.

"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, who is now a recently retired University of  Richmond Professor that fortunately continues sharing his knowledge with Collegiate's athletic program, and favorably impacting people´s lives  forever...  Early on he received considerable help from Graylon Crisp (still at Collegiate) 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 (featured above), Larry Jarman & Ted Pinnick (featured above).  

Collegiate's most recent varsity coaches include:  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 $9 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.)

March Matness?  Or Mat Madness?  Either way, here are the NCAA wrestling team final scores for 2008.    Did you notice how a former Prep wrestler from our neighboring state of Tennessee won it all at 157 lbs. for Cornell?   

Have you heard about the new wrestling club at St. Chris for offseason preparation & competition?  

Congrats to all Cougars who performed for us during the 2008 postseason!  

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...)

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

How do these Virginia prep school wrestling (VISWA) individual & team rankings look to you?  

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.    Congrats to all Cougars who did their best during the post-season!  

Can you believe that Collegiate's varsity has been regularly forfeiting 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...

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

On Sunday, January 27th, 2008 there was a showdown between Va. Tech. & U.Va @ St. C, 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).  

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)?

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

Are you interested in seeing real wrestling done on a professional level on t.v.?  Now you can!  Please check out RealProWrestling.com.

March Matness? Here's the best, freely available page of which we're aware that details the NCAA wrestling tourney  results...  Here are the NCAA wrestling team final scores for 2008.

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 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 has been 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.

Congratulations to all Cougars who performed well during the post-season!

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