Random notes from an admitted non-expert upon return (to Georgia) from the 2019 Southern Scuffle:
All around great event, once again. Thanks for listening.
SR/BHF
- WEATHER: 2018-14 degrees when the doors opened on Day One; 2019-60 degrees. Kudos to the tournament organizers for fixing that.
- JonZ sighting: Human scoreboard (currently on self-imposed hiatus) JonZ made his second consecutive appearance at the Scuffle, proudly (but falsely) asserting that his singing of the national anthem had improved. The good news: He did turn the volume down…I’ll give him that…and on Day Two, our row of seats was empty in the other direction, allowing me to move to a safer distance (recalling a line from “Tootsie”: “How do you feel about Cleveland?”) from JonZ’s vocal manglings. The bad news: The tournament organizers sucker punched me before the finals, unexpectedly (they hadn’t done it before the evening session on Day One) running a second anthem when I was trapped and captive. Forget my compliment about the weather, organizers. YOU sit next to him next year!
- RBY: Would like to look at a replay, but in real time it felt to me like the action was OOB (and that RBY reacted briefly that way, as well) just before Gomez threw and stuck him. However, it was apparent for several seconds prior to that moment that the tie-up could well have an unhappy ending. Still…fun guy to watch…and an impressive final result, I thought.
- 141: Nick Lee got a good challenge from the Stanford guy (Woods) in the finals and a strong ride from Shoop (LH) in the semis, but outcomes never seemed in doubt. Brock (OKST) mff’ed after two rounds. We couldn’t get a line on what the injury was, but if it’s any kind of lingering issue, their Plan B might be to have Gfeller cut to 141 and plug Lewallen back in at 149 if/when recovered from a shoulder injury.
- 149: Comment offered during a Berge match: “You know, if he wrestled anywhere but Penn State, we’d be talking about what a sound, solid wrestler he is, and that he’s a guy you’d hate to draw in a tournament.” Win over a top ten opponent, a one-point loss to the best of the many Duke Finesilvers, and a third-place finish (outperforming his seed)…nothing wrong with any of that.
- 149: The worst 6 minutes and ten seconds of the tournament: 1. JonZ’s singing of three national anthems at 2 minutes apiece; 2. the last five seconds of the RBY/Gomez match; and 3. the last five seconds of the Verkleeren/Zovistoski match. After the match, Jarrod did not appear to be in a mood for conversation as he walked off the mat. Cael and Cody followed him into the runway, and Cael spoke to him for just a few moments before Jarrod and his thoughts sat down together on the floor against a wall. There will be better days for Jarrod, though it probably didn’t seem like it at that moment.
- 157: Bo Pipher…wow! For me, the match of the tournament was Pipher/Carson (OHIO) in the semis…lots of scrambles, lots of action…never felt like that one was going the distance. And it didn’t. Unseeded Southern Scuffle runner-up. Very nice!
- 157: But Jason Nolf is still your Daddy.
- 165: Tournament organizers back on my good side: I liked the decision to save Joseph-Marsteller for last. Cenzo got his money’s worth there, as well as from Griffith (STAN) in the quarters. And how about Manville? Looked like he belonged in fast company, losing only to Marsteller (they were tied 1-1 well into the third period) and by one point to another of the Duke Finesilvers, placing seventh. Nice to see him still wrestling on finals night. Or at all, in the blue and white, for that matter.
- 165: Rogers (OKST) had to injury default out of his consolation semifinal match with a leg injury. Maybe not all that noteworthy to us, but the scene was odd. Chandler was down on the mat, clearly in pain, and no one…coaches, trainer, pizza guy…no one...went out to check on him. He looked around…thought about it for a few seconds…and took off his ankle bands, defaulting the match. Then he hopped off the mat holding his left hamstring. Still couldn’t draw a crowd. Hopped another 50 yards or so on one leg into the runway…still holding the hamstring…still no friends. Bizarre. Saw him later on crutches, so either he finally got medical attention…or he beat somebody up for a pair of crutches. Based on my intimate knowledge of hamstring problems from fantasy football (I vow not to draft any running back with hamstrings next year), I’m going to speculate that he’ll be out of action for two to four weeks, but be fine going forward. Unless it’s not really a hamstring. Then you’re on your own.
- 174: Mark Hall is just good. Even tied as the clock ran down in the third against a quality opponent, Joe Smith (OKST) in the finals, it felt like they could wrestle all night, and Smith would never take him down. Quick Hall takedown, a couple back points, let’s go home. Just another day at the office. On a personal note, my room at the hotel was directly across from Mark’s, and at the end of the first night, we got back to our rooms at the same time. Mark was scanning his room key (in perfect position, of course) as I walked up the hall. “Hey, Mark.” Mark: :::mumbling::: “hey.” (When Mark writes his autobiography, I am quite confident that this moment will not survive the final cut.) When I checked out Wednesday morning and the lady at the counter asked me about my stay, I told her it was fine…except that the wild partying of the Penn State wrestlers kept me up all night. (Oh, yes, I did.) Her face went white, and she started to stammer out an apology. I cut her off. “No, no, no….PLEASE no!!! They were fine…I was just kidding with you…..NOOO!!! Do NOT tell anyone I said that!!! NOOOO!!!” Sometimes…OK…MOST of the time…I should just shut up.
- 184: Nice win, and it appears to me that Shak has become a very solid wrestler in all four positions: top, bottom, neutral, and “OK…now I’m going to cradle your butt.” But my favorite Shak moment of the tournament was seeing him with a little (maybe 7 years old?) kid in the concourse, signing the kid’s t-shirt as the kid pulled his sweatshirt up to make room for the autograph…smiling…bantering with the kid…patting him on the head as he left. Don’t know if Shak got a good look at the kid’s face as he walked away…but I did. He made that kid’s day. We have a lot of guys like that on the team, I think. But in that moment, I’m not sure which one of those two was enjoying the moment more. And that’s the image of Shak that is sticking with me this morning.
- 197: I think Penn State should be OK at 197 by March.
- 285: Sometimes, the tournament experience is enhanced in the most unexpected ways. Early on Day One, I was sitting in Section 102 with JonZ and another friend, with pretty much all Penn State people around us. Until a couple (husband and wife James and Debbie, as it turns out) dressed in orange climbed over us to their seats…right next to me. I wasn’t sure if I should start a conversation or a fight, but…well, you probably know me well enough by now to know which direction it took. They actually seemed pretty nice, and by late morning, they trusted me enough to share a horrifying personal secret: they were the parents of OKST 285-pounder Derek White. Hey…we all have our skeletons…so conversation remained friendly through the two-day event, even as it became clear that the tournament would come down to the two Penn Staters, Nevills and Cassar…and Derek White. Mom and Dad behaved acceptably throughout White’s 4-0 semifinal victory over Nevills (Not a given. Debbie found herself on the business end of a headlock from the mother of Derek’s opponent after his high school state final victory over the defending champion. She claims complete innocence in the encounter.) and exhibited an appropriate degree of excitement and enthusiasm…but with no outward gloating…when he took down Cassar 2-1 to win the championship. Clearly, I’m taking some artistic license here. What nice people! By that time, many of the nearby Penn Staters realized who the Whites were, and those who did congratulated them sincerely on Derek’s victory. Sure, we were rooting for our guys (some more vociferously than others), but the final was a good match between two good wrestlers, with a fair result. And in my view, the congratulations offered to the Whites weren’t necessarily just a perfunctory display of good sportsmanship, but those offering them were genuinely happy for these fine folks who had been such good company over the course of the tournament. Derek came up to see them right after the match, so we all congratulated him, as well. For their part, the Whites freely admitted that we (speaking primarily of JonZ and me, I think) treated them far better than we treat each other. Of course, that was only after I threatened to post that James enjoyed JonZ’s singing on the message board. (“That’s not what I said! I just said ‘It wasn’t that bad!’ ”) Anyway, I think our guys are going to be OK, I expect Derek will be around at the end in March, and I’m pretty sure we made a couple new friends.
All around great event, once again. Thanks for listening.
SR/BHF
