Wrestling Blogs - Jim Brown

The NCAA Division III National Championships in Cedar Rapids are less than three weeks away. You regular blog readers may remember that in my January 21st blog I announced the “What I love most about college wrestling” essay contest. The quality of the entries was excellent and, in the end, I couldn’t pick just one winner. Entries came in from both fans and wrestlers and I’ve selected a winner from each of those categories.

Both winners will receive two all-session tickets to the Division III Championships, a three-night stay in the Cedar Rapids Marriott and two tickets for the Friday night late show performance at Penguin’s Comedy Club.

Here is the winning entry from fan, Klint Deere,

“My wife and I run a small group home in Kansas. The boys we work with often have a hard time understanding that hard work put in can equal positive results taken out. Many times the important people in their lives have tried to take shortcuts, letting them down in the process and not modeling hard work and perseverance. We love college wrestling because it can provide for us a way to heal that disconnect in the young men we work with.

Over the past 5 years we have been able to incorporate the sport of wrestling in our boys' lives. College wrestling has provided a living, breathing example for our boys. They see the benefits of giving your all and how one can be satisfied with having done your best. Some of our boys wrestle, some help out with tournaments, but all have been exposed to the sport. We have seen our boys who wrestle lose many more matches than they have one, but they are the true winners with their medals being the confidence and pride that comes with the hard work. It is that lesson that we have seen sink in and be applied to their every day lives.

College wrestlers are their heroes, student-athletes dedicated to a sport with little fanfare and accolades. We have been to many tournaments where the guys can directly interact with the athletes, coaches and other fans. The passion from the true followers of the sport is contagious. There are very few casual wrestling fans but hoards of passionate ones. We have seen this ignite the potential of many kids to embrace passion in the way they approach things in their lives. “

Wrestler RJ Mount of Elizabethtown College submitted the following winning entry,

“To put it quite simply, I could express what I love the most about wrestling in a single solitary word: pride. Quoting Dan Gable, "Many have wrestled without great skill; none have wrestled without great pride.", this seems to sum up what wrestling means to those of us that never won a national title, or made All-American status, or even started for their respective team. To me, it sums up my career as a wrestler.

I came from an area of modest wrestling talent in Northern New Jersey and never had a break out season, never had the upsets that headline newspapers. I was consistent, and to my family, coaches, and friends that was enough to be proud of. To me, I always found myself wanting more and more, disregarding things I had accomplished and never finding the satisfaction that everyone else seemed to have with themselves. For this, I chose to end my career as a wrestler after high school and play lacrosse in college. However, wrestling wasn't done with me.

After a freshman year that left me spiritually spent with the passing of my grandparents, and disenfranchised with lacrosse to the point where I found myself coaching high school wrestling on a volunteer basis just to be apart of it again, I decided that my life was my own and I chose not only to transfer, but to wrestle again. Soon, I found myself in Elizabethtown, PA starting pretty much from square one again, but this time on terms I could accept as a person and an athlete.

At Elizabethtown, I grew into a man. No longer did I feel a lack of accomplishment in what I did; I took pride in every moment I stepped on the mat, every minute I spent fighting and breathing hard. Wrestling now wasn't about consistency, or crowds, or my family, it was personal. To be honest, it was my outlet. Every time I felt my life slipping into a place where I could not control it, I found myself thinking about wrestling; the next move, the sweet feeling of a takedown that felt effortless, or the solace that the sport was always going to be there for me, regardless of whatever turn my life took. What had been a consistency, now had become a constant in my life.

There is no gold medal at the end of this story; I am a college reserve wrestler. I compete in the practice room to make our starters better so that they can realize their goals. And despite there being no All-American certificate on my wall, I have never regretted coming back to wrestling, not for a single second. Through the double sessions, and weight cutting, and broken noses, and tough breaks, I take away the only thing worth taking away from something: pride. Wrestling has become my life's achievement and I am proud to be a wrestler. I'm proud to wear the shoes, do the pushups, and ice my shoulders after practice. Nothing has given me the sense of accomplishment that wrestling now bestows upon me. For that, I am proud.”

For more information about the DIII championships or to order tickets go to

http://www.coe.edu/ncaawrestling/

I’ll see you at the US Cellular Center on March 7th and 8th.