Such a sad story with Garrett. I had heard of him, but not his story. I went back to school around that time he was at PSU....so that period is like a black hole as far as following the program. Wish he could have turned things around like Marsteller did.
Could Have Been’s
- Thread starter BigFella235
- Start date
This is great. Thanks for sharing. “A lot more positive then negative coming out of the accident”. I’d buy him a beer anytime.
An acquaintance of mine was an assistant coach when he was in high school and his job was to follow him around and to make sure he didn't eat so he could make weight. He also told me that he smoked a lot of weed. From what he told me he was not going to work out in college for any program. He made it clear by his senior year of high school he was hanging on by a thread as far as wrestling went.
Finishing 3rd and 4th at NCAAs is absolutely a success. The problem for Chance is that he is compared to his expectations coming out of high school which were almost impossible for anyone to live up to.
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Ty Moore was a great light weight 4 timer but heard injuries and lifestyle hurt his college career.
Dude, Carl himself topped 156-0. If memory serves he was 159-0. Not sure who you are talking about...
First names that come to mind for me are Alex Meade and Scott Winston. Both had amazing high school careers.
Alex spent two years at OK State, redshirting his first year and then getting in a full season his redshirt freshman year. He knocked off some really good wrestlers that year. T Caldwell, Morningstar, Schlatter, and maybe others. He ended up transferring I believe to maybe West Virginia. I remember he had an unbelievable match against Molinaro at the Beast of the East finals. Great match (Video below). Unfortunately, he was murdered a few years ago.
Scott Winston just never lived up to the hype. He wrestled a ton at Rutgers but could never get up on the podium. Pretty sure he had a bad should injury that never really got back to 100%.
Alex spent two years at OK State, redshirting his first year and then getting in a full season his redshirt freshman year. He knocked off some really good wrestlers that year. T Caldwell, Morningstar, Schlatter, and maybe others. He ended up transferring I believe to maybe West Virginia. I remember he had an unbelievable match against Molinaro at the Beast of the East finals. Great match (Video below). Unfortunately, he was murdered a few years ago.
Scott Winston just never lived up to the hype. He wrestled a ton at Rutgers but could never get up on the podium. Pretty sure he had a bad should injury that never really got back to 100%.
I was wrestling in High School when he was just killing everyone. If I had to pick between him or JO on who would have had a better career, I would have picked Garrett, but I didn't know the off the mat issues he was dealing with. Probably wouldn't have been an all timer, but would have liked to see how he did being from Berks County myself, Nick Hodgekins. He beat Ringer at the Dapper Dan his senior year,.
Hodgkins went into MMA instead of NCAA wrestling, right? I wrestled at Wyomissing (way back when...), so I would have loved to follow his career through college as well.
For such a small (public) school, Wyomissing has a huge number of elite athletes. Alex Anzalone is playing for the Lions (saw him lead the Spartans to the 2012 PIAA title), and Matt Lytle and Ross Tucker are former NFLers. My son and I went to their PIAA semifinal a couple years ago and we calculated that the guys in uniform on the sideline were about 1/4 of the male enrollment at the school, LOL. Back around my day there, Rich Delucia was a pitcher for the Mariners.
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Hodgkins went to Central Michigan, had a good shirt year, and then just kinda fizzled out.
Pretty sure he left CMU early. Not sure if he competed or finished his degree elsewhere. IIRC he was more interested in MMA.
This guy didn’t really pick another career , but it feels like he did - he chose Greco over NCAA and freestyle (sorry crop duster): Harry Lester.
Harry was a 4x OH state champ with a record of 164-2. 8x Fargo AA (I believe). Won a freestyle Cadet World championship in 1999 - in those days the US wasn’t winning many Cadet World golds. Won the Slippery Rock Open as a high schooler. Went to Iowa State but transferred to Northern Michigan to focus on Greco before ever wrestling a dual. Was a 2x World Bronze medalist in Greco. In 2007, won gold in both freestyle and Greco at University (U23) Nationals. Hadn’t wrestled freestyle in 5 years and moved up a weight class (from 145.5 to 163) but still beat Mike Poeta (quarters), Dave Rella(semis), and Travis Paulson(finals) on his way to the freestyle title.
Would’ve loved to see what Harry could’ve accomplished if he had loved folk/free as much as he did Greco.
Harry was a 4x OH state champ with a record of 164-2. 8x Fargo AA (I believe). Won a freestyle Cadet World championship in 1999 - in those days the US wasn’t winning many Cadet World golds. Won the Slippery Rock Open as a high schooler. Went to Iowa State but transferred to Northern Michigan to focus on Greco before ever wrestling a dual. Was a 2x World Bronze medalist in Greco. In 2007, won gold in both freestyle and Greco at University (U23) Nationals. Hadn’t wrestled freestyle in 5 years and moved up a weight class (from 145.5 to 163) but still beat Mike Poeta (quarters), Dave Rella(semis), and Travis Paulson(finals) on his way to the freestyle title.
Would’ve loved to see what Harry could’ve accomplished if he had loved folk/free as much as he did Greco.
Luke Fickell could have been Ohio's best ... wrestler
Long-time wrestling writer always thought Fickell would appear on the top podium as an Olympic gold medalist in wrestling.
www.cleveland.com
I think Dustin Schlatter could have been in the conversation if not for Serious injuries. Yes, I realize I run the risk of being banned for complimenting a Goofer.
Did you face the one Wyomissing team that made the Berks finals (86 maybe)? We usually struggled to fill a full lineup, but with Jeff Torok making a steep cut to 98 as a freshman and (current AD) Frank Ferrandino and Bruce Cafuriello as seniors (plus All-Berks halfback Kevin Neff in the middle weights), we had four hammers in that one year where everything worked out until we hit one of Wilson's best teams ever in the finals. I was in junior high then.
Chris Phillips from Monroeville (OH) HS (teammates with Logan Steiber) is another who should be in the conversation. I think his lack of college participation was a combo of lifestyle choices, lack of interest in school, and waning interest in wrestling after accomplishing so much so early.
4x OH state champ. 193-1 record - only loss was 3-2 in Ironman finals to Ed Ruth when Phillips was a sophomore and Ruth was a senior. Actually beat Ruth the summer after his 8th grade year.
Good article after Phillips won Ironman as a freshman at 171:
4x OH state champ. 193-1 record - only loss was 3-2 in Ironman finals to Ed Ruth when Phillips was a sophomore and Ruth was a senior. Actually beat Ruth the summer after his 8th grade year.
Good article after Phillips won Ironman as a freshman at 171:
Phillips lives up to his billing and and more
It's been said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. However, In front of a bewildered crowd at Walsh Jesuit High School at the Walsh Ironman on Saturday, Dec. 8, Chris Phillips began his journey towards becoming Ohio's best ever with not so much a single step as a giganti...
intermatwrestle.com
I wrestled at Wyo too! Cool to see you wrestled with Ferrandino. Also don't forget the two linemen we currently have on the PSU team. Not sure where kids that size came from. When I was in school we were always the undersized team, but well coached and and the Wing T really well.
I was in Jr High during the Ferrandino/Cafuriello era. I did wrestle with Jeff Torok for a couple years after those other two guys graduated. He was such an amazing athlete. Wyomissing started their soccer team when he was a sophomore. By his senior year, he led the program to states. Sadly, he passed away from cancer last year.
Wolfrum took over the football program from Jack Paris for my senior year and perfected the wing T. My brother is in the WFA Hall-of-Fame and was the center on the '90 team that won districts for the first time. He once played against a DL from Daniel Boone (I think) who was 6'4 275 (which was HUGE for those days...) and a D1 recruit for West Virginia. My brother was 6'0 and barely 200, but Wolfrum's wing-T with blockers coming from all kinds of angles and leverages worked so well that my brother dominated him so badly that they had to shift him from DT to DE in the second half to get him away from him. That was one of those Wyomissing games that I'm sure you're familiar with where they had like 35 carries for 300+ yards and 5 TDs split across 7 or 8 backs.
So every Wyomissing game ever. Small world! I was a few years older than Anzalone, but remember him coming up through the younger leagues and played with his brother. I was on the 2006 team that had that miracle pass to beat Lancaster Catholic in the district championship.
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