.

"I wish athletic accolades didn't depend so much on what others think of me, instead of on my individual performance."
                                                                          -An anonymous athlete from one of those less fortunate sports

"Schools do not admit students based on just PSAT or SAT scores.   High scores and grades only get you tossed in the "possible" pile.  The final decisions depend heavily on essays, teacher recommendations and extracurricular activities."  (Source: article in the Washington Post, April 9th, 2002).

             *Collegiate's wrestling team was originally founded by Dr. Don Pate, a National Wrestling Hall of Fame: Virginia Chapter member who is now a retired University of  Richmond Professor that fortunately continues sharing his knowledge with the wrestling community, and favorably impacting people´s lives  forever...  Early on he received considerable help from Graylon Crisp and later from former U. of  R. standout Ted Pinnick.  Other coaches have helped the program over the years, including:

    Former Cub wrestling coaches:  Andrew Stanley & Brian Leipheimer
   Assistant varsity coaches during the 1990's and / or beyond: Dr. Don Pate, Coach Stone & John Thoma
   Previous Cub wrestling (middle school) Coaches: Charley Hudson and Rob Bei 
   Additional prior coaches:  Coach Sweeney, Wortie Ferrell, Mark Palyo, Graylon Crisp (listed above), Larry Jarman, Ted Pinnick (listed above) and Mac Friddell.  

Collegiate's more recent varsity coaches include:  Aaron Marsh, Andy Stone, Steve Sica (Collegiate's only 3X VISWA state champ & 2x All-American) and Coach Parker.

              *Collegiate wishes Coach Frank Kiefer well over at St. C, where their quantity of National Prep All Americans literally tripled during his first season there. Richmond's prominence in the USA's Prep wrestling scene has the potential to improve considerably now, as Coach K.  has produced literally dozens of Prep School All-Americans at schools such as Charlotte Latin (NC), Norfolk Academy, Virginia Episcopal School (VES), and Westminster High School (Atlanta, GA).    During the 1990´s, Westminster´s team placed in the top 5 at the national prep tournament at Lehigh, and some of its most tenacious participants secured All American status around a dozen times from 1996-1999 (in addition to the Nationals' Outstanding Wrestler during Coach K's final year in Atlanta).   Did you know that Coach Kiefer and Coach Pate were both Olympic alternates for the U.S.A?

    *The USA has a record-high $30 trillion dollar national debt , which doesn't even include "entitlements" such as social security obligations that reportedly amount to at least 5 times more.   Such a debt burden is and will increasingly strain law enforcement budgets nationwide like never before.  Consequently, wouldn't self defense-oriented sports (even at the mere exhibition level) not seem more potentially useful than ever to already diet-conscious women?   Doesn't traveling overseas (especially where handguns are outlawed), or at night here in the USA, already involve enough inherent risks for practically all ambitious & career-oriented folks?  Unsurprisingly enough, women's wrestling is now  finally an Olympics sport...

      A female wrestler from which pioneering Virginia high school became the first female, statewide, ever to win a match in the VISWA state tournament?   Answer: Collegiate's  Sunny Clemons '97.

*TheMat.com's women's amateur wrestling site
*InterMat´s women´s amateur wrestling site

*Title IX (and how a lack of gender equity has forced our increasingly popular self defense-oriented sport to lose several hundred  official college teams)

External links (although what's below on this page is worth reading, too):

Latest news:
(To save or extract an external link from this page, simply "right-click" on it,
then go to "properties" and copy the url that you see.)

Worth joining (for free): "I wrestled in Virginia": https://www.facebook.com/groups/IWrestledInVirginia

Have you seen these 2019 Cougar, MatCat and Cub wrestling program team & practice photos yet?

Collegiate's wrestling team was originally founded by Dr. Don Pate, a National Wrestling Hall of Fame: Virginia Chapter member.

Here are photos from (or otherwise involving) the April 21, 2018 induction ceremony held in Richmond:

Jimmy Stokes '89, Tyson Daniel '89, Dr. Don Pate (program founding coach), Tommy Christman '88, Wortie Ferrell '88, Coach Ted Pinnick, David Hart '87 For more info, here's the Facebook permalink. Meanwhile here's the Collegiate Cougar page dedicated to this milestone for Collegiate's overall athletic program...

Here are the 2010 Virginia Independent Schools state wrestling tournament results. And here are 2011's & 2012's. For more recent results, please see TrackWrestling.com and look for VISAA.

Congrats to all Cougars who have performed for us during the postseason!  

Here are the most recent National Prep results. 

Have you seen VisaaWrestling.com yet?   It's the state tournament's website, with teams, rosters, and a growing list of results.  

Have you seen StChrisWrestling.com yet?  

Have you checked out this impressive, free web resource yet, where wrestling videos abound?   FloWrestling.org

Might you be interested in the latest accomplishments of the Woodberry program?  Details...

What's your opinion of the most recent Virginia prep school individual & team rankings here?

Have you seen our latest schedule & results?  For Collegiate's official website's report, click here.

Did you know that the site of the 2009 National Collegiate Wrestling Association college club team national championships was Hampton, Virginia?
 

On Sunday, January 27th, 2008 there was a showdown between Va. Tech. & U.Va, and the event was a very well-attended success once again.   Looking forward to the next "Rumble"?  For more details, please check out Wrestling Rumble.com.   Meanwhile, how did you like 2006's Wrestling Rumble  (UNC vs. Va. Tech) @ St. C?  The one held in Jan. of 2005 @ St. C (U.Va. vs. VMI) was a roaring, sellout, standing-room-only success too.  It was also a standing-room-only, sold out event @ Collegiate back in January of 2003 (U.Va. vs. VMI).  

March Matness?  Or Mat Madness?  Either way, the  NCAA wrestling tournament is quite a show, as well as a perennial sellout, attendance-wise.    Did you notice how in 2008 a former Prep wrestler from our neighboring state of Tennessee won it all at 157 lbs. for Cornell?   Here's an amazing 2008-2009 FloWrestling.org video of Jordan Leen vs. a nationally ranked Penn State opponent.   

Are you interested in U.Va.?   The Charlottesville Wrestling Club periodically holds clinics in the Richmond area.  Details.   And here's their wrestling page: U.Va.

The College Sports Television Network's wrestling content continues to grow, thanks to popular demand.   Info...

      Would you like to wrestle in college like Mac Friddell and John Chlore have fairly recently done up at Princeton?  The Bush Administration mildly reformed Title IX to enhance the likelihood that you can do so.   Here are some details about the recent reform and here's a link to the National Collegiate Wrestling Association dedicated to current and future college club teams (some of which have already gotten NCAA or NAIA certification).  Can you imagine how good it would look on your  job resumé to have significantly helped a fledgling project thrive?  

Have you seen the list of newly reinstated or simply new, nonclub college varsity wrestling teams yet?  One's in Virginia.  Incidentally, despite Title IX woes, the College of William & Mary's (now club) wrestling program is increasingly rising from the ashes just as Liberty University's wrestling program has done.  For more college club programs, please visit http://www.NCWA.net.  What do you predict for nearby VCU now that they finally have a new athletic director who has a history of being supportive of wrestling (while at UNC and Arizona State)?

Here are the results for the 2008 Virginia Independent Schools state wrestling tournament championships...

 2008 Virginia Prep League Tournament Results...(Incidentally, we forfeited around 4 weight classes...)

Can you believe that Collegiate's varsity regularly forfeited around 5 weight classes during the '07-'08 season?   Meanwhile, unlike during (for example) the 1980's, Collegiate doesn't even have a j.v. program nowadays...

Here are the 2007 Prep League tournament results, the 2007 VISWA State wrestling tournament results (which re-emerged @ Woodberry Forest) and the National Prep results.     Congratulations to all Cougars who performed well during the post-season!

Remember how a former VISWA standout (from Bishop O'Connell H.S.) Steve Ratley fairly recently got to perform for years on a Div. 1 scholarship for ACC contender Va. Tech?

Are Trinity Episcopal High School & Wakefield School adding wrestling like Westover Christian Academy, Seton School & Massanutten Military Academy fairly recently have, and Timberlake Christian has considered doing?

    Richmond's Trinity Episcopal High School reinstated football during the Fall of 2004. Why not wrestling, though? They had a National Prep All-American in Will Seger (1984) [4th place, 185 lbs.] and some All Prep and state medalist wrestlers since then. Nevertheless, that Richmond-area nonboarding school which charges $12,500 per year in tuition still has no DEFINED plans to reinstate humanity's oldest sport which doesn't discriminate on the basis of blindness, deafness, amputee status, size or gender (as of this Summer's 2004 Olympics in which women's freestyle wrestlers will participate).

     What's more influential than questioning from aspiring students and parents, or even from folks in the community who are simply concerned about this seemingly discriminatory decision of Trinity's? Here's their contact data:

http://www.trinityes.org/admissions/financial_aid.php

Might you know any alumni who would call or write in, too?

    Incidentally, very few people seem to realize just how affordable an education at an independently run school in Virginia can be.   For more information on vouchers (which neighboring Washington D.C. already offers its taxpayers' youth), please click  here .  And if you're interested in asking an elected official in Virginia what (s)he thinks, feel free to click here: http://legis.state.va.us.  Can you believe that Virginia is one of the only states not to even offer "open-enrollment" in exchange for our tax dollars?  

Have you seen Veritas, the somewhat recent amateur wresting film produced & directed by Howie Miller (a U.Va. wrestling alumnus, ACC wrestling champ & 2nd Team Academic All-American)?   Here are the most relevant links:

Official website; YouTube & parody links; InterMat press release;  MySpace page.

Former Cougar wrestler Johnny Clore performed as the starter at 174 pounds for Princeton University. He picked up an impressive win against Franklin & Marshall.  Details...

Have you seen the Richmond Times Dispatch's Central Virginia 2006 All-Metro Wrestling Team? Congrats go especially to those from St. C who made the list.

Here are the 2006 National Prep tourney results.   Why isn't the national championships tournament's location rotated each year?  Can you imagine the differences if Richmond got to host it?

OTHER NEWS:

Collegiate seeks some assistant coaches who can also teach.  For details, please click here.

Congrats to the Cougars who represented us at the National Preps @ Lehigh U. this year!   Here are the results.  Incidentally, nobody from Collegiate's team is graduating this year, so hopefully all will be back next season.  Meanwhile, nice going Saints!  And can you believe how Bishop Lynch (in Dallas, Texas) made the Top Two, team-wise?  

With the recent reinstatement of Division I wrestling at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. (thanks to support from a big fan of amateur wrestling named Jerry Falwell), our state reportedly has more Division I NCAA wrestling teams than New Jersey, New York, Ohio or Illinois, even as these cold weather states predictably have more of a wrestling [and indoor sports] tradition, as well as larger populations.  How is this so?   Perhaps we Virginians are politically savvy when it comes to preserving humanity's oldest sport which doesn't discriminate on the basis of blindness, deafness, amputee status, size or gender.   Wrestling, in general, has held up reasonably well recently relative to other sports.   According to the Dayton Daily News, "In the past 15 years, wrestling is eighth on the list of most-dropped NCAA programs, at 121 teams. Cross country leads at 183, and indoor track (180), golf (178 , tennis (171), rowing (132), outdoor track (126) and swimming (125) have lost more than wrestling in that time....In January [of 2004], faced with a budgetary decision, the University of Findlay converted men's and women's hockey to intramural sports and spared wrestling. Five institutions, including Utah Valley State College in NCAA Division I, will start wrestling programs next season."

     Congratulations  to all Cougars who shined at the Prep League and VISWA states!   Here are Prep League tourney results... and here are the 2005 VISWA wrestling tournament results.  Would you agree that the score doesn't adequately portray how impressive the Saints were both on and off the mat?  Their noncondescending enthusiasm for our sport sells it very well during this time in which its political vulnerability has led to the elimination of hundreds of college wrestling teams, and a growing quantity of high school ones. Even when they'd lose big matches (seemingly unfairly at times), they were fantastic sports about it.  It is this volunteer, anonymous webmaster's view that the Saints (at least those occupying the upper weights who were conversed with at the tournament) will go far in life, due to their obvious determination, discipline, great people skills, sense of humor and ability to cope with adversity and disappointment. Interestingly enough, the St. C. wrestlers were absolutely TOP notch folks 2 decades ago, too (but admittedly without quite as impressive a list of accomplishments on the mat). These are the kinds of folks that we want and need to have working in media boardrooms because they've got what it takes to persuade others there to allow wrestling to finally get the recognition that's primarily reserved for basketball and football. And these are the folks we want running for elected office, because they have the down-to-Earth sensibility and wit that are needed for persuading others not to axe wrestling teams despite what feminazi quota-hugging Title IX bandits demand. Covenant H.S. (in Charlottesville) can say similar things about its participants as far as personality and dedication are concerned. Both teams (and a handfull of others) make great ambassadors for our sport, wouldn't it seem?

        On a different front, historically enough the 2005 VISWA state tourney's audience included an NCAA Division I head coach whose team included a VISWA alumnus.   Hopefully this sort of remarkable support for our sport by one of wrestling's leaders will be reinforced and rewarded (especially in the future) by those who are able to see to it that this can happen.  Shouldn't it? 

Hopefully others increasingly agree that it should, especially anyone who may have initially had other priorities before others tried to get through to them (which may or may not have finally happened).    

Previously...

 Does Woodberry [team pages] seem unstoppable by any Prep League or even VISWA team other than the outstanding (and remarkably congenial ambassadors for our sport)  St. Christopher's?  The Tigers lost to Norfolk Academy by 10 in Richmond on January 15th, 2005.   Meanwhile, they barely got by Covenant H.S., which is much smaller ... And here are the results of the Harrisonburg Invitational and the Broadway tourney.  When was the last time that Woodberry didn't place in the Top 2 at the Prep League tournament?  Before the 1980's.  Will a combined effort from individuals on various teams keep the school with just about the most male students in the Prep League from achieving what its numbers otherwise suggest that it should?  Stay tuned, and never quit trying to (ethically) be the best that you can be...  

St. C. placed the highest of Central Va. teams in the Richmond Invitational, giving them clear title to being #1 in all of Central Virginia.   The Saints had an interesting early December weekend as well: Details (Germanton) and more details (Lafayette).

 Congrats to all Cougars who placed for us at the Clover Hill Invitational!   Here are the results.  

 Congrats to all Cougars who placed for us at the recent Colonial Heights Kickoff!  Here are the results.  Would it not seem that discounts for opponents are becoming more of a thing of the past for the ever-improving Price Club?  Way to go Tom! 

  Is the reversal of fortunes between the Cougars and Saints in varsity football attributable to the declining quantity of football players who subsequently wrestle at Collegiate, and to the increasing quantity of them at St. C?  Feel free to comment...

  Have you seen these VISWA and Central Region preseason rankings yet?   Feel free to comment...

  We wish Jamie Robertson well at JMU.   Jamie was a 2x VISWA state champion for Collegiate.

Have you seen how many colleges have either reinstated or officially added wrestling during 2004, alone?  Well over a dozen.  We owe  a lot of it to Title IX reform.  Meanwhile, there is also a growing list of NCWA college club wrestling teams that are aiming for reinstatement (like Bucknell U. recently achieved).  

VCU 's NCWA wrestling team will be competing in the Virginia Intercollegiate State Championships @ U.Va. this winter.   Collegiate's own Harry Ludeman will likely be in their starting line-up, too.  Good luck
Harry!  

 President Bush (as well as presidential cabinet members who used to wrestle such as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld) have fought hard to help rescue college wrestling from the Clintonian proportionality interpretation of an otherwise wonderful Title IX law.   Here's a historically unprecedented picture of  W.  at the White House with the 2001 & 2002 NCAA championship-winning University of Minnesota wrestling team, which incidentally won it all in 2001 without having a single NCAA finalist:  

Thanks W. !

   DaytonDailyNews.com article:  "In the past 15 years, wrestling is eighth on the list of most-dropped NCAA programs, at 121 teams. Cross country leads at 183, and indoor track (180), golf (178), tennis (171), rowing (132), outdoor track (126) and swimming (125) have lost more than wrestling in that time....In January, faced with a budgetary decision, the University of Findlay converted men's and women's hockey to intramural sports and spared wrestling. Five institutions, including Utah Valley State College in NCAA Division I, will start wrestling programs next season."  For more about Title IX: proportionality, feel free to click here.  

 The Charlottesville wrestling club's elite [literally Olympian] coaching staff will be holding practices in the Richmond area rather often.   For more details, please click here.  

 Here's info on the 2004 Olympic wrestling events...  Here's alternative info.  Here are some questions  that seem to be worth thinking about: 1) Will women's wrestling make significant strides in the U.S.A. now that Yale Law student Patty Miranda recently won a bronze?   Meanwhile, 2) is it not intriguing how Jamill Kelly recently took a silver in men's freestyle wresting despite having never won a high school state tourney, and having supposedly never even placed in the NCAA's?   Finally, 3) how much of the comparatively lackluster performance of our wrestlers can be attributed to consequences stemming from Title IX: proportionality?  

  Governor Mark Warner says he will focus on reforming Virginia's public schools, and fighting teenage obesity during his remaining months in office.  For information on how you can efficiently encourage him and his political opponents to try and be the first to get to take credit for enacting reforms that would inadvertently boost Virginia wrestling (such as enacting tuition vouchers programs), please click here.  

   March Matness?  Official NCAA Championships data from the latest wrestling tourney  is available at NCAAsports.com, specifically HERE.  Isn't it rather impressive how well some individuals from the Ivy League schools are performing despite academic pressures and the lack of scholarships?  Both Harvard & Stanford had national champions in 2004.  
      In recent years, Cornell had an NCAA champ and two other All-Americans, while Penn, Harvard & Princeton also produced All-Americans.   Dartmouth & Yale had their teams eliminated thanks largely to Title IX: proportionality, but Yale won an NCWA national championship a while back, and these schools might bounce back if the Ed. Department's bureaucracy allows.   Columbia & Brown haven't been as good as they've previously been, but they'll be back.

  Would you like to get to see college wrestling vía your local cable t.v. service provider?   Click here. 

 Is Wakefield School about to add wrestling like the somewhat nearby Seton School (Manassas, Va.) & Massanutten Military Academy fairly recently have?

  The VISWA finally gets to participate in the A, AA & AAA Virginia Challenge.  Can we rise to the challenge?  Here are the Group A state tournament team and individual results.

 Various native Virginians won ACC championships at U.Va. on March 6th, including somebody who never won a high school state tournament (who went on to become an NCAA All-American weeks later).  Here are the details.

 
 Are you pleased with how the Central Region yielded 2 of 28 AAA state finalists, and [once again] ZERO state champs in 2004?  Do you miss the days when the Central Region regularly had a few different individual AAA state champs each season, like it did during the 1980's?  Until now, the Central Region had not gone 2 consecutive years without a single AAA state champ in over 2 decades.  Is the problem without a solution?  Is it not predictable, though, that those with proposed solutions get publicly mocked by a few who are nervous about making a change?  There's a discussion thread devoted to this overall subject: here.  

    Here is the Lehigh "national preps" site.  And here's a hopefully accurate list of "National Prep All-Americans" from the VISWA. 

  As this recent Times Dispatch article suggests, congrats to all Cougars who achieved at the 2004 VISWA states and at the 2004 Prep League tournament! (Here's an alternative Prep League tourney results site and here's a  discussion thread on the Prep League tournament.)  Meanwhile, congrats to the Saints for its three-peats!   And here are CollegiateWrestling.com's scores and also those of Collegiate High School's official page.  
 

 Parity has returned to the Central Region, as these tournament results show and as the 1,500 maximum capacity crowd can confirm.  Congratulations to the Saints for their decisive victory over the team champions!

 Collegiate's CUB wrestling program went 9-1 this season!  For details, please click here...  Meanwhile, we wish Coach Joe Lawson (a former VISWA champ) all the best after graduation this June.

 Congrats to the Saints and Cougars who are included in the latest Times Dispatch rankings!

       Did you know that the Virginia Prep League's own Blue Ridge High School won the entire National Preps Invitational one year during the 1970's up at Lehigh U?   Also, did you know that Trinity Episcopal had a 185 pounder (Will Seger) place 4th up there in 1984, and that Woodberry Forest's '86 team placed 4th at the National Preps in 1986 (etcetera)?   Speaking of 1986, Bishop Ireton produced that year's Lehigh University National Prep tournament's Most Oustanding Wrestler award winner (Mangrum, 126 lbs. and an eventual ACC Champion for N.C. State). Meanwhile, Bishop O'Connell produced a National Prep champion that year, too (Dennis O'brien, 177 lbs., who went on to wrestle for U.Va. as a 4 year starter, as well).   Both received scholarships and eventually began successful professional careers, too.  In fact, Dennis graduated from U.Va.'s Law School in 1994, after having been admitted during what U.Va.'s Law School called its all-time record admissions year in terms of the quantity and quality of its law school applicants.   

       Incidentally, did you know that in just 3 years' time, Coach Kiefer coached half of  ALL of Collegiate's National Prep tournament All American wrestlers?  And during his first year coaching at St. C, they literally tripled their quantity of National Prep All-Americans from the previous year.   Nice going!

  Most states predictably ignore the National Prep tournament, as that recruiting activity opportunistically never rotates its venue  (unlike the NCAA championships).   Nevertheless, typically over a hundred teams are represented year after year.  

   Why shouldn't the "National" Prep tournament, which Lehigh U. uses for its own recruiting of NorthEasterners (even though it knows folks from Oklahoma, California, Oregon and even Ohio will not attend), finally rotate its venue like the NCAA wrestling championships apparently always have?   Shouldn't the "national" prep tournament also count post graduates' contributions entirely separately, like it reportedly did in 1975 when Blue Ridge High School (St. George, Va.) won it all?   What would stop another Virginia team from winning it all again soon if these two reforms (or just the Post graduate-related one) came about?

     True freshman & native Virginian Christian Smith (who competed for Western Branch H.S. @ St. C. in 2003) has led the Duke Blue Devils to their best ACC regular season since 1959-1960!  He was recently named ACC wrestler of the week.  

   Here's a  list of at least some of the summer wrestling clinics that are advertising online.   Lots of schools that are popular targets for Collegiate's seniors have official NCAA college wrestling teams, through which you can try and network in hopes of learning more about the school and even boosting your admissions prospects.    The list includes U.Va., Duke, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Cornell, M.I.T., U. of Chicago, West Point, U. Penn., W&L, Northwestern, Annapolis, Davidson, JMU, Wesleyan, Michigan, Virginia Tech, George Mason, Cal. Poly, American, UNC, Columbia University, VMI and ODU, as well as Princeton.  Meanwhile, here is a state-by-state list of U.S. colleges & universities that still maintain official (i.e. nonclub) wrestling teams despite Title IX.   When applying to such schools one often needs to write essays and perhaps even interview, too.   Thus, it helps to have already demonstrated a meaningful interest in the school through camp-attendance, as opposed to rather unoriginal and less productive endeavors such as partying and football team boosting which admissions officials know that ANY applicant with minimal talent, diligence and character could do.    
     Incidentally, the NCAA Division I wrestling championships (among other things) results are here.   Did you notice how many Ivy Leaguers have become NCAA Division 1 All-Americans?

   "Schools do not admit students based on just PSAT or SAT scores.   High scores and grades only get you tossed in the "possible" pile.  The final decisions depend heavily on essays, teacher recommendations and extracurricular activities."  (Source: article in the Washington Post, April 9th, 2002).

    The latest NCAA Division I wrestling tourney in Kansas City drew a RECORD crowd of over 16,000 paying fans, despite how Kansas apparently totally lacks division I wrestling nowadays. How is it that the Title IX: proportionality-huggers claim college wrestling has declined basically due to a simple lack of interest?

        To find out what President Bush has been doing most recently to try and rescue amateur wrestling from the highly questionable, and lethal, "proportionality" interpretation of an otherwise wonderful Title IX law regarding gender equality in athletics, please click here.  
 

Previously...

St. C. defeated Collegiate 51-6 (2 Cougars won) blanked Woodberry 69-0, and got a challenge from Norfolk Academy (59-7)....  

    Meanwhile: Collegiate 32, Woodberry 36 in Orange, Va for 2004.   Here are the individual scores.   The Price Club (John and Tom Price, a pair of sophomores) sure did show up for this one, huh?  So did fellow underclassman Ed Trope.   Our upper weights, who are football veterans from Collegiate's state championship-winning team, did too.  So did our defending state VISWA champ.  Considering how Collegiate has merely around 60% as many male students as the Tigers, it was an impressive effort which suggests that there will be some fierce showdowns in the future.
 

   TimesDispatch.com article:  "No excuses," [Hanover Coach] Hale said. "[The Saints are] a well-balanced team and a well-coached team. They wrestled hard and took it to us." That wouldn't have been the case when [Brian] Herod was an eighth-grader. Herod said the Saints would go to practice and "casually mess around." Then Pete Shaifer arrived. Herod said Shaifer...instilled dedication and hard work. "I just want to help the kids learn to be committed to something," Shaifer said. "We all need to have some passion, something that drives us. We need to let those passions take us somewhere."

    *Collegiate wishes its friend Coach Frank Kiefer well over at St. C.  Richmond's prominence in the USA's Prep wrestling scene will only continue to improve now, as Coach K.  has produced literally dozens of Prep School All-Americans at schools such as Charlotte Latin (NC), Norfolk Academy, Virginia Episcopal School (VES), and Westminster High School (Atlanta, GA).   It's hardly a joke to be a prep school wrestler from Richmond now, and our improved standing has psychological advantages versus our increasingly concerned opponents.    Besides which, we no longer have to travel that far to get to compete against [or train with] one of the best teams in the country.   Incidentally, Coach K. was this webmaster's first, ever, rasslin' coach (at VES) a little over 2 decades ago.  He was very sadly missed after his departure to pastures which were more suitable for him.   Interestingly enough, though, he remained a good friend, helped rally his team behind his friends from other schools, shared scouting info. when it was permissible, and offered helpful advice & moral support.  As Collegiate's All-American wrestler Seth Lotts has said, Collegiate is fortunate to have had a coach of his caliber.  

   Would you like to discuss the January 14th St. C. vs. Colonial Forge (#2, AAA) showdown in Richmond?

   Please mark your calendars (and those of your friends) for 2006's Rumble on the River  (U.Va. vs. VMI).  The one held on Thursday, January 6th, 2005 @ St. C was a roaring, sellout, standing-room-only success.   It was also a standing-room-only, sold out event @ Collegiate back in January of 2003.  

     Can you believe the caliber of the new assistant coach at U.Va?   Here are the details... 

   Richmond's own Connor Gentil recently competed for U.Va. in Pennsylvania @174 lbs.   Not bad for a true freshman and engineering student!  As you may recall, Connor wrestled for Collegiate for years before Woodberry recruited him.   Meanwhile, Paul VI's Joey Carpenter also competed for the 'Hoos.  To read about what each achieved (and didn't achieve) at Virginia's independent schools state tournament, here are the results for 2003 and 2002.  

U.Va.  is currently UNranked despite its All-American 141 pounder, as well as the team's finally being fully-funded and also having the 1996 U.S. Olympics head coach as an assistant.
      There's a bit of parity at the NCAA level. Perhaps it's not coincidental that they rotate the venue for the championships each year?  FYI: Robinson H.S. (in Fairfax) reportedly seeks to host the AAA state championships in 2005, apparently for the first time since 1985 (when they won it all, in fact).  

  Meanwhile, how will Virginia's college club teams do in the NCWA rankings?     

  The latest NCAA Top 25 team and individual rankings are out, and several native Virginians are starting for teams that are ranked highly:

http://www.intermatwrestle.com/college/rankings.asp

 Isn't it impressive how St. C. recently placed ahead of all other Richmond-area teams participating in the Richmond Invitational, not long after winning the Lafayette invitational?


  Have you seen which team just won the Bishop Ireton Holiday Invitational?  FUMA. 

   Congrats on having competed reasonably well at the Clover Hill Invitational, Cougars!  Now you're better prepared for competing at the VISWA level.  

  The Richmond Times Dispatch reports the following score between the Cougars and a local AAA team which is ranked #3 in Central Virginia.  Incidentally, Hermitage won the Central Region Championship (and the District one as well) when this Cougar website's webmaster was a senior in '86 (edging Coach Drew Bright's defending regional champs Douglas Freeman H.S. by 1 point, and by 1/2 a point the previous weekend at the two respective local post-season tournaments):

    Hemitage 51, Collegiate 27 (with 3 forfeits from the much smaller, therefore more pro-individual school):

103: Norrington (H) by forfeit; 112: Tinsley (H) p. Cortez 1:18; 119: Timok (H) by forfeit; 125: Trope (C) p. Brooks :50; 130: Madeirus (H) p. Oliver 4:57; 135: Bailey (H) d. Clore 6-3; 140: McAllister (H) p. Goggins 4:32; 145: Atkins (H) by forfeit; 152: Bartholomew (C) p. Long :42; 160: Price (C) d. Smith 13-7; 171: Elgert (H) p. Schewell 3:11; 189: Miller (C) p. Norman 3:37; 215: Waller (C) p. Kenney 2:53; 275: Bledsoe (H) p. Ludeman 2:35.
 

  Southside Sentinel's sports round-up:  "The [Christchurch] wrestling team is led by first-year coach Dean Hall (’92).  ***[Folks, Coach Hall is the alumni director, and reportedly a 2x VISWA state champ who also placed 5th at the National Preps for Christchurch in '92]***.   The team looks to turn things around this year and it looks like they are ready to do exactly that. With 33 wrestlers out for the team this season, the Fighting Seahorses appear ready to battle anyone who enters their path. “We have competitors on this year’s team,” said Hall. “If we keep progressing at the rate we have started, we will be able to hang with just about anyone.” The possible starting lineup for the Christchurch wrestling team is as follows:

103 lbs. – Matt McCormick/Griffin Williford/Matt Wolfe; 112 – Julian Ramirez; 119 – Russ Trione; 125 – Nate McDaniel; 130 – Open; 135 – Peyton McCann; 140 – Pat Lynch/Chad Jenson; 145 – Chase Monday/Grayson Pettit/Richard Johnson; 152 – David Bury/Drew Bury; 160 – Scott Lowery/Pedro Cor-niel/Khouri Howard; 171 – Mike Young/Jack Argiropoulos; 189 – Andy Wilson/Walter Craigie; 215 – Charles Jumet/Shawn Erwin; HWT – Ross Patchin/John Anderson/Ford Fischer."
 

       In 1997 Collegiate's own Sunny Clemons became the first female EVER to win a VISWA state match... And in 2004 women's wrestling will finally be an Olympics sport.

   For more info:

*InterMat´s women´s amateur wrestling site

*TheMat.com's women's amateur wrestling site

      Charlottesville's  Saint Anne's Belfield (STAB) had a VISWA state champion in 2002, but a STAB alumnus (now in college) posted some concerns in part of this thread about the overall program's longevity (or potential lack thereof).  The situation could have been reminiscent of Trinity Episcopal, which had a 185 pounder (Will Seger) place 4th at the National Preps in 1984, only to drop the program a few years  after that Prep League and VISWA state champion (and at least one subsequent Prep League champion) graduated.  We are very pleased to report that STAB's program will indeed survive, though.   Indeed, they're even adding a middle school program for the first time ever.   We are pleased that STAB is renewing its support of humanity's oldest sport, which doesn't discriminate on the basis of blindness, deafness, amputee status, size or gender (especially as of the 2004 Olympics  in which women will wrestle for the first time).   We are also grateful to anyone involved who may have expressed their support for our sport.    

     As the following Cougar sports website documents, the Cougars' 2003 varsity football team defeated Woodberry's Tigers 14-10, FUMA by a score of 24-14, and Saint Chris. 28-3.   All three  of those opposing teams were strong but 2003 was the Cougar's season, it would seem.   Anyhow, several of Collegiate's football players are also wrestlers...
   
    Meanwhile, here's an interesting discussion thread on St. C.'s impressive line-up for '03-'04 season.    

. 

   The College Sports Council is suing the General Accounting Office for reporting Title IX damage to men's athletics in a very misleading, minimalistic manner.  Here's the article.  For more info on Title IX, feel free to click here. 

Washington Times article: Wrestling has WON with the new Title IX reform...  
         Perhaps this was the victory that wrestling needed, even if our sport's recent Title IX victory is being kept rather quiet for politically pragmatic reasons prior to the 2004 elections?

   
   Meanwhile, here's an interesting CentralRegionWrestling.com discussion forum thread:  is it better to leave a troubled team or to help rebuild it?

Here's a list of wrestling events on t.v.

    Washington Times article:   The 24 hour College Sports Network debuted Feb. 23rd.     We have been told that this new network was actually co-founded by Chris Bevilaqua who was an NCAA All American wrestler at Penn State and former Nike executive who headed their collegiate sports division.  From that website one can contact one's local cable service provider to request that they carry the service.  (Disclosure:  we have absolutely NO affiliation with any of those entities as this Cougar website has always been 100% noncommercial).  

   The U.S. defeated Germany in Washington D.C. @ American University, Saturday April 12th @ 7p.m.   Rulon Gardner, heavyweight star of the '00 Olympics who beat Russia's previously undefeated Karelin, gave an instructional clinic prior to that showdown.   Here are the details  (alternative site) regarding the event, and here's coverage of Rulon's almost literally world-shaking Olympic rasslin' a few years ago (Sports Illustrated article; Washington Post article).


     The 2002 wrestling NCAAs are now history.   Harvard, Penn, Cornell and Princeton all had NCAA Division 1 All-Americans in 2002.  Two of those Ivy League School teams finished in the Division 1 Top 20, in fact.  A Princeton Club participant (Greg Parker, 174 lbs., and an underclassperson) reached the NCAA finals!   Princeton's program was completely dropped in 1993 but the alumni brought it back somehow, despite Title IX: proportionality-related obstacles.   Annapolis Naval Academy also had an All-American, and meanwhile a resident from the state of Georgia became an NCAA All American for UNC: Chapel Hill.     
        We're looking forward to seeing the latest Martin (from Great Bridge High School in Chesapeake, Virginia) wrestle at Illinois next year.    Did you know that Carl Perry, a recent Great Bridge wrestler, went on to take first place at the 2000 NCAA's for Illinois?  By the way, Grundy's Scott Justus (an underclassperson at Virginia Tech) went into the  2002 NCAA tournament seeded #1 with a 29-0 record at 184 lbs.  .
         Incidentally, American University's 149 pounder (Hoffer) just barely missed becoming A.U.'s (apparently) first NCAA All-American wrestler.   That scholarship-awarding Washington D.C. university didn't even have a 141 pounder this year for him to practice with, either.
   

    Collegiate's Steve Sica '01, our 3rd All American wrestler in Collegiate's entire history, was fairly recently a part of Wesleyan's  school record-setting defeat of Johns Hopkins.   Perhaps in the future we will all get to cheer on Seth Lotts '02 on West Point's wrestling team, and Mac Fridell '02 with the increasingly impressive Princeton wrestling club?  It's up to them.    Meanwhile, some Virginia NCWA college club teams recently received coverage in the Richmond Times Dispatch.
 

   U.of R's wrestling club scrimmaged VCU's wrestling club on 2/25/03   Here are the  details regarding Richmond's Title IX Bowl...
      By the way, the University of Central Florida's wrestling club is now offering scholar$hips (article).   Meanwhile, here's information on the potential revival of Liberty Baptist University's wrestling program, over in Lynchburg, Va.

   
    TheNCWA (National Collegiate Wrestling Association, which already has nearly 100 college club teams) held its 2003 national championships in Easton, Pennsylvania.   Here are the details.

     Here is a new discussion thread that lists post-season wrestling club opportunities throughout Central Virginia.   This particular noncommercial Cougar rasslin' site's webmaster had terrific experiences with such clubs while a Cougar, particularly at Douglas Freeman H.S. when they were the defending Central Region team champs during the mid-80's.   Their participants want exposure to new styles and techniques which you can offer them, and such clubs are apparently always open to the public due to their sort of tax-subsidized nature.  Dues charged is minimal, and you may find yourself building friendships with participants from other schools which last well beyond college.  Club participants frequently show up completely unaccompanied by others, like this webmaster used to do after lacrosse practice a couple times per week.  Consider getting started soon, while you're still in shape and can therefore better avoid injuries and keep up more effectively with local competitors who train year 'round.

     Here are the final Richmond Times Dispatch  rankings for 2002-2003.   Nice going Jamie Robertson (125) & Harry Ludeman (215lbs)!   Additionally, Jamie fairly recently got the Times Dispatch's "wrestler of the week"  honors too.     That's a pretty neat quote from Coach Kiefer, isn't it?   
       Meanwhile, do you remember how Seth Lotts was unranked but went on to break loose at the National Preps tournament by becoming the Prep League's ONLY high school All-American last year?  Prior to that, Seth had posted the following at CentralRegionWrestling.com:  "[r]ankings don't make wrestlers; wrestling does."


     This Richmond Times Dispatch article which discusses the sellout crowd for the 2003 AAA states quotes some Richmond-area wrestlers regarding what the Central Region has to do to improve on this weekend's 3 medalists (out of 14 weight classes).   Perhaps they could learn  a little something from the VISWA state tournament, mainly the benefits of rotating the championship venue more often than once every ten years or so?   Is it just a coincidence that the VISWA team title has rather suspensefully gone to a different team 4 of the past 5 seasons?   Here's a discussion thread that someone (not us) anonymously started on the overall subject.

   Three Richmond-area teams (James River, Lee Davis & Petersburg) placed in the Top 20 down at the 2003 Virginia AAA state championships .   Here are the t.v. and webcasting schedule details...  

       In 2002, four local teams (Hermitage , Freeman, Lee Davis & Prince George) placed in the Top 20 at the 2002 AAA State Tournament, which was won by a Great Bridge team that was ranked 3rd in the nation.  Meanwhile, Lee Davis (#7), Hermitage (#9),Godwin (#15), & Clover Hill (#19) all placed in the Top 20 teams at the 2001 AAA States, too.   Prior to that, newcomer Atlee (which was fueled in part by a healthy cross-town rivalry with Lee Davis, although Atlee's coach departed due to unsupportiveness from the administration) placed third overall at the AAA States in 1999.   Atlee also placed seventh at the 1997 AAA state tournament (which was won by a Western Branch team having just 17 wrestlers on its roster at the beginning of the season).   It's not clear that Central Virginia has ever fielded this many high placing team finishes at the AAA States (which have been held in hostile Chesapeake territory every year for around a decade).   James River also has a  wrestling club and apparently a duals tournament, by the way...and it's showing at the 2003 Virginia AAA state championships.

For an impressive list of high school wrestling teams in Virginia,
check out CollegiateWrestling.com's links page.

   WashingtonTimes.com article:  U.S. Dept. of Education Secretary Rod Paige comments on which Title IX reforms are going to be decided upon...  Here's a reaction from at least part of the amateur wrestling community.

   Have you seen the Central Region's championship tournament's results  in the Richmond Times Dispatch yet?  It would seem that the 1,200 member audience for the finals @ Freeman was a standing-room-only, sellout crowd.  That was hardly the case at the rather sparsely attended (but nevertheless impressive) regional finals held at Freeman in 1985, but then again that was before the internet became so conveniently accessible, too...  

  Now that a pro basketball franchise may move to the Richmond area, perhaps it's worth asking ourselves if a RealProWrestling.com franchise would make it?   Here's a somewhat thought-provoking new discussion thread on the subject (from CentralRegionWrestling.com)...

Here are the 2003 Virginia Prep League tournament's team & individual results.  

    Here is the Richmond Times Dispatch's recent coverage of the VISWA State tournament results.     And here are some slightly more elaborateresults of our own.  At least 1 current and one former Cougar won it all, while some other Cougars became state medalists.    Medalists included Reed Blair, who came back from a serious injury to wrestle 6 matches and even defeat a defending VISWA state champ & coach's son.   Medalists also included Al Miller, who avenged a loss to Woodberry the previous weekend and wrestled 7 matches in 2 days during which he even defeated the practice partner of a 2x VISWA state champ from Paul VI.  
    Around a half a dozen Cougars were favored to become state medalists there and if you'd like to see who was favored according to MatTalkOnline.com, please click here.   Meanwhile, our most sincere congratulations go to our loyal cross-town rival St. Christopher's for having won it all and putting Richmond-area prep wrestling on the map in college recruiters' minds (even some club teams award scholarships nowadays), and in the minds of future opponents against whom Richmonders will want to have a mental edge during upcoming showdowns.  

Here's some potentially interesting coverage from the Washington Post of the 2003 St. Alban's Invitational, of which a Virginia wrestler won the entire tournament's MOW award.

    Of all the high school sports nationwide, boys' wrestling presently has the sixth highest total (244,637) of participants (according to the 2002 Participation Survey press release linked from here).  There are a quarter of a million high school wrestlers despite the relatively lower popularity levels of indoor sports in states with warmer weather.  Anyhow, elsewhere we have read that that's a record high quantity for humanity's oldest (and arguably its toughest) sport.   So how is it that college wrestling teams have been axed in droves?  Answer: Title IX-proportionality.   Times could be improving, though.

     Have you submitted performance data regarding anyone on your team yet to  the nonprofit NCWA's WrestlingRankings.net?   It's free to do so, and rankings are calculated and re-calculated automatically & dynamically for college recruiters, the media, and fans (etcetera) to see from anywhere that there's a connection to cyberspace.  The VISWA schools remain highly under-represented there, surprisingly enough.  Would you like to change that?   It only takes a few minutes to do what others associated with your favorite team(s) haven't found the time to do, or haven't yet discovered that they can easily do.   This new (and free) WrestlingRankings.net service is growing rapidly among Virginia's public schools.  Should the VISWA get left behind?

      Have you heard about: RealProWrestling.com?  How about theKurt Angle Classic?
Who said amateur-style wrestling couldn't make money for the participants now in the age of cyberspace?  :-)

We've exchanged banners with that movie's website
(as our site accepts no advertising and does not engage in e-commerce)...

Doesn't that speak rather well for our individualism-oriented sport how Meadowbrook High School forfeits 6 weight classes at each event but nevertheless has such a highly ranked 135 pounder in Seph Sims? (Richmond Times Dispatch article).  

    This site's anonymous volunteer alumni rasslin' webmaster would like to take a moment to praise Benedictine for not dropping our sport (and our way-of-life) the way thatTrinity Episcopal did despite the Titans' having had a 185 pounder (Will Seger) who placed 4th in the National Preps tournament back in 1984, not to mention numerous Prep League champions along the way.   Now the Titan alumni don't have the opportunity that we do to root for the ole' alma mater in humanity's oldest sport, or in football.
               Meanwhile, Massanutten Military Academy seems to deserve considerable praise for reviving its wrestling team this year.   We hope that other independent schools in Virginia will also eventually see fit to revive their former VISWA programs as well, such as Nansemond Suffolk and Eastern Mennonite High School (near JMU).   There are over 30 wrestling teams competing in the VISWA, and here are the 2002 results along with team links.   And as you likely know, a Richmond-area team has won 2 of the past 4 VISWA state team titles.   Not bad, huh?  
      

   The Saints have worked very hard for their VISWA dominance this year, just as the Cougars did in '99 (etcétera).   Remember folks, believe it or not...some members of the opponent's team will quite conceivably be among your better friends in college, at social functions, and in the business world later on.   If you apply yourself enough nowadays, then someday you'll be able to look back upon these times as the "good ole' days" during which you learned valuable character lessons and in a few cases...even stayed out of jail.  :-)  Who will you have more in common with, anyway...fellow wrestlers from the Richmond area, or merely fellow alumni with whom you otherwise had remarkably little in common?   But for the rest of the week let's all wrestle hard and with a vengeance, because it will be good preparation for both of our teams' going into the postseason.

Previously....

       If  Richmond's own St. C. and some team other than Woodberry place in the top 2 teams in this year's Prep League tournament (to be held @ Collegiate for a change), it would mark the first time in how many years that Woodberry has not placed among the Top 2 teams?   Certainly not since well over two decades ago.   So stay tuned...   The combination of VES, FUMA, Collegiate, and  Norfolk Academy could make for a wild chase for the runner-up slot.   You can do the math...  Even teams that don't think they can place in the Top Two still need to "show up" though.  Literally every competitor (even those who probably won't place but who can nevertheless wear out an opponent before his next big match in a sportsmanlike yet crowd-pleasing fashion) can help change the course of Prep League wrestling history.  The race for 2nd will be a barn-burner folks.  If the audience keeps this in mind from the very first round, there will be honor in not giving up lucrative pins against a team nemesis, even if a loss seems inevitable.   Every team point will count at the end of the tournament.  And who knows...plenty of upsets have surprisingly come about when a tired, out-gunned opponent somehow catches his breath while bridging, and rebounds during the remaining minute to achieve results that can potentially inspire him for the rest of his life not to give up as easily as he otherwise would have in the highly competitive professional arena.  The story of the Tortoise and the Hare may be cliché, but there are plenty of examples in which superior opponents have miscalculated or looked too far ahead of their current opponent with whom they and their fans have grown rather unmotivated.

  VES recently defeated Collegiate.   For details from VES's website please click here, and for details from Collegiate's, please click here.   Did you know that VES (whose team was decimated by graduation last year) has just 125 males, total?  Collegiate outnumbers the Bishops  2:1.   Anyhow, for Collegiate's  other recent results, please click here.
       

St. C. wrestled VES in the Collegiate Duals , and then wrestled Godwin, George Wythe and AAA powerhouse Western Branch later that same Saturday.   Some results are available  here.   Talk about preparing rigorously for the National Preps tournament!   Richmond ,Virginia could finally get on the map this year up at Lehigh.  

     Here's a fairly recent Richmond Times Dispatch article which analyzes how young the Saints are, despite their impressive success this season.   Evidently only 2 of their 8 different Times Dispatch-ranked wrestlers are seniors.   Will Woodberry Forest make it back to the top of the Prep League anytime soon, now that cyberspace exists to facilitate unprecedently adequate scrutiny of the Tigers' formerly even more monopolistic ways?


January 21st, 2003:   VES 33; Woodberry 32
      The news is now posted here, too.   That showdown in Lynchburg went down to the Heavyweight match, which VES won by pin before a raucous & packed home crowd (from what we've been told).   VES has just 125 male students, TOTAL, whereas Woodberry has somewhere near that many per grade level.   It was the first time in 13 years that VES prevailed, although last year the two teams split 7 matches each.  

Do you recall how Woodberry trounced Collegiate last season, but nevertheless went on to place behind Collegiate at the season-concluding National Preps tournament, days after  narrowly squeaking by Collegiate in the Prep League and State tournaments (both held @ Woodberry)?  


Do you recall how badly U.Va. lost to V.M.I.  in a dual meet @ Collegiate earlier this season?   U.Va. just competed in the state intercollegiate tournament held in Lexington and guess 'Hoo took 1st place?   Results.   Incidentally, did you notice how Paul VI's  Joey Carpenter (Oakton, Va.) is already starting for the Wahoos?   Joey placed 4th at the 2002 VISWA state tournament.   Incidentally, do you know how many high school state tournament titles the 1996 U.S. Olympics flagbearer Bruce Baumgartner (a 2x Olympic champ and 3x Olympic medalist) won?  Answer: zero. 

Remember Woodberry's former 215 pounder John Kane?   Now he starts for New Jersey's Blair Academy, a co-educational boarding school of merely 208 male students.   John played a significant role in Blair's recent defeat of Chesapeake's perennial AAA powerhouse Great Bridge (which nevertheless overpowered all other Final Four participants).  Things still haven't worked out as well for Norfolk Academy's former National Prep runner-up Zach Weisberg up at Blair, though, as this article discusses.
 

Here are the results of the recent showdown between St. C. & Woodberry Forest (both of which recently wrestled FUMA).   

Can you believe this recent upset of the #2 ranked team at the VISWA state level?
Incidentally, Collegiate narrowly defeated Norfolk Academy and here are the results...  

Here are the individual results of the recent St. C. vs. FUMA match (Times Dispatch coverage).

MatTalkOnline.com has compiled some VISWA rankings.  
They're available here.

Here's an interesting discussion thread on the recent showdown between Clover Hill and St. Christopher's.   (Editor's note:  this unofficial team website's webmaster respects how his latest pundit there actually had the integrity to identify himself while commenting candidly and reasonably sensibly, a skill that can serve him well during his professional life years from now.)  

Here's the Times Dispatch's  coverage of Collegiate's matches versus Chancellor & Woodberry

Now that the Matoaca Duals (which Harry, John and Jamie won) are behind the Cougars,
here's the rest of their schedule.   Good luck Cougars!

U.Va. wrestled V.M.I. @ Collegiate High School on Wednesday, January 8th, at 7p.m.
  Numerous native Virginians participated in front of that standing-room-only crowd. 
Here's the official website:  http://www.wrestling-rumble.com.
Here are numerous clickable thumbnail photos from that showdown, courtesy of Chris Sica '97.
To discuss the event or its potential significance for (among other things)
U. of R.'s and VCU's re-emerging wrestling programs, click here.

Meanwhile, President Bush has recently appointed Cornell wrestling star Steve Friedman to serve as his top economics advisor.  Details...    For a list of some of the more prestigious colleges which have maintained NCAA wrestling programs despite the proportionality interpretation of Title IX, please click here.

Woodberry Forest  fairly recently competed in the Harrisonburg Holiday Invitational.   Here are the results.   

Did you know that in Reed Blair's first match of the season this year [@ the Manassas Park Invitational], he won 2-0 against a King George opponent (Matt Armstrong) who was ranked #6 in the state at the Group "AA" level at 125 lbs.?   Welcome back!  


Some Cougars recently placed at the Manassas Park Invitational.   Among them: Alan Miller (2nd, 189 lbs.); Harry Ludeman (1st, 215 lbs.); Jamie Robertson (1st, 215 lbs.) and John Clore (2nd, 119 lbs.).   For more details, including info. on how the Cougars placed in the top half of teams, please consult here (complete with pictures).   Their accomplishments demonstrate considerable progress over last year's performances, wouldn't you agree?  Incidentally, the Cougars won the entire tournament back in Dec. of 2000.   Meanwhile, here are the same 2002 results posted at MatTalkOnline.com.

St. C. impressively placed 2nd in the recent Lee Davis Invitational (Dec. 20th & 21st, 2002), behind perennial powerhouse tournament host Lee Davis and ahead of around twenty other teams from the East Coast.   6  Saints  placed in the top three!   Here are the results:

 http://www.cevaultimate.com/LD%20Classic%2002.htm

   
The Richmond Times Dispatch gave some Cougar wrestlers some significant coverage towards the end of this new article...

 
          How did Great Bridge become so dominant?  Here's an interesting pair of multimedia articles (I  & II) about how the impressive Granby wrestling tradition began in SouthEastern Virginia and became what it is today.  The article doesn't mention that when Great Bridge lost the  1997 AAA state tournament though, it was to a Western Branch team that inspirationally had a roster of merely 17 wrestlers.  
           By the way, Coach Kiefer was a champion at Granby.   Meanwhile, St. C merely lost by 6 in a 2003 dual meet  against a Western Branch team which had two defending AAA state champs.    Nice going, Richmonders!
 
       Here's an interesting WashingtonPost.com article on the Grundy wrestling tradition and its current uphill battle to try and regain state prominence despite a declining enrollment and a growing enthusiasm among rival teams across the state such as Poquoson (which won it all a few years ago) and Christiansburg (which won it all perhaps for the first time last season).  


   Please check out the latest Richmond Times Dispatch individual rankings here.   Congratulations to all Cougar wrestlers who have already demonstrated through their matches that they can hang with some of the best that the Richmond area has to offer.   It's easy to become complacent, however.   As the Prep League's only National Prep All-American wrestler in '02 (Seth Lotts) published last Winter before tournament season rolled around though..."[r]ankings don't make wrestlers.   Wrestling does."  Fortunately, Cougars will have some other opportunities this season to prove themselves against Richmond area schools.  Like protracted litigation or the graduate school admissions quest, this is an endurance test!
   
     
  While helping to show the rest of the state that Richmond's prep. school wrestlers typically aren't to be messed with nowadays, St. Christopher's recently won the Lafayette / ReMax tournament in Williamsburg, Va.  Here are the impressive results.   Did you notice how St. C.'s heavyweight Jeb Pinkerton managed to prevail despite the violent tactics of an eventually disqualified fellow-finalist from Chancellor?  For more on what Jeb had to tolerate for a while during that finals match, please click here.   In a similar situation on the gridiron of the so called "real world", could YOU keep YOUR cool like Jeb somehow managed to, en route to victory?   Incidentally, the Chancellor heavyweight has posted his side of the story in some sub-threads there (along with his e-mail address).  
        By the way, St. C.  scored nearly twice as many team points @ Lafayette as Mathews H.S.   Mathews is ranked near the very top of the Group "A" rankings at the Single A Wrestling Zone.   When Brentsville H.S. reportedly goes "AA" next season, Mathews could be #1 in the state at the Group "A" level.  

    Here are the results (with photos) of the 2002 Clover Hill Invitational (and here are last season's results, too).   It's interesting to see how impressive some of the individual Cougars' competitors were.   Feel free to consult the Richmond Times Dispatch's Central Virginia rankings which slightly pre-dated that tournament...   In summary, 215 pounder Harry Ludeman ('04) took Dinwiddie's Reggie Price, ranked 3rd in all of Central Virginia, into overtime!   Meanwhile, John Clore ('04) took 1st place even though Thomas Dale has a 119 pounder who was ranked 5th...   Additionally, Jamie Robertson ('04) took 1st place even though Clover Hill has a 125 pounder (Casey Smith) who was (and remains) ranked #1 in all of Central Virginia.   Finally, 2nd year wrestler Marshall Waller ('04), a tournament finalist and a football standout, placed ahead of all competitors from the Richmond area.  

To weigh in on whether or not any should be ranked in the Times Dispatch, please visit here. 

      Anyhow, the Richmond Times Dispatch previously mentioned and briefly discussed that tourney (as well as the Cougars' participation) about 2/3's of the way down here.   Meanwhile, Mat Talk Online covers it in its tournaments section.  

Here are the Director's Cup standings after the Fall '02 season:  

1. St. Christopher's 26.5
2. Collegiate 24.5
3. Woodberry Forest 24

    Here's Woodberry's latest line-up, available from its official sports website.    To see how returning starters placed at the Prep League and VISWA states, please click here.   Incidentally, St. Alban's defeated Woodberry Forest last season but recently lost to the Tigers in Washington D.C. as this scoreboard also indicates.   To quote one Prep League coach "[t]eamwise, it will be a dogfight among several teams for 2nd place in the Prep League tournament this season" (which will be held @ Collegiate for a change).  
       By the way, in wrestling-mecca Pennsylvania, there's so much suspenseful parity between competing teams and individuals that it's difficult to predict which ones will come out ahead.  Isn't that largely why Pennsylvania wrestling attracts such a healthy share of fans, parental support, participants, media interest, college recruiters, and respect from college admissions officers and school administrations?

Would you like to see the latest line-ups and scores for St. Anne's Belfield (which has a defending champ from the 2002 VISWA state tournament), Blue Ridge (now coached by the former head coach from St. C.) and FUMA?  If so, please click  here.  

Have you seen the latest Times Dispatch  coverage of St. C's triumphs against other schools all over Virginia?  Meanwhile, here's MTO's related coverage.

Fork Union Military Academy appears to be emerging as an increasingly serious threat this season.  
For information on that football powerhouse's latest wrestling tournament performances, please click here.

       Meanwhile, for the 2002 Prep League, VISWA States and National Prep tournament results,
please click here.   By the way, it seems worth remembering that Western Branch H.S. won the entire '97 AAA state tournament with merely two state champs that season, and an initial team roster of merely 17 wrestlers.  Did you know that plenty of teams which have won a state tournament nevertheless had losing dual meet records that same season?

There's an analysis within MatTalkOnline.com's discussion forum regarding why the Cougar varsity program recently forfeited 3 of 14 weight classes to Norfolk Academy.   Please feel free to post your feedback.   Meanwhile, here's some of the latest news regarding the status of Title IX: proportionality.

Collegiate narrowly defeated Norfolk Academy, and here are the results...  
The Richmond Times Dispatch also maintains a temporary copy here... 
Can we place ahead of the Bulldogs at the Prep League tournament, which Collegiate will host this year?

For the latest information about Collegiate's team & individual performances this season, as well as its schedules, please click here or here.

Impressively enough, and serving as a potential source of inspiration to all Prep School wrestlers in Virginia, our loyal cross-town rival St. C. is ranked #2 in all of Central Virginia behind perennial powerhouse Lee Davis (according to the Times Dispatch's Central Va. rankings, available here).    Saint Christophers's schedule and results can be found at http://www.highschoolsports.net, along with those of numerous other Virginia schools.   It is our understanding that St. C. is even wrestling Western Branch this season.   W.B. won the entire '97 AAA state tournament (with merely two state champs that year, and an initial team roster of merely 17 wrestlers).   Incidentally, W.B. will be returning two AAA state champs from the '02 state tourney.  
         Anyhow, the National Preps should consequently seem less potentially intimidating to the Saints than they did last year, don't you think?   Time will tell...   At the 2002 National Preps, though, Collegiate was the only Prep League team to produce an All-American.  
        Do you by any chance doubt that healthy rivalries can be great for all programs involved?   If so then please ask yourself how good Lee Davis was before the fairly recent emergence of Atlee High School (which placed 3rd at the AAA states in 1999)?   Whenever there's parity among teams, there's usually greater suspense and therefore greater support from the fans, parents, athletes, school administration, and media (etcetera).   Are the most enjoyable Super Bowls not also the closest ones?   It's even more exhilarating, though, to get to actually participate in such a title-chase that's ideally characterized by school spirit, sportsmanship, and at least some suspense.   Years later, ironically enough, Saints and Cougars occasionally look back together upon such times as being the good ole' days...at least as long as the competitions were close enough to be reasonably suspenseful, and participants behaved fairly.  Believe it or not, the Saints rasslers will likely be among the Cougar rasslers' better friends in college and beyond, and vice versa.  In fact, that's how it turned out for this website's webmaster.  
       But in the mean time, let the games begin!   Go Cougars!   Stomp the Saints!   Why not give it a shot and learn all you can in the process?   Who really wants to have opponents who give up and quit caring in a feeble attempt to avoid seeming to others like they gave it their best shot?  The Lehigh Nationals-bound Saints don't want opponents who do that, and we wouldn't want other teams to waste our time like that either.   After all, we all have realistic aspirations of becoming better than we'd otherwise be, and we don't even have to travel as far as some schools do just to get challenging competition.   This season can, at the very least, be great preparation for our young team for next season, as well as for competitors from other conferences during this one.   And then, of course, there are the character lessons to be derived which can serve one in one's future entrepreneurial and other endeavors much later in life...  In conclusion, you can get out of it what you put into it.  Who could ask for better high school coaches than the ones at both St. C. and Collegiate?  

The Cubs, Saints, Bishops and numerous other teams recently participated in a youth tournament and here are the individual results.   Numerous Cubs placed! 

Which wrestlers will make the "all Metro" team this year?  Here are the Richmond Times Dispatch's final individual rankings for '01-'02 (originally posted here) covering all of Central Virginia.

Our cross-town rival Benedictine Military Academy (which recently placed 2nd in the state tournament in varsity football) has a full line-up which has gotten off to a winning start.   Here's the result of its recent dual meet vs. Covenant, in the Charlottesville area.   Such results can be automatically posted for free at MatTalkOnline.com, by the way.  

CentralRegionWrestling.com is back, and under new management...

Has college wrestling finally returned to Central Virginia despite Title IX: proportionality?  
Check this out...

Minnesota vs. Iowa dual meet coverage: free video downloads of each match.   Well over 12,000 fans paid as much as $40 per ticket to get to see from a St. Paul auditorium seat what you can see at your leisure for free!  If the videos don't work for your computer, here are photos and here's textual coverage (spoilers included).

The NCAA Division 1 Top 30 team rankings, and the top 20 individual ones (for each weight class) are available here.   At least one of Coach Kiefer's former high school wrestlers, an underclassperson up at Princeton [a school which had an NCAA finalist last March], is now ranked.  

Meanwhile, here is a  link to numerous sources of recent research regarding sports training during adolescence, intentional fat loss, and related topics.  

For an increasingly complete list of former Cougar rasslin' accomplishments, please visit here.  

Stephen Neal, who never played college football but who was an All-American intercollegiate wrestler for Cal. State Bakersfield, has been starting at Left Guard for the New England Patriots.   An injury has recently sidelined him, but he'll be back.  

For a recently updated list of offseason "Open Mat" practices in Central Virginia,
please visit CollegiateWrestling.com

Which Va. Prep League high school will excel the most in this year's
Director's Cup race?  (alternative website)

      How will the different teams do in the Prep League this season?   Here's a  thread  on the subject (courtesy of CentralRegionWrestling.com).

If you somehow think that NCWA college club teams don't have much potential, then the story  here of UNC's progress these past 30 years under soon-to-retire Coach Lam is likely to surprise you.  In 1973 the Tarheel wrestling team had practically no facilities, only a couple of even remotely serious wrestlers, essentially no budget, maybe a dozen fans (including parents and girlfriends), and a new coach who was merely a retired high school coach that had gone on to spend two years working on unrelated tasks for Procter & Gamble.   Under that same coach just 2 decades later, though, UNC hosted the best attended NCAA Championships in college rasslin' history, already had numerous All-Americans (including some from Virginia), and has still somehow managed to defeat U.Va. every year since 1975 in dual meet (albeit not tournament) showdowns.  
        Reassuringly enough, there are more participants at the U.S. high school wrestling level than ever before in history.  Doesn't this story & scenario sound kind of analogous to what potentially visionary entrepreneurs must go through en route to hopefully making their millions in otherwise unrelated fields even as their competitors sneer, and their (potentially jealous) doubters cynically roll their eyes?

We deeply regret to announce that Collegiate's Joe Lawson (a 2002 VISWA state wrestling champion) recently hurt his back in an accident.  His wrestling career will most likely not continue.    Attrition is also affecting our rival Woodberry Forest, whose 215 pounder John Kane will (reportedly) attend Blair Academy in New Jersey.  If  Richmond's own St. C. and Collegiate place in the top 2 teams in the Prep League this year, it will mark the first time in at least 2 decades that Woodberry has not placed among the Top 2 teams at that tournament.   Prep League fans have some comparatively very exciting showdowns to look forward to for at least the next two seasons.   Any predictions?   Without a doubt, Coach Glover's Tigers will try to come roaring back.   Perhaps the Cougars and Saints have the right stuff, though?   Stay tuned, folks!

Will we have more All-Americans this year at the National Preps , which will be held at Lehigh U. in Bethlehem, PA?

  Collegiate has a varsity wrestling coaching staff opening, and is also seeking an athletic trainer.

    Attacks (and even kidnapping attempts) against foreigners in otherwise lucrative emerging markets overseas is on the rise, as this article documents.   Even in the USA, the latest abductions suggest that more people should learn self-defense  amidst declining law enforcement budgets resulting from our record high $6 trillion dollar national debt (CNN article).  

    Even AFTER Clemson University cut its rather impressive men's wrestling team to better comply with Title IX, some challenges remain (article).   On a different note, we are very pleased to see that another U.S. university has just converted its women's wrestling club into a varsity team (article).   Developments like these can lead to increased fan and political support for our sport (as well as potentially fewer Title IX problems).              Anyhow, aren't you looking forward to seeing the women throw down and break bad in the 2004 Olympics over in Athens?  Are we supporting our women wrestlers enough to boost our country's overall medal count, though?   Sometimes even mere words of encouragement are all that it takes to make a huge difference, as amateur wrestlers know all too well.  
       By the way, a female wrestler from which pioneering Virginia high school became the first female, statewide, ever to win a match in the VISWA state tournament?   Answer: Collegiate's  Sunny Clemons '97.   Way to go Cougars!

 To learn of amateur wrestling events on ESPN, visit here.  
To view amateur wrestling events online and at any time, please click here.

From the 2001-2002 season:

       How did Hermitage become such a relatively dominant team?   The Times Dispatch recently  discussed this.   Aside from having a support base for post-season learning, practicing, & offseason tournament awards pursuits, they wrestle a relatively ambitious regular season schedule.  To quote the Times Dispatch: "Hermitage had been ranked seventh in Group AAA on an Internet site but dropped out this week. The Panthers have lost to Hayfield, fifth-ranked Kempsville, sixth-ranked Kellam and eighth-ranked Stonewall Jackson. They have beaten seventh-ranked Lee-Davis [in front of a packed, standing room-only and at times hostile Mechanicsville audience] as well as Hickory and Franklin County, two teams that were in the top 10.   [Their schedule also includes #1 Great Bridge].    "Some people thought we were nuts [because of the scheduling]," said Coach Guempel, whose team posted an 84-0 score against L.C. Bird last week. "But we're 19-7, and we've lost some close ones. "Three years ago, we were 20-2, and we didn't wrestle hardly anybody. We got down to the state tournament, and we were in awe. . . . It was like walking into the Super Bowl and being new to the stadium. I said that was the last time that happens."

Wake-up call: Many Woodberry  starters will be back next year.   Those returning for the Tigers include their lone Prep League champ from 2002, Conner Gentil (who was reportedly recruited from Collegiate, and who won the 2002 VISWA state championship for Woodberry, @ Woodberry, at 171).  
       Meanwhile, according to the end of this recent Richmond Times Dispatch article, 2002 Prep League & VISWA State tournament team champs St. Christopher's started "seven freshmen or sophomores" this year, and "several" had just two years' experience.   Here was St. Christopher's line-up for the 2002 National Preps:

Here are the results of the most recent St. Christopher's vs. Collegiate dual meet  (along with many pictures and many archives from previous years).    The Times Dispatch coverage is  here.   That standing-room-only event event packed Collegiate's Jacobs Gym (where hoops games are held), despite the fact that only two-at-a-time compete in amateur wrestling dual meets.  
       2 years ago, Collegiate's gym was also PACKED for the annual dual meet showdown against the Saints.  Thanks in part to so many audible Cougar fans whose athletic endeavors had received our own vocal support when it was our turn to be supportive, we managed to barely win in what was later officially deemed Collegiate's most exciting sporting event of the year.   Aren't healthy local rivalries great for our sport, like the one that simultaneously made Lee Davis and newcomer Atlee High School  (the #3 team at the AAA States in 1999) MUCH stronger against their other competitors, while boosting amateur wrestling's community-wide popularity considerably?   (Sadly enough, Atlee's coach departed soon thereafter due to a lack of supportiveness from the subsequently ousted, athletics-detesting principal).  
       Collegiate had a young team this year, starting 8 sophomores and 2 eighth graders at the 2002 Prep League varsity tournament (while forfeiting one of the remaining 4 weight classes).   Collegiate has some promising prospects emerging from its Cubs middle school program too, as these 2002 state AAU tournament  results suggest.  

     Did you know that Harvard University has produced 7 NCAA wrestling All-Americans during the past 5 years, alone?   Here's the article. 

       U.Va. recently hired a new assistant coach, an NCAA All-American wrestling standout at 174 lbs. from Cornell University.   According to an InterMat article,  "[i]n high school (St. Louis Country Day School), Stanec placed third in the Missouri state wrestling meet and was an Academic All-State selection as a wrestler, as well as an All-State selection in football."  

For information regarding at least some of the latest offseason wrestling tournaments and clinics in the area,  please consult VirginiaWrestling.com, CentralRegionWrestling.com and MatTalkOnline.com.  

St. Christopher's will have some wrestling camps this summer.

        According to Collegiate's trophycase, until May of 2002 the Cougar wrestling team was tied for the lead at Collegiate in terms of the quantity of state team titles won.    1) Boys' lacrosse, 2) girls' cross country,  3) girls' track & field, and 4) boys' wrestling all shared the lead.   Each had won three state team titles over the years.   However,  led by Coach Stanley (one of our own wrestling coaches) and also by some of the Mat Cats themselves (including Reed Blair, Marshall Waller and Al Miller) Collegiate's boys' lacrosse team recently concluded an at times tumultuous season by peaking at the right time and impressively adding a fourth state team title to Collegiate'strophycase.    We're happy for those competitive folks, and for all other winners at Collegiate too.    Many folks wonder, though, if the Mat Cats have the right stuff for getting Collegiate's leading Olympic sport back into overall contention, and also for improving upon the quantity of Prep League team titles won for Collegiate.   Or will Collegiate surrender its wrestling niche to St. Christopher's, and let the momentum-gathering Saints build a dynasty while Woodberry Forest strives to revive its own perennial powerhouse tradition?   We'll find out soon enough...


   Wrestlers, have you seen the following  announcement about the apparently very impressively staffed Panther Mat Club @ Brookland Middle School?   It (and subsequent programs like it) are probably worth checking out if you genuinely want to improve your rankings next year.   Thanks to CentralRegionWrestling.com for the advisory.

    Our friends at CollegiateWrestling.com are frequently updating their helpful list of local offseason tournaments, while MatTalkOnline.com maintains a helpful region-wide offseason tournaments list.  

   There are tuition-free summer camps for state champs, and Dan Gable will attend!   This is not a paid announcement, but it is a volunteer endorsement of the camp director and lead coach, Royce Alger (who was this webmaster's helpful group counselor at Iowa University's 22 day wrestling camp back in 1985).   Details... 
 

    Congratulations to Seth Lotts, Collegiate's 275 pounder, who recently made the MatTalkOnline.com's 2001-2002 All State Team!

      A Virginia high school graduate (from Brooke Point High School, in Stafford) who never won the Virginia state tournament recently won an ACC championship for U.Va. at 157 lbs. as a sophomore.  Here are the results (with pictures).

Here are the 2002 AAA State tournament results (now with some photo-coverage).

A &  AA state tournament results are now online.   Grundy was favored to win it all again this year, but it went down to the wire...  Did you know that Christiansburg's team hardly got any respect at all half a decade ago?   That's when Grundy's ex-coach began his struggle to build up Christiansburg's program (after having just moved to his wife's hometown).   It's unlikely that Christiansburg ever had anything resembling Grundy's financial resources, let alone a winning tradition in rasslin'.   How did they improve so much, then? 

Collegiate's Seth Lotts and St. C's Brian McGurk just got some interesting post-season coverage 
from the Times Dispatch for their endeavors at the National Preps.   Nice going, Richmonders!

     Is Olympic figure skating the only sport plagued with  corrupt officiating practices, and manipulative pressures regarding referees?  What, if anything, could we do to improve the perhaps less-than-ideal perception of officiating in our own beloved sport?   For example, is it wise to keep hosting season-concluding tournaments at virtually the same traditional locations, without that much variation over the years?  Don't such "generous" host schools conveniently get to directly sign the referees' paychecks?   They do in the Prep League, at least.   Meanwhile, don't such hosting schools operate the scoreboards, too?   Don't they also get to play a substantial role in determining which competing referee associations get to send along referees (in exchange for a "booking commission"  or "bookie fee" that goes to such associations' latest leaders)?   Have you ever seen a bizarre officiating call that could be the result of subconsciously-perceived pressures, which by their definition aren't even consciously noticed by the compromised referees?   Isn't it also remarkable how those teammates who passively acquiesce the most at such tournaments are conveniently extolled and rewarded with a "best sportsmanship" commendation?   

Meanwhile, here's a relatively recent article about perennial champ Mac Friddell '02  from Collegiate News .

Do you know many high school state championships multiple Olympic  wrestling champion Bruce Baumgartner (the U.S. flag bearer in Atlanta in '96) won?   Answer: apparently 0.

      Fortunately, folks can now watch an increasing quantity of amateur wrestling matches live (or archived) online.   Meanwhile, anyone who managed to acquire a ticket to THIS  dual meet must have been the envy of many.  To watch that potentially very educational showdown online, please click here.  (Editor's note:  our website is completely noncommercial, although occasionally we maintain links [always for free] to commercial sites if they're offering compelling content).  

    Anyhow, did you know that Minnesota won the NCAA's in 2001 without having a single tournament finalist?  That's apparently an NCAA record.   Anyhow, they were recently invited to visit the White House.   Nice team photo with President Bush, huh?  With a war going on, not too many folks get to visit with President Bush.

      As of January 29th, the 2002 Prep League & VISWA State tournament team champs St. Christopher's were ranked 3rd in all of Central Virginia by the Richmond Times Dispatch.  Much of their team is returning next year (as is most of ours).  Woodberry Forest (a perennial powerhouse which defeated AAA #18 team Freeman by 30 this year) is returning many starters, as well.  Specific roster information's below...

      Congratulations go to Cougar heavyweight Seth Lotts, Collegiate's 4th All American, ever, in wrestling!  Seth placed 6th at the 2002 National Preps, and became the only wrestler from the entire Va. Prep League to place this year.   Here's the coverage from the Times Dispatch.
         Meanwhile, fellow VISWA schools Bishop O'Connell,  St. Stephens / St. Agnes, & Paul VI also had some representatives on the final list of All Americans this year.   Washington D.C. & Southern Maryland area private schools did comparatively well, too.   For more information, check out Lehigh U.'s official National Preps page, or our friends' National Preps coverage.   

Meanwhile, did you know that in just 2 years' time, Coach K has already coached half of Collegiate's All American wrestlers?  Nice going!

The Richmond Times Dispatch recently discussed Collegiate's National Preps journey.

          Folks, has Coach Kiefer (an Olympic alternate) ever coached at a school where he hasn't produced several different All Americans in a relatively brief period of time?   Did you know that Coach K. coached the Oustanding Wrestler award winner of the entire National Preps tournament in 1999?
      Coach Kiefer helped put Georgia wrestling on the national map while down at Westminster (in Atlanta), and he did the same for North Carolina wrestling while he was at Charlotte Latin.  Both schools (and states) can now eternally boast about having had National Prep Tournament All Americans in wrestling.   Westminster even had some Top Five team finishes there, and also won numerous Ga. state tournaments in which public schools also competed.

    Blair Academy, a perennial powerhouse at the National Preps, demonstrated earlier this season that it's #1 in the nation on both the private and public school level with a recent national tournament victory.   Blair has impressively made quite a name for Prep School wrestling, nationwide.      

      Did you know that plenty of VISWA NONchamps have nevertheless gone on to become All-Americans up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania weeks later?  Just to give one of many examples, feel free to ask Coach Kiefer about one of his former wrestlers John Darden (Norfolk Academy '85) who did not win the VISWA even during his senior year despite being in fine health, only to break his hand early on at the National Prep tournament days later.   Darden nevertheless persevered and placed 3rd (and the Top 8 become All Americans for life).

        To access the Virginia AAA & AA state finals webcast online (for free), check out
MatTalkOnline.com.  Meanwhile, here are the individual and team scores from that site.   Additionally, here's coverage of that 4,000+ standing-room-only event at Oscar Smith High School by the Richmond Times Dispatch.   Once again, 4 Central Virginia teams placed in the Top Twenty (out of at least 60 that had qualifiers), including Freeman (which lost to Woodberry by 30 in January of 2002).  Meanwhile, Lee Davis just had Central Virginia's fifth, ever, 2x AAA state champ.

Here are videos of some of the 2001 AAA State Championship finals bouts.

        Here are the 2002 Virginia Independent Schools State Tournament results (with pictures).   St. Christopher's, the Cougars and Benedictine all had folks in the finals.  Nice job, Richmond!   Meanwhile, Collegiate won the 6th Place team trophy, in part thanks to championships won by Joe Lawson (against a Woodberry opponent @ Woodberry) and Seth Lotts (against the highly skilled heavyweight from team champion St. C.).   With just one more medalist, we would have placed third (ahead of Woodberry, @ Woodberry).   Additional Cougars who won state medals for us were:  Harry Ludeman (215 lbs, 6th) Jamie Robertson (119, 6th); Mac Fridell (140, 3rd) and Reed Blair (130, 3rd).   Only the finalists are mentioned in this Richmond Times Dispatch article, but here are more complete results.

       State medalists Joe, Harry, Jamie, and Reed are all sophomores.   So are additional Prep League medalists Marshall Waller (189, 3rd, and a serious candidate for being All Prep as both a wrestler, and as an increasingly agile and aggressive middle linebacker), John Clore (112, 3rd) and Joe Wolfe (160, 4th).  

     Here are the St. Christopher's vs. Woodberry Forest, EHS, & Paul VI results.    

       What's next for the Cougars?   It depends on us.   Offseason tournaments, clinics, and training can make a significant difference.   Such activities also conveniently help keep one's priorities healthy and in line with what college admissions officials like to see.  Such officials get paid to try and determine who would take life at their college or university the most seriously, while also being able to rebound from inevitable setbacks as career-oriented students necessarily take all sorts of academic and extracurricular risks.   Isn't it true that colleges and universities are evaluated according to the performance of those they admit?   Indeed, if college officials don't do a good enough job with recruiting, retention, and graduate school preparation, then alumni contributions decline (having a direct impact on national academic rankings like those of U.S. News & World Report) and such officials start getting fired (or at least denied salary increases).   Plenty of good students cave in under pressure or slip amidst distractions in college, but those perhaps herd mentality-burdened students probably didn't excel at humanity's oldest and possibly most challenging individual accountability-oriented sport, either.   

     Interestingly enough, Collegiate took 3rd in the Prep League AND States in 2001, but nevertheless placed ahead of all other Virginia Prep League wrestling teams at the 2001 National Preps  held @ Lehigh University.  Congrats go to Steve Sica '01, who became Collegiate's 3rd All-American wrestler in school history!   Meanwhile, here are the results for the year 2000.   Here's the official National Preps page.


     Here are the official results from the Group AAA Central Regional tournament.  The regular season team champion did NOT win the post-season tournament, and the most anticipated individual match resulted in a reversal of the regular season result, too (at 152 lbs.).  

     There are all sorts of post-season wrestling tournaments listed here
(including some local ones at Godwin & Henrico).   Some say that the idea behind post-season tournaments is NOT necessarily to win but to 1) remain accustomed to competing (to maintain one's "poise under pressure"); 2) gain valuable new experiences; and even 3) experiment in ways that you cannot during the regular season.   It's best to ask Coach Kiefer for his expert advice, though.   

    The Richmond Times Dispatch gives the Cougars and also our cross-town rivals
some interesting coverage at the end of this  new article.

     As of January 29th, 2002, the Saints were ranked 3rd in all of central Virginia (behind merely Lee Davis & Hermitage), with two dual meet losses.  Meanwhile, the latest Richmond Times Dispatch area  rankings show that Collegiate, Benedictine and the Saints all finally managed to get at least one of their wrestlers ranked in the top 4 at their respective weight classes in ALL of Central Virginia.   Nice going!  
      Some in Central Virginia have taken issue with the recent inclusion of more Prep School wrestlers though, saying that it's unjustified.  An interesting online discussion is taking place here (among other places within CentralRegionWrestling.com).   Feel free to "weigh in".  
      Regardless, rankings are for revising, right?  Hopefully all will go reasonably well at the upcoming States and National Preps.  By the way, Blair Academy, a perennial powerhouse at the National Preps, demonstrated earlier this season that it's #1 in the nation on both the private and public school level with a recent national tournament victory.

        Here's Woodberry's new wrestling team website.   As a Times Dispatch report states, in early 2002 the Tigers soundly defeated Douglas Freeman, a Central Regional AAA team (which was very impressively #1 in Central Virginia at least during  part the 1980's).   The score was 51-21.  Woodberry also defeated Freeman during the Running Rebels' much more glorious 1980's era, too (although not as impressively).  
         Anyhow, several Woodberry starters will be back next year, including their lone Prep League champ from this year, Conner Gentil (who was reportedly recruited from Collegiate).  Fortunately Collegiate's Mat Cats  don't have to travel nearly as far to get to train with, compete against, exchange ideas with, or sociably share war stories with some of Central Virginia's finest public school talent.   In our own back yard, impressive work ethics and innovativeness are practically mandatory, especially at the fiercely competitive AAA level.  
        The last time Woodberry lost the Prep League tournament in wrestling (to Collegiate in 1999), the Tigers stormed back with a vengeance the following year and set some team records.   Unintimidated, though, the Cougars went up to Woodberry the following December (of 2000) and narrowly defeated the defending Prep League and VISWA State champions by six points before a stunned Tiger crowd.   The Tigers returned the favor at Collegiate the following year, however, and also very narrowly defeated us in both the 2001 & 2002 Prep League tournament conveniently held in Orange, VA.    Just one more Cougar placewinner  from our 13 member squadron (which started  9 sophomores & two 8th graders, and forfeited the 125 lbs. weight class) would have apparently given us the runner-up team trophy immediately behind our loyal opponents at St. C.

       To learn more about the Tigers  during recent years, feel free to consult the following links:

     The discussion forum at Central Virginia's own CentralRegionWrestling.com has become increasingly popular and informative.   The overall website already lists several nearby post-season tournaments and mentions a growing quantity of club programs in our area, too.   During the late 1980's, Freeman had a great offseason club, and Hermitage's was impressive as well.  Friendships made through such clubs can last well beyond college days, too.

     Prep League Tournament (2002) RECAP:  4 Cougars won the Prep League wrestling tournament held at Woodberry on Feb. 9th, 2002.  Joe Lawson, Seth Lotts, Jamie Robertson and Mac Fridell won conference gold for us.   Reed Blair also reached the finals before dropping a challenging match to a defending state champion originally from the wrestling hotbed of Virginia Beach.   Very well done, folks!
      Meanwhile, thanks to some impressive performances by additional medal winners including Marshall Waller,  Harry Ludeman, Zach Jesse, John Clore, & Joey Wolf (and also some up-and-coming participants discussed in great detail at http://www.CollegiateWrestling.com, such as Alan Miller & Thomas Price), Collegiate placed 3rd as a team.   Having just one more medalist (17 points) would have apparently secured the advancement points necessary for surmounting the Tigers on their home turf, too.   That's not too shabby for a team that started 9 sophomores & two 8th graders (out of 14 weight classes), is it?    
      Hopefully few would deny that Collegiate's impressive performance contributed at least somewhat to the historic establishing of a healthy parity in the Prep League wrestling conference recently.    After all, our loyal opposition & cross-town rivals (& fellow wrestling enthusiasts) from St. C.  managed to win the Prep League tournament!    No team but Woodberry has won a Prep League  tournament held @ Woodberry in decades.   Indeed, for the past couple of decades, Woodberry had only dropped one single Prep League tournament championship  anywhere (to us in 1999).    Way to go Saints & Cougars!  
      We also congratulate all the other athletes from throughout the Prep League who did their part to help re-establish the suspense-related excitement that our wrestling conference has particularly needed since one of our member schools (Trinity Episcopal) surprisingly dropped its wrestling & football programs not long ago.   Can the Saints' impressive accomplishment do anything but help all wrestling teams in the Prep League become stronger, while the competition finally becomes increasingly suspenseful and enjoyable for all?   Tournament runner-up Woodberry will benefit from this, too, as winning's more fun when one knows how it feels to lose now and then.   Besides which, victories are also more respected when they're considered difficult to achieve, too.    Meanwhile, don't rivalries make teams stronger, while also elevating the reputation of the relevant sport?  
        Here are the results of the 2002 Prep League tournament.

* * *

        Here are the results of the 2001 Prep League AND VISWA / Virginia Independent Schools League state championships.     VirginiaWrestling.com posted a mid-season team ranking of the Virginia Independent Schools' top wrestling teams in the state, and comparing the two is interesting.     

          Here's Collegiate's official athletics results website .   Meanwhile, here's our friends' site:
http://www.CollegiateWrestling.com.  
 

    The Collegiate Mat Cats recently had a showdown with local rival Benedictine, and we also hosted the Cubs Classic for middle school grapplers.   Reportedly close to a couple hundred 7th & 8th graders participated.  

 According to the Times Dispatch, Benedictine had a  close match against Fork Union not too long ago.  Benedictine also had an interesting series of matches more recently, as well.  

   
     Our relatively young Cougar squadron had a winning season, even though we barely missed winning the entire 2 day ChristChurch Invitational Tournament again due to our surprisingly forfeiting 3 weight classes there.   Post-season tournaments are probably what will most stand out in the Mat Cats' memories later in life, though, as sources of character lessons useful for surmounting other obstacles.  
       
      Woodberry Forest (whose schedule included the Great Bridge Wildcats this year)  fairly recently had a homefield showdown with visitors Douglas Freeman and Lee Davis.    Here is the Richmond Times Dispatch coverage, showing how they beat Top 20 AAA team Freeman by 30.  
        Meanwhile, here are some of the latest St. Christopher's and Benedictine wrestling scores published in the Richmond Times Dispatch (Jan. 19th, 2002).


 Collegiate held its own at the recent 2002 AAU middle school state tournament, @ Collegiate.  


Local team Lee Davis placed 2nd in the American High School division at the Hampton Coliseum's 2002 Virginia Duals (in which Godwin & Hermitage also participated).   Unseeded Lee Davis toppled the #2 seed Christiansburg before confronting Kellam in the finals.   By the way, Kellam's season record was 0-9 during the late 1990's...
        Norfolk Academy (whom we narrowly defeated in December) has participated in the Virginia Duals in the past, along with some other prep schools (especially from outside of Virginia).   Perhaps someday Collegiate's Cougars may wish to try and gain experience there, too?  
 

 Here are some of the latest wrestling results from the Richmond Times Dispatch:

         1) Jan.  29th, 2002 area rankings.  Collegiate & Benedictine have ranked wrestlers.  Meanwhile, St. Christopher's overall team is ranked 3rd in central Virginia, although St.C. lacks any ranked wrestlers. 
         2) St. Christopher's vs. Woodberry Forest, EHS, & Paul VI results.  
Also, here are the Saints' results vs.  Benedictine; vs.  Fork Union; vs. Thomas Dale; & vs. Blue Ridge and LCA.
         3) Here are last December's Woodberry Forest vs. Collegiate dual meet results .  Did you notice how many very close matches there were?   That dual meet could perhaps go either way if held again with our young squadron.  By the way, Joe Lawson's victory was erroneously listed as a loss.   These things happen in the fast-paced world of rasslin'.  
         4) Times Dispatch coverage of Richmond area tournament outcomes.
         
Meanwhile, here's the page of results for Woodberry Forest (which lost to St. Albans and also to St. Christopher's before they apparently decided to stop updating the scores on that results page).

Christiansburg (which lacks local rival Grundy's financial resources and successful tradition) nevertheless managed to place ahead of Grundy very recently in the prestigious Eagle Classic in Stafford, Va.   How?

Intermat's list of Virginia´s amateur wrestling web-zines, high school and college programs & results, etcetera...

National Collegiate Wrestling Association (an ever-expanding college club league)

Title IX (the reason our increasingly popular sport has been forced to cut so many official college teams)

State-by-state list of colleges & universities that still maintain official (i.e. nonclub) wrestling teams despite Title IX

    CentralRegionWrestling.com: Central Virginia's very own rasslin' web-zine, complete with an increasingly popular discussion forum.   It links to the websites of teams on our schedule such as Woodberry Forest & the Manassas Park Cougars, too.   We have no idea who runs the website, but at least they've already linked to us.  :-)   There's also an additional Central Region wrestling website linked from here, which maintains links to various wrestling teams in our area.   An additional website with wrestling team links from all over the state is linked here.  There's also CollegiateWrestling.com's links page.

*Congrats go once again to Steve Sica '01, Collegiate's third All-American wrestler in school history!  
For National Prep results, please check out CollegiateWrestling.com

*Collegiate School´s "The Week in Sports"

GREAT JOB AT THE ´97 AND '98 STATES TOO, COUGARS!

Collegiate's own Sunny Clemons became the first female EVER to win a VISWA state match!
*InterMat´s women´s amateur wrestling site

*TheMat.com's women's amateur wrestling site

PLEASE send us news, comments, and requests at:  
info@Collegiate-Wrestling.com