Lucky Break

I got to wrestle varsity my freshman year thanks to a lucky break. That is to say, the junior who was wrestling 98 lbs. broke his collar bone in practice before our first meet. I had won the JV 98 lb. spot, so after Kevin broke his collar bone I got the 98 lb. varsity spot. V-man!

Being a freshman wrestler wasn't so bad. It wasn't too intimidating. The upperclassmen were decent guys. Mr. Bucknell was the varsity coach and Mr. White was the JV coach.

I was actually content with the idea of wrestling JV my freshman year. But, when I got the chance to wrestle varsity it was exciting. I wrestled 98 lbs. in all of the dual meets but the 112 pounder Wayne would cut down to 98 lbs. on the weekends and get to wrestle in the tournaments. I hated not being able to wrestle in the weekend tournaments.

Coach White said, "Tharin, I was expecting you to go undefeated for me on the JV team this year. But, now that you're on varsity I'm not so sure."

I was a bit nervous at the first dual meet. I hesitated a little bit at the locker room door after the coach told us to run out onto the mat. But, I got used to it. I liked leading the team out onto the mat. Being at 98 lbs. meant that I was always the first one to run out onto the mat with the rest of the team following behind me. And, if I won my match it started out the meet on a good note.

The seniors were interesting guys. Chris and Brad went to the arcade every night after practice to play Pac Man. Sometimes guys would ask to borrow some "stink" (cologne). Bottles of Brut were everywhere. I miss the smell of Brut. Antiperspirant and deodorant were called "pit". I had a bottle of shampoo called Body On Tap which claimed to be made with real beer. A senior who went by the name Chip seemed to like to borrow my shampoo. He would call it the "community poo". Someone noticed Chip was borrowing my Body On Tap one night. Chip was known to enjoy a beer now and then. "Don't drink that shampoo Chip", someone said.

We sometime got into a circle toward the end of practice to do a conditioning drill. We would go around the circle each picking an exercise to do. The first time we did "the circle" was kind of funny. The first guy chose sit ups and I think the second guy chose jumping jacks. Then it was my turn so I said, "push ups." Chip said, "Oh, he's a man!"

Sometime the upperclassmen would tell us freshman to flush the toilets. This was supposed to make the showers warmer. I think most of us ignored their demands. Kevin Wedo, a junior, ran back and forth between the shower and the bathroom flushing toilets as he went one night after practice. I think he did it just for the fun of it. Everyone was laughing like crazy.

Before breaking his collar bone, Kevin Wedo would whale on me in practice. If I shot in on a double he would crossface hard or try to rip my head off with a headlock. I never could take him down. He whaled on all the other freshman light weights too. And, riding him was impossible. He would just sit there in the referee's position and then suddenly hit a switch and reverse me. He was very powerful.

I had this problem with getting taken down in the first period almost every match. Then I would get a reversal and pin the guy. My coaches were happy for the pin but would have liked to have seen me be more aggressive on my feet. I learned to do a good standing switch my freshman year.

My wrestling hero in those days was a guy named Mark Schwab. He became a four time Iowa State High School Wrestling Champion while wrestling for Osage High School. I had never really heard of anyone else at that point so Mark was the man.

My girlfriend Kari was usually at home meets to see me wrestle. And, her brother John was one of my teammates. Thank you, Kari. I'll never forget my freshman year of high school and what a part of it you were.

The highlight of my freshman year was wrestling in the Upper Iowa Conference Tournament. For some reason Wayne didn't cut down to 98 lbs. for that one and I got to wrestle.

I won first round or perhaps got a bye and then lost a close match in the second round. The referee ran into me later on and said something like, "That's too bad buddy. You wrestled a really good match."

I wrestled a senior to determine 3rd and 4th place. He tried to crossface cradle me and had me worried a little bit. But, at some point when I was on top I put in an arm bar and pinned him. I took 3rd place in the conference. Not too bad for a freshman who got to wrestle varsity because of a lucky break.

Kevin Wedo had healed up by the end of the season. He was able to wrestle at sectionals and even ended up qualifying for the state tournament. I didn't mind giving him back his spot at the end of the season. He was better than me. He deserved it.

So, that's how I came to be a letterman my freshman year. An accident gave me a shot and I rose to the occasion. At our wrestling banquet I received that red letter P and then bought a letter jacket to put it on the next year.

What a year! I'll never forget it.