Wrestling Blogs - Stephen Stonebraker

I often wonder who I would have wrestled for.?Truth to be known in case your wondering, I wasn't even good enough after high school to wrestle JUCO.? However, sometimes it's fun to pretend like I won a couple of State Titles and dream of what it'd be like to be good enough to wrestle for national qualification and All American Status.

?Narrowing it down to just one person is awfully tough for me to do.? There are so many coaches on the Division I level that I admire and think a great deal of.? However, after a lot of serious thought and consideration I've narrowed it down to 3.

I graduated high school in 2004 so I either would have redshirted or started my true freshman year in 2005.? With a redshirt year, I would have ended my wrestling career in 2009.??

Going into the 2005 season I would have wanted to wrestle for one of these people.

Jack Spates-Oklahoma

Tom Brands - Virginia Tech

Mark Manning - Nebraska

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I truly and honestly think that if fate would have dealt me the cards to be as good as I dreamed of being, I would have wrestled for Jack Spates, had the opportunity came up.

I know a lot of people disagree with me and do not care for Jack Spates, but between him and the other two coaches I mentioned, he's about got to be my favorite.

Spates has the type of personality that I think I would have meshed with good.? He's a very down to earth, realistic individual, who I think knows when to work your ass off and when to have you relax and have fun.??

I've heard for years and years from fans on themat.com that he doesn't give a crap about his wrestlers after they graduate and doesn't want anything to do with them after they're done wrestling.?? I've talked with Witt Durden, Bo Maynes, Robbie Waller, Kevin Kjelgaard and a few other Oklahoma Wrestlers and they say just the opposite.? They say that Spates is still very much a part of their lives and cares just as much or more about seeing them succeed in academics and in the real world as he does wrestling.?? I'll take the testimony of Witt Durden over some guy with a fake name on themat.com any day of the week.

I've spoken with Coach Spates a numerous amount of times and each time has been a pleasure.?? If more people were like Coach Spates, the world would be a better place.? I don't mean to sound redundant but I just want it to be clear that I think the world of Coach Spates and really wish that I would have been good enough coming out of high school to have wrestled for him.

On the same note I feel the same way about Tom Brands.? I don't think I've ever met an individual who was a better motivator than Tom Brands.? I think Tom would have took whatever I had been in high school and made me 100 times better.?? I was the type of wrestler back in the day to work as hard as you made me work, I just unfortunatly didn't have the talent or athletic ability, when it came to amateur wrestling.?

I think our only clash would have been that I would have been happy with myself just as long as I'd given it 110%.? If I gave it my all and I mean my absolute all and finished let's say 5th, I would have been happy finishing 5th.? I see so many Iowa Wrestlers beat themselves up so bad and so hard if they don't finish 1st.?? I dont' think I could have that mentality.?? Don't get me wrong, if I wrestled for Brands, I'd want 1st and I'd train for 1st, but if that didn't happen, I'd accept it and be happy with whatever did as long as I gave it everything I had within me to finish 1st.

Tom Brands is an individual who makes you feel better about yourself.? I hope that when the day comes and he retires from head coaching that he doesn't stop motivating and influencing young people.??? I have no doubt in my mind that Tom Brands can take anyone, and make them believe in themselves and make them go after whatever dream/goal they have and make it a reality.?

Last but certainly not least, I would have looked at Mark Manning and Nebraska.? I've been to 3 or 4 Nebraska Wrestling camps and really believe that I would have been a good fit at Nebraska had I been good enough to wrestle in college.??

Manning is the type of guy that I feel I could have just went up to and talked to if something was bothering me and that's what I would have needed in a coach, had I been good enough to wrestle division I.??

As much as I admire and think the world of Tom Brands I have to admit that I'm a bit intimidated by him and I hate admitting this but even a bit afraid.?? I don't know if I could have gone up to him and told him that I was having trouble in a class or that I'd like it if I didn't have to room with a certain teammate at away meets.?

I mean hell even to this day I'm a little intimidated when I go up to him and shake his hand at a Hawk Party after he won the National Team Title.?? It certainly isn't his fault.? The guy is very nice, even knows me by name and has even came up to me a time or two.

I guess it may have something to do with the fact that I've known of Tom Brands since I was very little.?? I even saw him wrestle his senior year in college at a few dual meets up at Iowa.?? He was ledgendary to me even back then and I guess at least subconsciously I still hold him in that regard.?? I feel that when I stand next to him or talk to him that I'm human and he's something above and beyond human status.?? A man can't work as hard as he does, a man can't be a motivated as what he is, so is he a man? Or is he something better and above a man?

Going back to Manning, I think that the guy could have gotten inside my head the same way he got into Ati Conner's head and made me wrestle better than what I at least was on paper.??

Going back to Spates, I really think that Spates is the type of guy that would have seen my extraordinarily high passion and love for the sport and went out of his way to see me succeed to the highest level possible.?? Just talking to the guy, I feel that he's the type of coach to look at the heart you have, and the work ethic you have and if you're willing to give him your best to be the best for him, than he's going to give you his best to see that you are.? That's the #1 reason why I would have chosen to wrestle for Jack Spates.

Thinking of this is all just a waste of time.? I'm 23 years old, less than a year from graduating college and haven't stepped foot on an amateur wrestling mat in nearly 2 years.?? Why I think about this stuff I don't know.

You know when I was 7 years old, I wanted to be a rock n roll musician.? I pumped up my voice and sang as well as I could into a tape recorder.? I played it back to myself and low and behold it was the worst sound I had ever heard in my life.?? I sounded like a constipated Bob Dylan.?? My singing ?voice believe it or not, has actually gotten worse over the years.? Never the less, I still dream sometimes of being on stage and singing my heart out infront of a huge audience, same way I dream of suiting up in a DI singlet and wrestling.

The Realities are already dead, gone, buried and forgotten.? The dreams that went along with them, last.? They never die.