So, my career as a sophomore wrestler came to a swift end when late in January I became a junior. Mr. Winters the school athletic director went around to all the coaches the day the new semester began and gave them the list of students who had changed grade levels and warned them of the sanctions the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association would impose if a student athlete participated at the wrong level. He could have done it during the day but chose to do it during practice after school. All of the coaches and students took his stern warning with the utmost of seriousness acting as if it was the first time we heard such a policy, at least until he was halfway down the hall. Then, we laughed and went back to practicing.
My rival on the B-team, Brede, had a wrestle-off the week before with a varsity wrestler. Unfortunately he didn’t make it. We had a wrestle-off for the 138-weight division the first week of the new semester. He was a very smart wrestler and even though I resisted he managed to corner me and get me into a clench where our hands are on the back of each other’s neck. He slipped a quick takedown move on me and I was behind in points right away. Determined not to let him ride me or keep me on my knees I sat out and slid from his grasp. As soon as he got to his feet I shot down and took his legs out and rode him the rest of the time.
My victory was short lived. As soon as I had my first match Brede was back to challenge me. He learned a couple of new moves and dominated me almost pinning me a couple times. I felt humiliated and decided to sweat my way down to the 133-weight class where I dominated all competition at the B-level for the remainder of the season.
With Steinbrecher, Lenarduzzi and Bollman dominating all their opponents there was little chance Cifaldi, myself or Brede were going to replace them at the varsity level in the 127, 133 or 138 weight divisions. We did however put together a fairly impressive record of our own. Among the three of us we only had a couple of defeats and a couple of ties. Brede developed his pin moves better than either of us, but both Cifaldi and I scored a lot of points, and if the guy happened to roll on his back we knew how to finish him off.
Usually the best times were after the three of us had finished our matches. We were always curious to see who actually would watch the B team since the varsity team was definitely the stronger draw. At Marshall we pretty much knew who would be there. A few guys had friends or parents who showed up, but other than that the only spectators were a bunch of guys in tights.
When we finished at Bay View High School we were surprised to notice a few attractive girls sitting in the bleachers looking in our direction. Although Brede was probably more reserved than me, for Cifaldi flirtation came naturally. As he smiled back at them and mouthed some words he teased me that the blonde with the Marianne Faithful bangs wanted me. Brede snickered and looked away.
During the heavyweight match the girls’ focus went away from us and to the wrestlers on the mat. Brede said he thought the Bay View wrestler might be the brother of one of the girls. Cifaldi said he figured a Jew like me and an Italian like him didn’t stand a chance with girls in Bay View where most of the names sounded like Kowalski, Poplinski and Sturmarouski.
It really didn’t matter, because as soon as the heavyweights finished the girls disappeared into the crowd and Coach Kopecky and Coach Foti hustled us onto the bus.
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