Who Wrestled in High School?

[Makalakumu]

Who Wrestled in High School? Share a story!

 

[terryl965]

I wrestled in 9th grade and it was a kiving nightmare for me coming from a positive background in MA, I was not use to a coach always seeing the negative about everything nomatter what we did it was never good enough if you won a match and stuff he would always say the oponet was weak or we should have finished them off quicker and it just was not pleasant to be there.

 

[tellner]

Very briefly. I grew up in Eastern Washington where the summer temperatures could be 115F (46 in real degrees). The coach said "Run in a water proof windbreaker. And don't drink water. It will just make you gain weight." My dad (a physician) said "You're not doing that." A few years later one of the kids died from dehydration and heat exhaustion

 

[Last Fearner]

The coach said "Run in a water proof windbreaker. And don't drink water. It will just make you gain weight."

That was an all too common practice in the 70's. I hope it is not still today! I'm glad for you that your dad knew better.

I grew up around wrestling. My dad was a Professional Wrestler in the Golden Era. (50's and 60's). I stood ringside as a kid, and took the garments and props from the wrestlers and returned them to the dressing rooms.

During my sixth grade year (elementary school), I had a two older brothers in wrestling so I got to practice with the High School team. By seventh grade, I was the only kid on the Jr. High team who knew what he was doing. I improved each year, and by 9th grade (top of our Jr. High back then) I held many records for the season (most takedowns, most reversals, most near-falls, most wins, most pins, and most quickest pin - 1min 14 sec.). I was also voted the most valuable wrestler that year.

Then, I went to High School. The seniors were good, and I got slammed all over the mat in practice. I was on J.V. for almost half of the year, then the senior who was in the Varsity spot moved up a weight class. I had to challenge another senior for Varsity and I won the spot. I got my Varsity Letter as a 10th grader (which was not common for us in those days), and earned Varsity in 11th and 12th grade.

My later wrestling record did not go as good as I had hoped because of a couple of injuries (a knee popped out of joint once, and a broken nose). Also, by 10th grade, my interests had turned more to Taekwondo. In between seasons one year, I competed in a "Free-Style" wrestling tournament which was interesting. Adults and guys with beards were wrestling in singlets and doing pretty good.

Our wrestling coach would always say:

"For every move, there's a counter, and for every counter, there's a counter."

"The best way to get out of any hold...... is to not get into it in the first place!"

"The best body for a wrestler is an upper body like Mr. Universe, and legs like toothpicks."

"BRIDGE! BRIDGE!"

(Cheers to coach Kruise)

CM D.J. Eisenhart

 

[Skip Cooper]

I grew up in Oklahoma where I wrestled and played football. Wrestling was my favorite, I think I played football for my Dad. If he didn't push the football, I probably wouldn't have played past elementary. I loved every bit of wrestling, from practice, to the meets, and the tournaments. There was nothing about the sport that I disliked, I couldn't say the same thing for my football experience.

I wrestled from elementary to my freshman year in high school. They call it folkstyle now, but I believe we called it collegiate style at the time. We moved from Oklahoma to central Texas during this year and I was unable to continue with wrestling due to it's absence in school sports and there were no private wrestling clubs. So I was forced to continue with football, until a knee injury during my sophomore year ended my desire to play.

I grew up with the Smith family in Del City, OK. If you are a wrestler then you will probably know this family, at least you will have heard of John Smith. I was in the same grade as Mark Smith, the youngest of the Smith family wrestlers. Other than the Smith family, there were alot of great wrestlers that I came up with. Most of the names I have now forgotten. I don't mean to name drop here, just wanted to share a part of my past that I am proud of.

Despite living in Oklahoma, with two powerhouse wrestling programs at the collegiate level, I wanted a scholarship to the University of Iowa. I wanted to wrestle for the great Dan Gable, who was still coaching at Iowa at this time. I also would dream of Olympic glory, even though I hadn't begun to wrestle free-style yet. I figured that I would "pick it up" during high school.

But all of that came to an end when we moved south of the Red River. Now, wrestling has made it to the Houston area and my oldest son, of 10 years, wants to wrestle. You can imagine my excitement...but I must be careful not to live vicariously through him and let him enjoy his experience.

 

[Skip Cooper]

That was an all too common practice in the 70's. I hope it is not still today! I'm glad for you that your dad knew better.

I grew up around wrestling. My dad was a Professional Wrestler in the Golden Era. (50's and 60's). I stood ringside as a kid, and took the garments and props from the wrestlers and returned them to the dressing rooms.

During my sixth grade year (elementary school), I had a two older brothers in wrestling so I got to practice with the High School team. By seventh grade, I was the only kid on the Jr. High team who knew what he was doing. I improved each year, and by 9th grade (top of our Jr. High back then) I held many records for the season (most takedowns, most reversals, most near-falls, most wins, most pins, and most quickest pin - 1min 14 sec.). I was also voted the most valuable wrestler that year.

Then, I went to High School. The seniors were good, and I got slammed all over the mat in practice. I was on J.V. for almost half of the year, then the senior who was in the Varsity spot moved up a weight class. I had to challenge another senior for Varsity and I won the spot. I got my Varsity Letter as a 10th grader (which was not common for us in those days), and earned Varsity in 11th and 12th grade.

My later wrestling record did not go as good as I had hoped because of a couple of injuries (a knee popped out of joint once, and a broken nose). Also, by 10th grade, my interests had turned more to Taekwondo. In between seasons one year, I competed in a "Free-Style" wrestling tournament which was interesting. Adults and guys with beards were wrestling in singlets and doing pretty good.

Our wrestling coach would always say:

"For every move, there's a counter, and for every counter, there's a counter."

"The best way to get out of any hold...... is to not get into it in the first place!"

"The best body for a wrestler is an upper body like Mr. Universe, and legs like toothpicks."

"BRIDGE! BRIDGE!"

(Cheers to coach Kruise)

CM D.J. Eisenhart

I can still remember my coach screaming...

"GET TO YOUR BASE!!!"

...sounds so simple in theory, but is sometimes much harder in application, LOL!

 

[arnisador]

Yes, in 11th and 12th grade. I wasn't very good, but I was the only one who could pull off a hip throw!

 

[orjan]

I wrestled from 7th grade thru the 10th before moving to a school without a wrestling program. Wrestled in intramural tournaments in college. Biggest claim to fame - started out as a 98 pounder and ended up as a heavyweight.

 

[mrhnau]

I did for a short time in 11th grade. In retrospect, the coach did not have that much of an idea of what he was doing. One problem I had was I was very tall and skinny. I was fighting guys about 6-8 inches shorter than me, and generally alot stronger.

I'll agree with tellner about the dehydration. It was sick... running in garbage bags, throwing up, not eating for a day or two. After watching one of our "stars" throw up repeatedly, I figured I'd had enough. I'd prefer playing a sport that did not involve torturing your body and severe dehydration, unless you were a heavy weight. One of my best friends was a heavy weight, though barely over the weight limit. He was around 5'6 and rather fat. Was going up against guys typically outweighing him by around 80+ lbs and 6+ inches taller. Was quite odd to see that

 

[Skip Cooper]

Fortunately for me, I came up in a time when weight cutting was strictly monitored. We were never allowed to cut down two weight classes and those plastic suits were forbidden. We did alot of conditioning and diet was important to control your weight. The people I wrestled with who had to cut weight was due to their own fault. They did not maintain their diets and were in danger of making weight for the meet or tournament. I, myself, never had any problems making weight. I always stayed below my weight class during wrestling season.

Now, I thought the two-a-day practices for football in the summer time was insane. Have you ever had to hit a blocking sled in full pads on a 100+ degree day? Not fun at all.

 

[ArmorOfGod]

I'm not going to share a story, only a gripe.
Here in the deep southern U.S., high school/college wrestling is not popular and rarely offered. I never had the opportunity in high school to train in wrestling. I started martial arts in 10th grade (1991), but had to wait until about 1997 to start developing my ground game.

AoG

 

[mrhnau]

Now, I thought the two-a-day practices for football in the summer time was insane. Have you ever had to hit a blocking sled in full pads on a 100+ degree day? Not fun at all.

I'll second that

 

[Skip Cooper]

I'm not going to share a story, only a gripe.
Here in the deep southern U.S., high school/college wrestling is not popular and rarely offered. I never had the opportunity in high school to train in wrestling. I started martial arts in 10th grade (1991), but had to wait until about 1997 to start developing my ground game.

AoG

It is the same for Texas. Now the sport is growing here, thanks to all the "yankees" who came down south to work. They brought their love for the game and started private clubs for their kids and now alot of high schools are including wrestling into their programs.

 

[crushing]

Nice topic and some good stories going here.

I never had to cut weight. I weighted around 165-170 but I usually wrestled 198 and heavyweight. My team had better wrestlers than I in the 'more approriate' weight divisions for me. At least in Michigan, I don't think they don't allow the kids to wrestle that much over their own weight anymore. Sometimes I look back and wish I would have taken wrestling more seriously than as a sport to help keep me in shape for football.

My favorite memory is actually pulling off a pancake at an invitational. The over arm/under arm launch backward and turn. My opponent was huge, I think I may have been wrestling heavyweight that day. Anyway, I got the over/under and the hips in close and launched myself back and arched my back, at this point I thought I was going to die. This huge guy is going to land right on me and put my forehead through the mat and I will die, or at the very least wish I was dead. Somehow I got the big guy airborne and as we were head to the mat I managed to get the twist in to put the guy on bottom. I think the other guy went into shock that I just threw him and I managed to pin him soon after we hit the floor.

That move has since been outlawed, at least in Michigan.

Up there with that memory was my first varsity win. My opponent was absolutely kicking my butt. I was about to lose by technical default down 14-0. I rolled the guy over and pinned him. This would be above my pancake memory, but I felt like the guy quit after I reversed him. That kind of took a little bit away from my victory.

 

[bushidomartialarts]

6 years of junior high & high shool. i consider it my first martial art.

one day i came in at 8 am ready to wrestle the 145 weight class. coach told me he needed me at 136 by 5 pm. i actually lost 9 pounds in 9 hours, all water weight of course. weighed in, drank some gatorade, ate some soup, went on to beat the guy in overtime after he tried to gouge one of my eyes out.

not recommended practice, and very likely illegal today. totally unhealthy. at the same time, it's one of my touchstone memories of a time i did something totally unreasonable in order to achieve a goal.

 

[Cabalcincotiros]

I started wrestling in 9th grade (Intercolligiate style) in 1967. The following year I was a 2 time AAU champion in the 44.5kg (98lb) class and Island Champ (Puerto Rico). I had previously trained in Kodokan Judo since 1965 and acquired Yon Kyu (green belt) and the transition to wrestling from Judo was easy for me. In 1970 (my senior year) my family moved to Florida (my father retired from the USN) & I was regional champ and placed 2nd at the State Championship that same year (103 lb. class) . I graduated high school that year. My coach in Puerto Rico was from Oklahoma State and a very good technician/coach who was a NCAA Champion in his time. My wrestling coach in Florida was from Michigan State and he too was a former champ. I love the sport of wrestling and still follow it today.

 

[kagegakure]

I wrestled. I wasn't that good nor bad. wrestled for two yrs. I wrestled 3 weight classes. I started at 171 and then i wanted to be on varsity so i went for a weight higher (I got beat by the guy who was 171 before, but left and came back, on our first encounter, how shameful lol) and beat some and lost alot and then for regionals i wrestled 215 and MAAAN!!! was that hard...i felt like a little fish a HUGE pond (and i was, i weighed alittle over 165 at the time) the proudest time was when i wrestled at team regionals for 215 and i lost but i almost beat him, didn't get pinned (so happy because i stretched my joint alittle there, but was fun and would do it all over again if i could). I had alot of heart, took alot so i gave alot...I want to wrestle somemore.

 

[SPorK]

Wrestled for 6 years, 4 high school and 2 college. Was average, won some and lost some.

Greatest memory; well, in college after the noraml collegiate system ended we continued with freestyle tournaments. We were invited to participate in the Sunkist International meet in Phoenix, AZ, there I got to meet the FEMALE Norwegian wrestling team.

Other than that, I wrestled in the 88kg class, and I did a front over-the-shoulder throw (face to face, then you lean back lifting the opponent throwing them over your shoulder to the side) to a heavyweight (they combined the two weight classes due to low numbers in the 88kg class).

Way cool.

SPorK

 

[Karatedrifter7]

I wrestled for 2 years in HS, I didint like back then though.

 

[geocad]

I started wrestling in junior high PE class and was better than I thought. When I went to HS I walked on to the Varsity team (103 lbs) due to a lack of interested wrestlers in my school. Flopped like a fish most of the season. I went up one weight class each year and did better each year than the year before, barely. I seemed to do so much better during practice.

My best technique was from being mounted on my back. I would pop up to all fours, fake like I was trying to stand and slam down to my fore arms. The shake would make the guy slide down (like sneaking out the back door). Then I'd reach up and grab his head around his neck and arm, slide up and if all went well get the pin. It worked well a few times and others it didn't.

The best thing I got out of my wrestling HS career was the physical conditioning. Our coach loved to make us run the hill (5 mile course) next to my school (Piedmont Hills, San Jose) prior to the beginning of each practice. After HS I joined the USMC and easily made my way through the basic training physical fitness program.