I've been trying to come up with a catchy name for it for weeks now and in the last-minute-panic mode that drives most of my creativity, I've come up with "The Semifinal." Why? It's based on the notion that, at least in high-quality tournaments, the semifinal round is often the the most intriguing. While the championship round is supposed to pit the two best wrestlers against one another, too often they are afraid to make a mistake and are so cagey that the scores are low and the action is dull.
The semifinal round, however, is where the fur really flies, so to speak, and the wrestlers' skills are best displayed. That's the goal of this entry: To show the best and brightest of wrestling. I'll break it down into three areas and, if it's a good week, maybe an overtime period. The first period will be news and notes from the previous week. The second period will be what's on tap for the coming week. The third period will be for issues bigger than just that week. And the overtime? Who knows what will happen there.
So, here it is, The Semifinal for 12/13.
First Period
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| Josh Patrick finished fourth in the state last year, and ,if Saturday was any indication, he could improve upon that this season |
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Upset-minded: It might not have made a major ripple, but I was mildly surprised by Kody Ofsanko's 4-2 victory over Logan Blackburn at 113 pounds in Davidsville. Ofsanko was 17-19 for Conemaugh Township last season while Blackburn was 21-7, and the Westmont wrestler would have been the top seed in the District 6 Class AAA tournament if a knee injury hadn't ended his season prematurely. Blackburn might spend much of the year at 106, but it was still a good win for Ofsanko.
Second Period
On deck: Wow, what a first full week of the season. You could argue that this is the best week of wrestling for the entire season. How about this lineup:- Tuesday-Cambria Heights at Westmont Hilltop and Bedford at North Star
- Wednesday-Conemaugh Township at Berlin Brothersvalley and Somerset at Cambria Heights
- Thursday-Westmont Hilltop at Bedford
- Friday-Sheetz Tournament at Penn Cambria and North Star at Chestnut Ridge
- Saturday-Sheetz Tournament at Penn Cambria
How's that for starting with a bang? Tonight's matchup's will answer questions about the team races. How much of a contender is Cambria Heights in the LHAC and District 6 (even though Westmont is in AAA again this year)?
The same goes for North Star. Last year, the Bisons won 54-12. If the Cougars want to be seen as a major player in the District 5 and WestPAC races, they'll need to be much better tonight.
Wednesday is more of the same. Township will make its WestPAC case against defending champion Berlin while Cambria Heights hosts the second leg of brutal back-to-back matches.
Thursday is arguably the biggest match of the year, with the two LHAC heavyweights slugging it out in Bedford. Last year, Westmont won 39-23 en route to an unbeaten record and the conference crown.
Friday is the "weak night" in this lineup. I haven't seen the lineup for the Penn Cambria tournament yet, but there always are some interesting matches there. We'll already know a lot about North Star by Friday, and will find out more about the Lions.
On Saturday, there should be some "Made-To-Order" finals at the Sheetz tournament.
Third Period
Richland is going into Beast Mode. The Rams were a late entry into the Beast of the East in Delaware and, with no disrespect intended toward the rest of the team, the decision was all about Rizzo. My understanding is only a half-dozen Rams will even be entered in one of the country's toughest tournaments, but this is really about how Rizzo will perform on the national stage.
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| John Rizzo can make a splash nationally this weekend at the Beast of the East tournament in Delaware. |
Despite an 82-2 record and the two PIAA Class AA titles that Rizzo has won over the past two years, he still has some questions to answer. He's never wrestled in a POWERade, an Ironman or a Beast of the East. He hasn't been to Fargo or showed what he can do in the NWCA Nationals or Super 32.
And what do we make of his decision to wrestle at 220 this season instead of 285? There's an argument to be made that winning 285 is easier than 220 because there are fewer elite-level athletes in the heaviest weight class.
Rizzo should get an opportunity to answer all of those questions and more in Newark. Assuming that he is at 220, which I believe he will be, he should have Intermat's second-ranked Kyle Snyder of Good Counsel, Md., and No. 6 A.J. Vizcarrando of Wyoming Seminary in his weight class. Should he decide to wrestle at 285, Rizzo - who is ranked fifth there - would be in the same weight as top-ranked Brooks Black of Blair Academy.
And those are just wrestlers from the teams listed on the Beast of the East website. Richland isn't one of those, so there's always the chance that some other big names will be there as well.
Whatever happens, we'll know more about where Rizzo ranks among the nation's best by Sunday night.
Overtime
One of the perks of my job is that I get to know plenty of coaches and fans from a number of different schools. I encounter plenty of personalities and, for the most part, see the joy that coaches get in working with their wrestlers.
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| Westmont Hilltop's Eric Kowalewski smiles atop the podium on Saturday. |
No one seems to have more fun coaching than Matt Beaujon and the Westmont Hilltop staff. Whether it's new top assistant Matt Metzgar or former assistants Mark Miller or Derrick Callihan, they all seem to enjoy what they're doing - and they do it well. The respect that the Westmont wrestlers have for the staff is evident, but so is the genuine enjoyment they seem to get from being around one another.
That was on display Saturday at the Conemaugh Township Holiday Tournament. Mount Union might have ended the Hilltoppers' stranglehold on the team title, but that didn't ruin the day for Beaujon and Co. During the prolonged awards ceremony at the end of the tournament, one of the Hilltoppers found a way to poke some fun at himself.
Eric Kowalewski, who has had trouble breaking into a lineup featuring Ryan Burnheimer, Josh Duplin and Don Shovestull, made a name for himself by storming from the sixth seed to the CT tournament title on Saturday. Then, Kowalewski made a spectacle of himself - but it was all in good fun.
Beaujon had told his wrestlers that he wanted them to wear their Westmont warmup tops for podium pictures. Kowalewski, on a dare from his teammates, asked Beaujon if he could wear his singlet - with straps up and no shirt or shorts - onto the stand instead. Beaujon chuckled and gave his blessing. To take the levity a step further, Beaujon told him to wear his headgear.
The longer Kowalewski waited for the 195-pound ceremony, the more he got input on how to handle it. He was told to run up to the podium just like he would head onto the mat for a match. Then, he started smacking himself in the head to get psyched up for the ceremony. And, just before he took off for the podium, Burnheimer passed him and wished him good luck.
There were plenty of snickers when Kowalewski stepped up to accept his award - and even more when he flashed a big grin for pictures, all the while unknowingly holding his bracket card backward.
It was all harmless fun. Kowalewski had earned his moment in the spotlight and seemed to enjoy it immensely. It wasn't a joke being made at his expense; he was in on it and loving every minute of it, as were Beaujon, the Westmont wrestlers and their fans.
As one Hilltop supporter put it, "We might have gotten second place, but we had first-place fun."
Nothing wrong with that.
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