Coach Gunderson had warned us against pursuing soft sports like basketball in between seasons of football. Apparently setting a pick, blocking out for a rebound, or taking a charge didn’t have the same physical impact as they do today. It’s difficult to imagine any coach referring to guys like Lebron James, Dwight Howard or Shaquille O’Neil as soft.
No thanks to the coach who brutally tongue lashed me, sent me to the bench, and never gave me a chance to redeem myself I chose to wrestle. Midwinter sports in Milwaukee Public Schools included basketball, swimming, gymnastics and wrestling. Interestingly, the only one where a team plays together, unless one counts relay races as together, is basketball, but obviously such a concept was lost on Coach G.
One important factor not lost on me in my choice was the outstanding performance of the John Marshall High School wrestling team and the reputation of its coach, Mr. Kopecky. Since midwinter sports straddle the two semesters I had arrived on time the previous January to witness the wrestling team under Coach Kopecky win their first city championship. The team went on to win the regional, place second at the sectional meet, and sent several wrestlers to the state tournament in Madison.
Coach Kopecky and his assistant, Coach Foti, liked to give everyone a chance to make the team. To that end they never cut anyone and had wrestle-offs to allow those who improved to challenge the person currently wrestling at a particular weight. They also encouraged students to lose weight in order to drop into a weight class where they might be more competitive. Today, many question this practice and its long-term affect on the health of developing adolescents. I’m not convinced I was harmed by the practice of losing weight during my teenage years, but I would not subscribe to the practice as a way to be more competitive today.
Coach Kopecky was responsible for the varsity team, Coach Foti was responsible for the freshman-sophomore team, and they both shared responsibility for coaching the B-team that was a notch above the fresh-soph team and a notch below varsity. Since I was still a sophomore until January I started wrestling on the fresh-soph team. Dropping my just over 140 frame to 138 was not a difficult task. Unfortunately, at that weight level the varsity wrestler was a returning letterman and Brede, who was right behind him in ability had wrestled the previous year and kept beating me for the B-team spot.
So, after learning a simple take down, how to escape by using a sit-out move, and developing the ability to slip a half nelson, push my chin down into the opponent’s shoulder, and drive with both legs until the ref signaled a pin, I wrestled a few matches as a sophomore. I learned my advantages over my opponents were the quickness with which I made my moves and my ability to counter their moves by anticipating what they were going to do. Upper body strength was what most opponents attempted to use with little success since I was able to slip under their grasp or peel their hands away. Once I slipped away, did my take down, and drove hard with my legs points piled up. I won two of three matches, pinning one, winning by points against another, and tying the third.
In practice I had little difficulty defeating any of my competition. My stiffest competition came from Nemovitz’s younger brother who tried to muscle his way to victory only to have me slip away time and again. Everything was going along just fine that is until the end of January when I would be a junior and would have to progress to the B-team, if not beyond.
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