yes. Truly, "pride cometh before the fall." It is always good to exact a certain level of justice on an arrogant punk. Congrats.
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Discussion Topic: Your favorite moment(s) in the sport of wrestling...
Anthony Windsor II added to this discussion on January 15, 2009
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Quote from Mike Taylor's post:
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"Ahh yes. Truly, "pride cometh before the fall." It is always good to exact a certain level of justice on an arrogant punk. Congrats."
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Yea...
He was so mad he didn't even shake my coach's hand...
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Discussion Topic: Your favorite moment(s) in the sport of wrestling...
Mark Viviani added to this discussion on January 15, 2009
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For me as a wrestler
-winning my district cons semi to make it to state.
takeing 2nd at the firestone district as a team (lake Catholic.)
watching my friend trevor bowers win the title at 135 that year.
also as a coach watching guys that i have worked with progress and actually start winning matches.
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Discussion Topic: Your favorite moment(s) in the sport of wrestling...
Brandon Brissette added to this discussion on January 16, 2009
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I don't respond all that much, but i enjoyed all the stories and it got me going.
My soph. year at Wartburg College (D3 college in IA for those who don't know) I drove out to ONU to watch my teamates wrestle in the National finals. We qualified all 10 weights that year and ended up being the 2nd ever (Minnesota being the 1st) NCAA team to All-American all 10 weights. We had 6 finalist, 3 champs, 2 took 3rd, and twin soph. brothers who took 4th and 6th. It was the most ever points scored at the nationals. Definatally the coolest thing to be witness to and a part of as a competitor.
Now all my best moments are coaching at HeidelBERG! We strive for similar aspirations in the OAC. Some of the best have been.
1st ever OAC Championship 06' (6 finalist, 3 champs)
2nd OAC Championship 07' (5 finalist, 2 champs)
3rd OAC Championship 08' (7 finalist, 5 champs)
5th last year at NWCA national duals.
**Our win over #5 Wisconsin La-Crosse to place and bump them out at the National Duals has been the highlight to this point in the season. Especially because they were the team to prevent us from a top 4 spot last year.
The only way to ever reach Unbelievable is to have the Highest of Expectations and Hardest Work ethic over Time.
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Discussion Topic: Your favorite moment(s) in the sport of wrestling...
Brady Hiatt added to this discussion on January 16, 2009
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Quote:
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"Yea...
He was so mad he didn't even shake my coach's hand..."
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Greenview wrestlers, like Claymont and Chanel's teams, don't shake the opposing coaches hand after a match. It's a coaching decision.
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Discussion Topic: Your favorite moment(s) in the sport of wrestling...
Brady Hiatt added to this discussion on January 16, 2009
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Watching a old high school rival, Brandon Paulson, wrestle in on of the best matches I've ever witnessed at the '04 Olympic Trials. I was pulling hard for him to win but he showed his championship heart in how he handled the defeat.
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