Chaos reigned. Pandemonium ran wild throughout the bowels of the Delco Center in Austin, Texas at the 2006 UIL State Wrestling Championships. It was the 160-pound finals between unbeaten senior Brent Pardinek (at 28-0 for Austin BaBaBowie) and Matt Harris, junior, (44-1 for The Ranch).

In what was generally regarded as the toughest of all of the weight classes at UIL State, the finals at 160 didn’t have the two most likely combatants. Most people (according to the ITW Pick ‘Em Contest) thought the match would be between Jason Logan from Dumas and Aaron Pelletier from The Church. Logan, Watson, Newman, Torres, Harris, Nichols, Pardinek and Pelletier. Never before had eight powerful, talented young men formed the backbone of one single weight-class. Never, ever. And never before had a UIL State championship match with such controversy, such confusion and such drama taken place. Never, ever.

But in my forty years of wrestling what I saw tonight in the pitched war at 160 was unlike anything before. The match ended after a pair of wild third-period scrambles with Harris the winner, 4-3. But Bowie coach Kevin Smith refused to accept the decision. He called the officials to the table three times. He did so calmly and with great professionalism. The official (who shall remain anonymous here) and the associate referee conferred several times.

As Harris, along with the madly chanting and enthusiastic throng from Katy (“Cinco Ranch, Cinco Ranch”) celebrated wildly, Smith demanded that tournament head official Jim Engstrom intercede. Discussions went on and on between Engstrom, the referees on the mat, and then to include UIL Wrestling Czar Mark Cousins and wrestling titan Jim Guinta.

Both coaches pulled out the rules book. But it was Kevin Smith who refused to accept the match outcome. Finally, he was told it was over and he came behind the table and I asked him for his take on what happened. He was adamant with me that the match should have been stopped when the officials made the call for illegal head scissors. (One point, technical violation, illegal hold). He was correct. This is according to the book. The match should be stopped but it wasn’t. He (Coach Smith) was obviously very disappointed but at the instant seemed to accept fate. Reluctantly, for sure.

Then, in an instant, things changed. Oh boy, did they.

Engstrom waved the coaches back and told them the match would be rewrestled with 34-seconds left with Pardinek leading 3-2. The Harris takedown (after the technical violation) was waived off.

The Ranch head coach “Wild” Bill Dushane went ballistic. More conversations ensued with Dushane being the most vocal and vociferous. His guy had won. His hand was raised. The match was over. At that point, while Pardinek was mat side, who knew where the heck Harris was.

By this time he might have been half way to Sugars to celebrate for all we knew.

Both coaches were holding the rulebooks – the refs were even seen reading passages, but the bottom line is that the Engstrom call was correct. The match must be started back again with Pardinek leading 3-2 and 34 seconds put back on the clock.

But what was wild and crazy and insane was just starting.

The officials found Harris and he and Pardinek again for the second time went to the center of the mat to decide the 160-pound Texas kingpin. All the while the crowd was going nuts. 2800 fans screaming. Ranch fans trying to shout down Bowie fans. Boos were reigning down. The place was truly crazy – as if a state championship match needed more bedlam.

The referee blew the whistle and the gladiators went at each other with an unreal ferocity. Harris’s job was to score the winning takedown. Parkinek’s job was to do whatever he could do to avoid the takedown. He had 34 seconds – the longest 34 seconds of his life – to burn off to get the title belt.

In this situation, of course Harris was the aggressor. Shot, after shot, after shot – even getting in deep twice but Brent fended him off repeatedly. With a restart with just seconds to go Harris shot in and trapped Parkinek’s leg and with probably 1/10 of a second left on the clock, the referee flashed two and the match – a match of a millennium – was over.

Delco Center erupted in a fan frenzy as the Ranch faithful went wild.

For the second time, Matt Harris was the winner. It took six minutes to win the first time and 25 minutes and 34 seconds of incredible high drama to win a second time.

I spoke with Bill Dushane immediately after the match and he said, “He (Harris) had his hand raised. He was the winner. The match should never have started again, but he proved he was the best wrestler. My guy was the best, no doubt about it.”

Matt Harris was truly giddy with excitement as sweat streamed down his face as TV cameras recorded his words and actions. “Nothing was going to stop me, he said. “This (championship) is mine. I was going to fight for it.”

TWOA honcho and meet head official Engstrom would only say “the match should have been stopped at the point of the illegal hold and technical violation.” UIL wrestling director Mark Cousins had no comment on the situation. It’s just as well. The match itself and the takedown at the buzzer spoke volumes. The winner was the winner was the winner. No matter how many times the match was wrestled.

Her dad says she’s a regular girl. She’s not. She is sleek, smooth and fiery. On the wrestling mat she takes no prisoners. Off the mat, she smiles gently, speaks softly, with her long black hair tied tightly in a ponytail. We’re talking about Klein wrestler and All-American Lindsey Brooks. She wrestles at 148 pounds under her coach’s rule (her coach is also her father, Mark Brooks) that she cuts no weight. Brooks, Sr. doesn’t like any of his wrestlers to cut weight. Often girls who wrestle at 148 and are 5’ 4” or so, might be chunky. Lindsey is not.

When you look at her the first thing you notice, if you have a pulse, is her body. It’s almost perfect. I knew right away this is a girl who works out all the time and who weight trains. She’s not powerfully built like a guy, but well developed and finely-tuned like an Olympic-class athlete, which she could be some day.

No doubt her work ethic comes from a wide variety of sources. Her father, being her coach, and of course, and what she did growing up to the sixth grade. Activities that included being an accomplished ballet dancer, a noted gymnast and a cheerleader. With her sparkling and attractive looks she could be a cheerleader right now! Frankly, Lindsey, who I’ve never seen in anything but a wrestling singlet, is a knockout both physically and with her personality. This is what makes her so interesting.

Right now she holds the Texas school-girl record for wins. Her record now is 118-6. This year she is 40-0 and recently won both district and regional championships. Unless something unexpected happens, she is well on her way to another state UIL title too. Doing a little math shows that she could end her high school record with something like 160 wins and that would make it prohibitive for anyone to ever break her record.

At the Region III meet at Allen, Lindsey was top-seed of course. In the finals she met another unbeaten wrestler in Kristi Smith of Clute Brazos who was 24-0 at the time of the match. When they met at the center to start, Lindsey fired out to begin. Kristi, who is no slouch of a wrestler herself, threw Lindsey back and counter-attacked her. A girl with less mat presence and experience than Lindsey would have been on her back but with great speed and balance she countered expertly.

What would have been a fun match to watch ended suddenly as Kristi dislocated her elbow. It was a bad injury and you knew immediately the match was over. I went to interview Lindsey but she cut me short so she could go check on her injured opponent. That isn’t surprising if you know her. Class, personality and looks. Add that to a wrestling repertoire that sets her apart from almost all other girls and you have the making of a champion on and off the mat. Girls like Lindsey make female wrestling more fun and cool for a reporter to cover.

Lindsey followed wrestling for many years prior to starting in the ninth grade. You do that when your dad is the wrestling coach. She took to the sport like a duck to water. She was good enough to finish 5th at Fargo to get her All-American honors. Look for more and better on that this summer and next.

I asked her dad about college and his answer was most interesting. “If Oklahoma State had wrestling she’d have already signed,” he told me. He told me of any interesting story that at the OSU camp last summer, six-time world champion John Smith demonstrated his vaunted low single takedown move using Lindsey as his partner.

Brooks, Sr. went to UT so if wrestling were there I’m sure Lindsey would go there too. I would definitely look for Lindsey to continue her wrestling after graduating (with honors) from Klein High School.

Like I said earlier, this is a girl who could someday wrap herself in the American flag and waltz up on the raised-mat podium and go to war with girls from other countries in the Olympic Games. She is that good and that disciplined. It wouldn’t surprise me at all.

A note to high school guys; this dynamic package does not have a boyfriend. Don’t be scared of her dad (who takes some of the blame) he’s more like a teddy bear than anything! She is the total package! But don’t mess with her on the mat. She’ll whip you good!

By John Rizzuti

ITW has a 2000-word preview of the college division complete with write-ups on about half of the better-known teams. But let’s be honest. You’re not going to read it, and we don’t feel like doing another rewrite, more proofing and editing and all the other stuff that happens so that ITW can provide you with our usual hard-hitting, no holds barred, riveting, high-quality editorial.

So, we just hit the delete button. It’s gone. Vaporized about 12 hours worth of work. Just for YOU!

Here’s the reason: we want you to show up for the college action next week at The Hilton Arlington — Cliff Keen Athletic Lone Star Duals. To get you to do that, we must paint a word-picture compelling enough to convince you to get off the couch and hit the bricks.

Imagine for just a moment . . . . . like a 3-ring circus with a Ringmaster, all eyes will be riveted center stage on an innocent-looking, tightly-wound, human dynamo – a whirlwind of kinetic frenzy better know as “The Thrill.”

Mark this down. Circle it in red. Cancel the hookups. Forget about building a meth lab. Stop what you were thinking of doing and make the drive to the tony enclave of Grand Prairie and check out the young man who just might someday soon become the most exciting college wrestler in America.

(If, and I highlight, bold, and underscore the word, If.)

Saturday, January 7, 2006 will be historic. It is the return of homeboy and Lamar graduate Will “The Thrill” Rowe, wearing the prestigious crimson and cream of the University of Oklahoma. Personally, if Will can keep his focus and better handle certain aspects of his collegiate life, he has the potential, ability and desire to become the first Texan in more than forty years to stand on top of the podium as an NCAA national champion.

Right now there are more than 50 Texas kids wrestling in college. Out of all of them, “The Thrill” is the one with the best shot to be an NCAA kingpin. Right up there with him is, of course, Keegan Mueller, Clay Kehrer, Tervel Dlagnev and several others, but nobody electrifies the crowd like Thrillorama.

Who will forget the Border Brawl match with Oklahoma at Coppell High School when Will tormented an Okie state champion and by the third period the kid was puking his guts out. Will had that ever-present smile on his face and was barely breathing deep. How about his spectacular five-point buzzer-beater throw to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat against Newly McOldie McSpadden at Red River.

Or, the other Red River match the next year against another Oklahoma stud who made a bad mistake and trashed-talked and head-slapped Will in the first period. He then had hell to pay as Will worked him over like a junkyard dog (JYD).

What about the state meet in 2004 where Will scored 67 takedowns without giving up a single two-pointer? How about the classic match with Shane Vernon at the Oklahoma Open? Will had the match won but decided to push Vernon
as hard as he could until the final bell. Getting down by two heading into the final stanza, Will threw everything but the kitchen sink at Vernon only to fall short in one of the best matches ever.

Don’t ever kid yourself. The McSpadden’s and Vernon’s of the world are as good as any middleweight wrestlers in America. Toss in Michael Poeta who beat Will (on a cheesy two-point tilt) to win Senior Nationals after Thrill dropped him twice.

Will cracked the Sooner lineup and then there was Bedlam. Against 11th ranked OSU senior Kevin Ward, this red-shirted freshman flashed back to the days of yore. Down several points in the third period with the Stillwater crowd going nuts, Will went into high-gear. Before Ward knew what hit him, The Thrill had scored three takedowns to pull out an overtime, sudden victory. Ward had darned-near collapsed on the mat. Will did his best Pistol Pete six-shooter imitation and forever endeared himself to the Cowboy faithful.

This year’s Lone Star Duals (abbreviated “LSD” to save me typing at least one billion more words – groovy, baby) college division will host 21 teams with five of those squads being in the upper echelon of the current NWCA/USA Today national poll. Led by the number-three University of Oklahoma Sooners, The LSD college lineup will showcase a collection of great teams, wrestlers with NCAA championship potential and some hot dual meets.

If you have never watched college wrestling, let me tell you that it can be extraordinarily exciting. Speed. Power. Fury. Frenzy. And, that’s just the pandemonium over the hot cheerleaders!

Expectation for the 2006 version of LSD is climbing fast (and furious). (Attention single young women) Don’t forget the service academies Army & Navy will be in attendance. Powerhouse Oklahoma, with their best team since 2000, Wisconsin, Purdue, Tennessee – Chattanooga with new coach Joe Seay will be there as will Stanford anchored by hew head coach and two-time Olympian Kerry McCoy.

The big competitive differentiator between the two popular head-on meets this coming weekend is that the Grapevine Duals (another terrific event) doesn’t have the college division and Lone Star does. Historically, I would give the edge to Grapevine for fantastic quality and lineups the high school pools. But the gap has closed considerably this year.

With the possibility and probability of a national top-twenty shootout between 10th ranked and highly-heralded Bishop Lynch of Dallas ramming heads with Florida powerhouse and 20th ranked Oveido could potentially make Grand Prairie Texas a wrestling hot spot for Saturday, January 7. Much of the national media will be there as will InsideTexasWrestling.

The LSD website has a layout of all the Saturday January 7 matchups (www.lonestarduals.com)

Here are the current National Wrestling Coaches Association ranking as of Dec. 20 for duals teams:

Rank/Team/Record/Points/last week
1. Oklahoma State (12), 3-0-0, 480 pts., 1 last week
2. Minnesota, 7-0-0, 464 pts., 3 last week
3. Oklahoma , 1-1-1, 458 pts., 2 last week
4. Illinois , 1-0-0, 437 pts., 4 last week
5. Michigan, 2-1-0, 430 pts., 5 last week
6. Iowa, 3-0-0, 425 pts., 6 last week
7. Iowa State , 4-2-0, 409 pts., 7 last week
8. Cornell, 0-0-0, 397 pts., 8 last week
9. Lehigh, 5-2-1, 382 pts., 9 last week
10. Central Michigan, 3-2-0, 378 pts., 10 last week
11. Missouri, 3-0-0, 344 pts., 13 last week
12. Penn State, 5-2-0, 326 pts., 12 last week
13. Nebraska, 4-2-0, 325 pts.,11 last week
14. Northwestern, 3-0-0, 323 pts., 14 last week
15. Indiana, 5-0-0, 297 pts., 18 last week
16. Michigan State, 1-2-0, 290 pts., 16 last week
17. Wisconsin, 4-1-0, 289 pts., 15 last week
18. Edinboro, 4-0-0, 289 pts., 19 last week
19. Arizona State, 3-2-0, 275 pts., 17 last week
20. Cal Poly, 2-1-0, 270 pts., 23 last week
21. Hofstra, 2-1-1, 241 pts., 20 last week
22. Northern Illinois, 3-2-0, 235 pts., 21 last week
23. Northern Iowa , 2-3-0, 228 pts., 22 last week
24. Navy, 4-1-0, 209 pts., 24 last week
25. Penn, 1-1-0, 186 pts., 25 last week
Other Teams receiving votes (alphabetically): Army, North Carolina, Purdue, West Virginia

A bit of Lone Star History:
First, (you know me) let’s toss in a little controversy and stir. Rick Ortega of St Marks in Dallas has had a November dual meet tournament for about a million years called “The Lone Star Duals.”

To say that Rick was peeved when the Arlington people (headed up by the great Barry Boustead and his fabulous team of dedicated and talented volunteers) came in and named their meet the “Lone Star Duals” would be an understatement.

Rick is right. He had the name first. But there wasn’t and isn’t a trademark protecting the ownership (although there could have been) of the name, so it was open season. Rick’s solution was to call his meet “The Original Lone Star Duals.” Brilliant solution. Everybody wins. Case closed.

The first-ever college action at LSD went down in early 1998. Oklahoma head honcho and wrestling innovator Jack Spates was the man with the courage to step up to the plate and said, “hey we’ll do this.”

The first-ever major competition included Wisconsin, Virginia and Brown and happened at Lamar High School in the big A. The college boys had some additional wrestling from eight high schools and the meet became a reality. (Oklahoma, Brown and Wisconsin are in this year’s event and have been steady LSD competitors from day one.

The next year’s (1999) LSD meet organizers bumped up the number of participating teams to eight. And the size and quality of wrestling kept going up year-after-year.

If there is one event you attend this year, make it Lone Star Duals. It’s well worth the trip! Check out their website for the latest information:

www.lonestarduals.com

“Lombardi, a certain magic still lingers in the name.
It speaks of duels in the snow and the cold November mud.”
John Facenda, NFL Films

————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Editor’s note: The Rizzuti family has announced that they have uncovered a long lost and historic set of playbooks that were the property of Vince Lombardi while he was the offensive coordinator of the New York Giants during the 1955 season. The five books include hundreds of Lombardi’s personal notes, play sketches and doodles. The books include the QB series, offensive line blocking, passing game, running game and overall NY offense. The estimated value of this secret collection is unknown but believed to be huge, perhaps up to $20,000.

Here is the true story:

————————————————————————————————————————————————–

In 1954, the New York Giants professional football team made coaching changes that would reverberate for generations – spanning the glitz and glitter of Manhattan, to the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field, all the way to Canton, Ohio and the NFL Hall of Fame. Out went Giants legend and head man Steve Owen and in came Jim Lee Howell. Joining Howell as coordinator was Vince Lombardi, replacing another prodigy, Allie Sherman, as the head of the New York offense. Lombardi would team with defensive coordinator Tom Landry in what surely would be the greatest assistant coaching duo in professional football history.

Lombardi came to two conclusions when he took over the Giants offense; first, he decided that the offense would need a fleet-footed flanker-back in the passing game and second, he realized the Giants had to take the running game to a whole new level. New York won only three games the year before, and the ground attack was pathetic.

But Lombardi was awed by the athletic prowess of his team. The roster screamed with mobile, dominant players. Superstars like Roosevelt Brown, Charlie Conerly, Frank Gifford, Rosey Grier, Kyle Rote, Mel Triplett, Emlen Tunnell and Alex Webster. Quick-cutting running backs. Powerful, swift linemen. The talent was there. The results were not.

The Giants players, at first, were not overwhelmed by Lombardi’s new ideas. His playbook thinking began while playing at Fordham, where he was one of the original “Seven Blocks of Granite,” then later at West Point, where he worked under legendary coach Red Blaik.

He soon convinced his players that his offensive schemes, while revolutionary to them, were tried and true weapons he learned coaching at Army. He also picked up plays from watching the highly successful running attack of the Los Angeles Rams. The split-T formation, zone (rule) blocking, miss-direction, unique pass-blocking set-ups and most of all discipline – at every turn he was in the face of the professionals he coached. He prevailed through persistence and determination.

Fast forward to October 2, 1955. “Autumn Leaves” by Roger Williams was playing on the radio, as was Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock.” Bread was 18 cents a loaf. A new car cost less than $2000. And the Dow Jones hovered under 500.

But Lombardi had more than soft melodies and the cost of living on his mind. He couldn’t stop thinking about his second season as the Giants offensive leader. It was a cool, windy fall day in Chicago as Lombardi hurriedly packed his travel items on an early Sunday morning. The big game that afternoon, the second in the young NFL season, pitted New York against the Cardinals at Soldier Field. His later-to-be-famous tan satchel carrying his Giants offensive playbooks (his “Bible”) was by his side as he tossed things there and in his brown and beige checkered patterned suitcase to get ready to head out with the team.

Then, something strange and un-Lombardi like happened. The stack of playbooks he had studied the night before as “The Honeymooners” played on his Conrad Hilton Hotel room black and white television set hotel lay by the bed. As he packed his remaining game notes into the brown satchel, he forgot the play- books. No doubt his mind was racing with power sweeps and option passes that he was sure would surprise the Cardinal’s defense.

As he rushed out of his room, the books remained by the bed, until the Hilton housekeeper found them. She turned them into the front office manager. He placed them in his desk and wrote himself a note to try to get them back to the rightful owner.

The next day, a busy Monday with the fall convention crowd that the downtown Conrad Hilton was famous for, the front office manager forgot to contact the Giants and the playbooks nested inside his locked desk for the next fifteen years.

In 1970, when the manager left the Hilton he cleaned out his desk for the last time. He re-discovered the books and thought that his son who had just graduated from the University of Northern Iowa and who would be coaching junior high football might get a kick out of using the playbooks.

Away they went by mail to the son who quickly discovered that the X’s and O’s of professional football were far too complicated for the 13 and 14-year olds he was coaching. But he was wise enough after seeing the name “Lombardi” on the books that he should hang on to them. Into a file cabinet they went where they were undisturbed for the next 35 years.

That was then. This is now.

Number 5 Ben Heizer Northern Illinois
Two-time NCAA All-American and 2004 finalist wrestling out of Arlington Bowie H.S. , Heizer was the only Texas H.S. All-American at Fargo seven years ago winning AA honors in both Greco (2nd) and freestyle (4th) in a Herculean double duty. Heizer placed 6th the year before in the NCAAs. During his 2004 run he wrestled 2-time NCAA Champion from Oklahoma State Jake Rosholt and in perhaps the match of Heizer’s life he dominated Rosholt on his way to a 4-1 win. It was bittersweet for Heizer as he wanted to go to OSU but they showed no interest in him while he was in high school.

Number 4 Muhammad Lawal Oklahoma State
Only a complete lapse prevented Lawal from being the first Texan in forty years to win a Division I national title. Wrestling two-time NCAA Champion Damion Hahn, Lawal was leading with four seconds to go when at the edge of the mat Hahn dove in on Lawal for a takedown at the buzzer. In a thousand years, Hahn couldn’t take Lawal down again! Lawal went on to get third to go along with his Div. II championship the previous year with Central Oklahoma. During his final three years of college wrestling, Lawal scored something like 700 takedowns. He may be one of the two or three best takedown wrestlers ever. He went out for wrestling as a sophomore at Plano East and now is one of the top four or five wrestlers in the world at 185. (Ed note: Lawal was born in Tennessee. But was raised in Dallas and went out for wrestling as a high school sophomore at Plano East High School.)

Number 3 Brandon Slay Penn
Born in Amarillo, Slay was a 3x state champion out of Tascosa H.S. He went to Penn to pursue an Ivy League education. He made the finals twice in the elite NCAA championships losing narrowly , first to Mark Branch of Oklahoma State 3-2 and second to Joe Williams of Iowa 7-4. Slay later got his revenge on Williams as he shocked Joltin Joe with a five-point move to win the U.S. Nationals on his way to the Olympic Gold. Who will ever forget Slay’s performance at the Olympic Trials in Dallas in front of 12,000?

Number 2 Bullet Bob Johnson Oklahoma State
Bob, out of Amarillo High, won back-to-back NCAA title for Oklahoma State in 1961 and 1962 being the last Texan to do so. He also led OSU to national titles both years. He was considered by many to be an extremely tough individual and somebody that you did not mess with. I made the mistake once of calling him “Bobby” and a friend of his told me I was risking my hind-end. He was very light for 1977, where he won the titles including a gut-wrenching win over Olympic Gold Medlaist Wayne Baughman in the ’61 finals.

Number 1 Dick Hutton Oklahoma State
Born in Amarillo and raised in Oklahoma, Hutton is considered by many to be the greatest colleg wrestler ever. He won title at heavyweight in 1948 and 1950. His only loss in college was an extremly controversial loss to Verne Gagne in the finals in 1949. To this day there are those who say that there was funny business going in on that loss to the future professional wrestling king. Hutton also went on to an illustrious career in the pro ranks including being the NWA world champion several times.

OSU won the team titles in 1948 and 1949 but finished out of the money in 1950 to a team some say is the best collge wrestling team ever. The 1950 Iowa State Teachers squad led by champions Keith Young, William Nelson, Bill Smith and runnerup Stoeker. This squad had a top-four placer in every weight except one.

Ed. note: Had a guy on themat.com say that Wayne Wells was born in Texas. If so that would put him number one or number two on the list. I have heard this before but have been unable to verify. If anyone has any info just put it in the feedback section)

When ITW asked the reasons why he picked OSU, Ben told us that the tradition, the great workout partners and a great coach made it an easy decision.

“I know that if I want to accomplish my goal of being an NCAA champion, I have to have the best coaching and the best workout partners. (At OSU) I’ll wrestle guys who are national champions and Olympians and get coached by a world champion. That’s what I need.” Ben will study Business Adminstration at OSU and wants to follow on and take over his dad’s flooring business after Ben Sr.’s retirement and also build houses, probably working with his brother.

Look for Ben to compete mostly at 125 this year to get ready to go 125 at OSU and drop down to 119 for the big national tournaments like “Beast of the East” and National Preps.

ITW asked Ben if his brother Luke (a Fargo National Champion and MOW award-winner) can beat him. “No, not yet,” he said with a smile on his face. “But we have some pretty intense practices.”

Anyone care to guess where Luke Asmore will be headed after next year? Didn’t think so!

WIN says, “With the Ashmore Brothers, Silver & Koepp, perhaps the best pure tournament team in America. Six transfers headed by the Adamsons (NM) and Staines (LA): New upperweights crucial to top-five finish.

Our preview on B-L “Natural Born Thrillers” was right on the mark!

WIN Top Twelve

1. Blair
2. St Eds
3. B-L
4. Parkersburg, PA
5. Christiansburg (VA) ITW note: Alex Meade has transferred out and gone back home to Del
6. Nazareth (PA)
7. Carl Sandberg (IL)
8. Owatonna (MN)
9. Great Bridge (VA)
10. Oak Park (MO)
11. Brandon (FL)
12. Oviedo (FL)

By John Rizzuti
©2005 InsideTexasWrestling.com
All rights reserved

Silhouetted against a supple black mat in their radiant new wrestling room, the Four Horsemen stand again. In dramatic lore they are known as Famine, Pestilence, Destruction and Death. These are only aliases. Their real names are Ben “The Beast” Ashmore, Luke “Hi-Ho” Silver, Johnny “The Crusher” Koepp and “Cool Hand” Luke Ashmore. They form the lineage of the Bishop Lynch High School wrestling team, destined to be the greatest in Texas high school history. In the most recent preseason rankings, Amateur Wrestling News has Bishop Lynch ranked 7th nationally, ahead of a dozen perennial national powerhouses. Nazareth (PA), Brandon (FL), St. Paris Graham (OH), and El Reno (OK) among others all ranked below B-L.

Imagine that.

But don’t think this is only a four-person all star-studded ensemble. The awesome gathering of newcomers is what separates this team from other past Texas powerhouses. Add-in New Mexico-transfers, the nationally-ranked and highly-touted, academically rock-solid Adamson boyz (Riley, Dak “The Pinning Machine” and Ace), toss-in All-American Louisiana-transfer David Staines and super freshman Justin Armstrong and stir. What do you get?

A rock-star lineup from 103 through 160 as good as any in the nation. A team that may be just too talented and too tough to tame. Lynch may be even able to handle teams like Blair (NJ), St. Edwards (Ohio), Great Bridge (VA) given the right circumstances.

It’s as simple as this: It doesn’t get any better. Good teams come and go, but this one is for the ages. The scary thought is that had they landed Alex Meade and/or Teddy Gambordella they could have been unstoppable.

Come December and January, they will find out just how good, and just how dangerous they are. In wrestling, talk is cheap. You must walk the walk on the mat. In wrestling you can run, but you cannot hide.

Texas has had great teams. The El Paso Burgess teams of 1979-82, Irving MacArthur teams of the early 80’s. St Marks in the early-to-mid 90’s, the Arlington Martin men in black and the Highland Park wrecking crew just about any year of the past seven. But none of these had the potential to go toe-to-toe with the top wrestlers in America like this Lynch team does.

There is a serious Achilles heel, of course. A major area of concern. From 171 through 275 the team is lean on experience and credentials. One exception to this may be Jack Thelian who has worked with the Dallas Dynamite club and is looking solid. For the first ten weights, there may not be a better lineup in the entire country. Pound-for-pound, weight-for-weight, man-for-man, for the first time in memory, there isn’t a better team in Oklahoma than this team in Texas. You can take that to the bank. I would pay real money to see Lynch pound on El Reno High School just to see the veins in Archibald “Bunker” Randall’s redneck explode.

With the only question marks in the front-side ten being freshman Justin Armstrong at 130, who has a great youth record with Team Monday, and Sean Rowe at 152 who is an unknown at this level, the Lynch team has All-American after All-American after All-American.

Of the six national Texas all-class wrestlers, according to Dan Fickel of Wrestling USA, five are Lynch wrestlers. For you math wizards out there, that’s 83%. That’s incredible. That’s stunning. Several B-L grapplers are ranked in the top ten nationally for their class including both Ashmores (#1 and #2) Silver (#2) Koepp (#1) and Dak Adamson (#3) and Riley Adamson (#4).

The bottom-line is that against the powerhouse teams in dual meets Lynch will give up 30+ points and will need all of their superstars to win. In tournaments except for possibly Blair and St. Edwards, Lynch should be right in the hunt. They do have two supreme tests. One tournament and one dual meet. (See below in “Running the Gauntlet.”)

ITW Projected Bishop Lynch Lineup:
(Note: Bishop Lynch will change their lineup on a constant basis depending on the format (dual vs. tournament), competition at given weights, etc. Watch for flip-flopping at 103/112, 119/125/130, 140/145, 171/180 and others. This is our projection of what would be the day-in and day-out team. This is not the projection of Bishop Lynch coaches or anyone involved with the program. It is ours).

103: Riley Adamson, Freshman, Fargo All-American
112: David Staines, Senior, Fargo All-American
119: Ben Ashmore, Senior, Fargo All-American and 2x Prep National Champion
125: Dak Adamson, Sophomore, Fargo All-America (Both Freestyle & G/R and scored an amazing 12 falls in 20:46 to win both styles pin award)
130: Justin Armstrong, Freshman
135: Luke Silver, Junior, Prep All-American
140: Johnny Koepp, Sophomore, Fargo All-American and Prep All-American
145: Luke Ashmore, Junior, Fargo National Champion, MOW and Prep National Champion
152: Up for grabs, but most likely Sean Rowe, Junior or Andrew Ellis, Junior
160: Ace Adamson, Senior
171 Jack Theilan, Senior (also may go 180)
180: Up for grabs most likely Russell Burgess (Senior) who will also contend at 171
189: Nolan Hahn, Junior
215: Nate Clear, Junior, battling with Peter Trantino, Senior
275: Mario Aguilar

You’ve come a long way, baby!
In late 1997, I was assigned to referee the dual meet at Bishop Lynch between the Friars and Arlington Bowie. That year Bowie was loaded. They had awesome, powerful wrestlers who would and could chew and pound the other team’s athletes. In some cases it was more like men vs. boys than wrestler versus wrestler.

At 152, Bowie had Ben Heizer. This was the first time I actually got to meet Ben, (the start of what has become a long and marvelous relationship). As the match was about to begin, I could quickly tell that the Lynch wrestler was young and inexperienced. I whispered to Heizer “Don’t hurt this kid.” He took him down easily, and carefully cradled him up for a quick fall, all with a smile on his face. Bowie just crushed Lynch. It was a battle of annihilation. The Lynch team had few guys out and even few with strong mat experience.

But in every match there was head coach Tim Mathews, on his knees on the corner of the mat coaching his heart out. Knowing his team was getting blasted never stopped Mathews from urging his young gladiators on. The score didn’t matter. The wrestler didn’t matter. Coaching his best with a group laden with inexperience. There just wasn’t much there for any coach to work with. Other coaches may have given up. Eight years ago B-L did not have a great wrestling future.

That was then. This is now.

Running the gauntlet.
Being a private school has its advantages. You can go anywhere and wrestle anyone you want without the constraints of a state governing body. Also, at times in a private school environment, well-healed parents and supporters can help defray travel expenses to allow the team to travel far and wide.

This is the case with Lynch who will undergo a tremendous schedule this year. The team will travel to Lawton, OK, Arkansas City, KS, the rugged and infamous “Beast of the East” in Delaware, and perhaps the most interesting test of all: The H.S. “Final Four.” The Beast may be the toughest but the final four could be labeled, “The Test of the Best.”

From the NHSCA site: In an attempt to determine which high school wrestling team is truly the best dual meet team in the country for the 2005-2006 season, the NHSCA presents the “Final Four” of High School Wrestling to the wrestling community.

Four of the top ranked high school wrestling teams in the country will determine on the mat instead of on paper, who truly has the best dual meet wrestling team in the country. The stage is set for what guarantees to be the most exciting team competition of the year. This event is a must for all wrestling fans to attend!

The format is a dual meet format. Two mats will be used during the morning and afternoon sessions. Every weight class will prove to be a key match. There will be three sessions beginning at 10:00 AM, Noon, and 2pm. The high school powerhouses entered in the 2006 event are Blair Academy (NJ), Easton (PA), Bishop Lynch (TX), and Parkersburg South (WV).

You are looking at the top teams in the nation in Blair and Easton and the team from Parkersburg is ranked in the top twenty-five and is also well schooled. Not having the 180-class will help Lynch, but the duals will be decided based on how they do from 103 through 160. It may not be unusual for Lynch to give up (in duals) up to 24 points from 171 on so the success of the team will come down to how well they do and how many bonus points they score from 103 through 160.

The coaches with the mostest.
Not only does Bishop Lynch have perhaps the strongest lineup in Texas history, but they have a coaching staff that is loaded too! Perhaps also the finest ever assembled at one school at one time in state history.

Some I have talked to wonder who is really the head coach. Do not kid yourself. Tim Mathews runs the show. He may not have the pedigree that others on his staff may have, but he does know how to get his kids ready and to perform. He is as rock-solid a person as you would want to be in the position of teacher and role model. Not only does he coach High School wrestling, he is returning from twenty months on active military duty (as a drill sergeant no less) with the U.S. Army. He is a full-time firefighter with the Coppell fire department. As I said in a speech one time to me that makes him three times a hero.

Once I had the pleasure (along with my grandson and future NCAA champion wrestler “Jumpin’ Jackie Flash” Austin) of riding in one of the big red fire trucks with Coach Tim. Now that was fun!

Backing up Coach Mathews as assistants are a couple of my Texas wrestling favorites in “Bullet” Bob Liston and Duane “Hip-Hop” Watts. Two classy and dedicated guys who really stepped up last year to help the Friars when Mathews was out much of the time on active duty. Duane works in on a weekly schedule. Also on the staff are three ex-Oklahoma State wrestlers, the very talented Ty Wilcox, and OG’s Kendall Cross and Kenny Monday. (Wilcox and Cross work on the weekly schedule, while Monday is daily.) You know or should know the background of these three guys so I won’t go into it but needless to say they bring a gold-medal track record of worldwide success and experience. Tom Schlachter backs up the team coaching the Jr. Friars group.

The team is solid. The staff is solid. The support system is solid. Now the time to talk and write is over. The time for action on the mat against the very best in America starts.

The Four Horsemen and their fellow stallions ride again!

By John Rizzuti
©2005 InsideTexasWrestling.com
All rights reserved
Written permission required to
reprint part or all of this story

For weeks, I have been following the unfolding saga of the Flower Mound High School wrestling team, it’s coming out party, and all that’s been publicized (including the two editorial columns in the Dallas Morning News – one by WBAP’s Mark Davis, and the other by my old buddy DMN columnist Kevin Blackistone). I’ve been flabbergasted by what I’ve seen – the good, the bad and the ugly. We’ve only been exposed to part of the story. The ugly part. Toss in graphic, predudial photographs, courtesy of an (suing, of course) attorney in this case. By the way, great move on their part to sear those nasty images into the minds-eye of the jury pool. Might as well cut the defense off right at their weak spot. Their nuts!

For the record, I live within the confines of the Lewisville Independent School District (LISD). The mail delivery says “Carrollton.” – the prestigous, ultra-hip, non-gated community of historic High Country Estates – all within the LISD. We’re like Highland Park, except that we’re not. We pay substantial property taxes that help keep the lights on in the schools. Coaches, teachers and administrators – we help pay their salaries. We have a vested interest in the LISD, including who teaches and who coaches, and how taxpayer dollars are spent.

I don’t know any of the plantiffs, any of the defendants, any of the attorneys (thank goodness), nor any of the parents, other than possible isolated, casual conversations at wrestling meets or online. I would be hard-pressed to put any name with any face. The only exception is Charles “Coach Z” Zascavage. More on the coach later.

I wasn’t at the pool party. Even if I was, I couldn’t have seen everything that transpired. A four-hour “bash” with close to a hundred people in attendance, means that no one did. No one knows exactly what happened that day. And no one ever will. A wise person once told me in any particular situation there are always three versions of what happened. Your side, my side, and the truth. I’ll leave the precise fact-finding to the investigators. The people directly involved aren’t talking.

This event isn’t about hazing. It isn’t about sexual assault. It isn’t about lax supervision.

This is about money. It’s all about the money. It’s always about the money.

Enter the ambulance chasers.

To the extent that it was malicious, whatever happened that afternoon and caused harm to a child was wrong. I’m not passing judgment on any actions by anybody. Pretty sure that the plaintiff’s parents saw big dollar signs – huge dollar signs – when this all came down. Their attorney, “Yakety-yak, get cash back,” Mary Alice McLarty, was making a big pitch in the newspapers and on TV about her clients getting beaten silly by “foam” water toys. OUCH! I don’t know about you, but the first sight of a pool toy sends soap bubbles up my spine!

Here is her quote from The Dallas Morning News: “McLarty said upperclassmen targeted freshmen in a gantlet and punched, slapped and whipped them with foam water toys. (Emphasis mine.) Man, those are weapons of mass distraction. I’ll bet they pack quite a wallet.

Look up “ambulance chaser” in the dictionary and you’ll probably see her picture. Ms. McLarty proudly lists a myriad of personal injury cases on her firm’s web site. One case located near the top of a very long list says she handled “Boys who were hazed and beaten at a boarding school.”

Nice to know she has a pre-packaged, ready-to-go case file. Wonder if she’ll drop her fee for this one. Let’s do the math. On a million-dollar settlement her firm could get $300,000 to $400,000, if her fees are in line with typical percentages. Yes, it looks like they work on “commission!” Somebody smack me on the noggin and let’s get floggin!

She has the (balls) to have the above-mentioned Dallas Morning News story (http://www.maryalice.com/HazingFlowerMoundHS.html) front and center on her web site, too. In my opinion, you have to have arrogant disregard for the concept of “innocent until proven guilty.” The bodies aren’t even cold yet and she’s all over this like flies on a gut wagon. She’s ranting and raving about her clients being swatted about by rubber-duckies!

These are wrestlers. This isn’t pocket-pool. This isn’t band. Wrestling is hand-to-hand combat. Who do you think makes up the majority of professional mixed-martial arts fighters in the world today? It’s wrestlers! The soon-to-be Chief Justice of the United Sates Supreme Court, the Secretary of Defense and the Speaker of the House of Representatives are all former wrestlers. They are smart and they are they are tough.

Perhaps Mary Mary Quite Contrary should take a look at the physical condition of a wrestler after a state tournament to see what the sport is all about. It is survival of the fittest. The law of the jungle rules. Wrestling makes gangsta rap look like gospel. If you’re in a foxhole in Vietnam and artillery shells are exploding all around you whom do you want next to you? Paris Hilton or Danny Hodge?

My freshman year at college (I was only 18 – barely, weighing 150 pounds, wearing my little red Speedo, with just slightly over two years of total wrestling experience) was one of the most difficult and demanding experiences of my life. It included daily ass-whippings of a massive magnitude. I will never forget those long daze and wasted nights. (Once a King always a King, but once a Knight’s enough!) That year made anything that happened in Flower Mound or a thousand Flower Mounds, pale in comparison. I bring it up only because I knew what I was getting into – at least to some degree.

The first two days of workouts were “initiation” or so we were told (or perhaps simply getting ready for real world college athletics). We were joining a fraternity called “college wrestler.” We were punching bags. Kicked, smacked, gouged, twisted, you name it, and we got it. It was a rite of passage. I would never trade it for anything. Once a wrestler, always a wrestler.

At one point, I was sure I was going to break. But to say anything to anybody, to complain to anybody about anything would have been a disaster – a scar(lett) letter of the worst kind. Here’s a pretend conversation Þ:

Me: Gosh, wrestling is really tough and these upperclassmen are mean to us freshmen.

College Challcellor: What do you want me to do about it? If you don’t like it, go out for golf.

Me: There is one kid who picked on me and he weighed a whole hundred pounds! Isn’t this assault or harassment?

CC: No. Assault is getting your ass kicked by some gangstas over 50 cent(s) at the 7/11. Harassment hasn’t been invented yet. This is only 1971.

Me: So, like what should I do?

CC: Why don’t you get off your lazy butt and get back in the wrestling room and learn some moves to defend yourself. And quit wasting my time, sissy.

Me: That’s hot.

Here’s how this case ultimately plays out.

Two predictions. First, the LISD will cough up tens of thousands of dollars (or more) for the plaintiffs without a court fight. Second, none of the defendants will be found guilty of any crime. I’ll take bets on both of these calls. I’ve been there, done that, own the t-shirt, and bought the silk-screening equipment, too. I can just imagine the glee and pulse-pounding excitement when the checks start rolling in. Fast Times at Flower Mound High (for the parents anyway). I’ll bet the local Lexus dealership is salivating over this settlement.

If this isn’t about money, then why do you hire a Scary Mary? If this isn’t about money then there shouldn’t be a lawsuit looking for punitive damages. By the way, the case for the prosecution has more holes than Clyde Barrow.

More advice? Fight fire with fire. I would look at hiring the meanest (and savviest) junkyard dog (JYD) criminal defense attorney in the area. I know. I have used him.

Somebody like Barry Sorrels, who is often seen on Court TV as an expert in criminal defense tactics and strategies. You put Barry, or someone at his level, up against Denton County prosecutors and it will be a massacre.

No way do I condone needless, reckless, senseless violence, or the denial of civil rights. Nor do I diminish what, if any, serious injuries that may have occurred. But how many of them come even within a million miles of what happened to young John Prigg two years ago. Do you see their family filing a negligence lawsuit?

As Mrs. Prigg told me once on the phone, “This isn’t about money. This is about getting Jay (John Prigg, Jr.) back to where he was before.” Here is a family with (IMO) a slam-dunk case against the very same LISD, mentioned earlier. (If they have filed or plan to file, at the present time, I have no knowledge of any action being contemplated.)

So what is the big deal? Flower Mound loses the guts of what could have been a fabulous wrestling season. But who gives a flip about wrestling anyway? It isn’t football for goodness sake. The kids and parents put their lives back together. Sure there is some damage but who cares as long as the checks clear. Everyone eventually moves on. Nolo contendere.

Just for the record, this is not the first time something like this has happened at Flower Mound High School. Looks like it’s CYA time for the administration. Think about it. Do some homework. You might be surprised by what you find.

All’s well that ends well. Except for the one person in this affair I personally know. One Charles Zascavage, a/k/a Coach “Z.” When I saw his mugshot in the Fort Worth Startle-Gram, I saw the look of a beaten man. Here is a guy who in the all the years I have know him has never said a negative word, and never done anything but be a total stand-up guy. Now he has his jailhouse photo in newspapers, TV and websites, all over the country. Too bad they didn’t use the picture of Coach Z when he was named coach of the year by a group of his peers. Fame is fleeting.

Here is a guy closely aligned with Texas USA Wrestling, yet never once did he take a shot at me, InsideTexasWrestling.com, or any of the people I work with here. The reason? Unlike some others over there (and you know exactly who I’m talking about), he has too much class to bring himself down to that level. I refereed many matches for The Colony H.S., and never once, never one time, did he question a call even though both of us knew I would sometimes miss one.

Attempted Character Assassination.

“Google” his name. You’ll see what I’m talking about. Forget about “Coach of the Year.” Forget about creating a wrestling powerhouse at Flower Mound. Forget spending his summers working his rear off for Team Texas. Forget it all. All the kudos are down and gone from the school website. Earth to LISD, he sill alive! Earth to LISD, innocent until proven guilty!

At some level he’s been tried and convicted by innuendo. When he’s found not guilty, and he will be, where will that coverage play? Will Flower Mound High School put back his creds back on the school website? Who foots the bill for his attorneys?

This is a man who lives to teach and coach. He’s certainly not in the business for the money. Yet he’s being dragged across hot coals for the love of money.

Do you think he will ever get back his reputation? The only way he will get it back is to take it back. Coach Z is in the match of his life. Imagine your mugshot in front of millions of people. But it is a victory that can be won and will be won. He will come out of this affair better and smarter.

Coach Z has proven that no matter how hard we try, how good of a person we are, no one is perfect. He made a mistake at that pool party. He showed up. Past that, no one knows the whole story, the true story – no one! I would say that if anyone can recover from this, it is Coach Z. He has what most of us can only talk about – and that is “character.”

Unfortunately, I know a little something about character assassination. Unless you have been living in a cave the past two years, you know exactly what I mean, and whom I’m talking about. For the past two years, I have been the subject of extensive, ongoing, devious character assassination attempts (not to this extent, of course) just because I have an alternate amateur wrestling website that people love. In my case, I’m dealing with lightweights (not exactly lightweights, but you get my drift) so nothing they try has any impact on me.

Unlike the clowns, the fatties, and ambulance chasers of the world, wrestlers will stand up and fight back. We have to. It’s in our nature. You try to railroad a wrestler and you will have your ass handed back to you – sliced, diced and julienne-fried.

If you think you know the whole story of the Flower Mound Pool Party, you don’t. When Coach Z and the other defendants get their say, the rose will be swathed in different hues, for sure. Let’s hope they get their day in court and the LISD doesn’t fold the tent and write the checks. Please, do not give in to the ambulance chasers and those who think they are in for some easy money.

Coach Z? His time for redemption is coming. Bet your bottom dollar on it. I hope he puts a Barry Sorrels-type on his team. When everything is on the line, always go with a JYD. They take no prisoners.

Until next time, Texas

John Rizzuti
Managing Editor
InsideTexasWrestling.com

jrizzuti@aol.com