Panther Land

The summer after my sophomore season I had an opportunity to go to wrestling camp for the first time. My dad thought it was a good idea so I decided to go. My coach also thought summer camps were good because he didn't want his wrestlers going several months without wrestling. He thought that even a week at camp at least kept a wrestler a little bit connected to the sport during the off season.

Of course, I know now that it would have been good to wrestle some freestyle matches during the summer months as well. But, I was more of a three-or-four-months-out-the-year wrestler. That's probably why I never reached my full potential.

So during the summer of 1984, two teammates and I headed to the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, home of the Panthers.

Camp wasn't much fun. I was homesick and nervous. We had to get up early and run every morning which was a pain. I'm not sure I really learned anything new. But, I suppose the experience helped me develop as a wrestler in some way.

I met some members of the UNI wrestling team. I remember meeting Bob Hallman, the 118 pound wrestler. I suppose I identified with the lighter weight wrestlers like him. He had placed second in the NCAA Wrestling Tournament at 118 lbs. that year. He was a nice guy. He was funny as I recall. I think that summer he weighed around 140 pounds so he had cut a lot of weight during the season to make 118 lbs. I suppose I looked up to him a bit.

I wrestled one guy who really liked arm drags. After we had worked out together he asked, "What did you place in state?"

"I didn't make it to state," I said.

"Why not?" he said, "You're really good."

That made me feel good of course.

I wrestled another guy and had a close match. One of my teammates talked to me afterwards and said, "You know that guy you just wrestled placed second in the state this year."

Those morning runs were a killer. I was always cold in the morning even during summer and tired. Of course, I was sweating by the time our run was finished. We learned to do something called an Indian Run. We would run single file in a long line and the guy at the back of the line would pull out to the left and then sprint by the other runners to the front of the line. When that runner reached the front of the line then the guy who was now at the back of the line would do the same thing.

We had run a timed run around a track at the beginning of the camp so they could place us in different running groups. My teammates and I were all in the fastest running group.

I met a guy from Bellevue High School who could run like crazy. Bob Hallman even had trouble keeping up with him. This guy from Bellevue told me I should run as much as I could on my own during the season and off season. I saw him in his uniform at the Iowa State High School Wrestling Tournament in 1985. I was just a spectator but he was in the competition. I guess all of his running might have paid off.

I did do a lot of running that summer on my own. I ran almost every day. When I was nearing the end of my run my heart would be pounding and my legs would be burning from lactic acid and I would imagine that it was nearing the end of a tough wrestling match and I had to stay strong.

A group of schoolmates passed by me in a car one evening when I was out running and beeped the horn at me. They were going out to have some weekend fun and I was running. Was it worth it? I thought so at the time.
An athlete makes sacrifices and works hard to achieve his goals.

One person in the car was a girl named Michelle. She wrote in my year book something like, "When I saw you out running this summer I could tell how dedicated you were to being a great wrestler."