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Tom Elling’s Wrestling Mat-ters: Visiting Old Friends

The wintery weather put a damper on the wrestling schedule in the area, but the sun was shining again brightly Wednesday morning. Somewhere in that, there has to be a lesson. right?

The postponement of the State College at Central Mountain meet on Tuesday and the reunion of several undefeated teams did cause a few modifications, but I am pleased to report several of the LHHS 1972-73 team got together at Haywood’s for about three hours of reliving the old times, our perspectives now as opposed to then, and general catching up with each other. Special thanks to CM Coach Biff Walizer for setting this all in motion. Coach Bill Bailey was unable to attend, but did send his good wishes to all of our team. Coach Dave Liddick did accompany me to the gathering and we had a splendid time listening to some of the thing the guys did behind our back and thought we didn’t know about. Although Tim Malinak didn’t make it, we related that we actually knew that he and several others were stopping by the Haven Bake Shop for treat while they were on their downtown run prior to practice. (Horrors that any coach today would even entertain the thought of allowing these young men to run the streets. But that is another story for another time.)

Brian Davis came the greatest distance, flying in from Georgia. Brian is in his pre-retirement mode as a dentist in the Peach State. He informed us that he has also had contact with another former LHHS wrestler /dentist in Georgia: Mike Vuocolo. Dan Brown made the trip over the Seven Mountains from Mount Union. Dan, as you may remember, coached former Penn State NCAA Champion and also former PSU coach Troy Sutherland. Troy was a two-time state champion. Dan Ireland came up from Harrisburg. Dan in his 2nd or 3rd retirement is back as an assistant coach at Milton Hershey High. He gave us updated on his brothers, Mike and Todd, also former Bobcat wrestlers. And two of our guys who stayed in the area, Randy Brungard and Steve Geise, added greatly to the mix. Randy (and wife Nikky) kindly offered their farmhouse to those who travelled. Randy also was instrumental in contacting a lot of the team. Skip Bolin was on his way, but was forced by the storm to turn back to his Shaler residence. John Bartges couldn’t make the trip from Texas, but he did send a copy of a rule book (with Wonderous Wade on the cover) and the CWC Champion windbreaker the Bobcat Boosters bought for the team. We also heard belatedly from former team member, Denny Ramm.

Quite a group, all successful. Dentist, physician, chiropractor, lawyer, educators, coaches, business executives. Proud to have been their coach.

The CWC (Central Wrestling Conference) is mentioned above. That was the very best of Central Pennsylvania wrestling schools. Such coaches as Dick Rhoades, Marty Rusnak, Ron Pifer, Tom Muir, Doug Niebel, Dave Caslow and Neil Turner were the competition. There were not any easy matches.

But maybe not as visible back then was a guy from Bellefonte: Walter Young. Before the days of computer instant reports, Walter served as the official statistician for the CWC. I fondly remember checking the CDT for each week’s release to see where my Bobcats stood. Walter never made an error. There was no finer man, nor better choice for the position. Last week, Walter Young passed away. Rest in peace, sir. Your legacy will continue as long as someone keeps my scrapbooks or checks microfilm of area newspapers.

AJ Schopp is returning. The former Tyrone and Edinboro great is an assistant for Purdue University wrestling. AJ (and Mitchell Port) were special guest of ours at a wrestling breakfast a couple years of ago. We hope to catch up with AJ Friday when the Boilermakers invade Rec Hall.

Joby Topper and I have embarked on a project to fill in some missing history for LHU in the mid-seventies to the late 80’s. Anyone having old clippings, scrapbooks or photos are important to our research. Please contact either of us if you have any information.

College-wise, Brown University will be at LHU on Sunday January 21, while the Nittany Lions will head south of the Mason-Dixon line to take on Kerry McCoy’s Maryland Terrapins (just a fancy word for turtles, Mr. Liddick). LHU is trying to ovrcome some injuries in the uppers.

Central Mountain heads to Sunbury for a meet with much-improved Shikellamy (John L and I will bring you that action over local radio station WBPZ and streamed on theRecord-online.com). The meet with State College has been rescheduled for Monday, Jan 22nd.)

Bald Eagle Area (10-0) wrestled Philipsburg-Osceola last night and will also be taking on Shikellamy Saturday in Sunbury. Shik should be the only challenge in the way to prevent an undefeated regular season for the Eagles. However, they will take part in the West Branch tournament January 26.

Bellefonte is 7-4 after a 2-2 result in the Virginia Duals. The Raiders will next face Central (Martinsburg). A make-up with Clearfield is also on the tab.

The District Dual Meet Championships are also just around that proverbial corner. Most of our immediate reading area involves the AAA. This should be a very tight event. BEA would be the favorite as they own wins over Central Mountain (39-33) and Bellefonte (42-25). Central Mountain owns a win over always-dangerous Mifflin County (40-24), and P-O is in the mix.

Bring your popcorn! Should be entertaining.

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