Coleman Scott Sounds Off
Just over a week after he was announced as an assistant coach with the Ohio RTC, Coleman Scott sat down with Ryan Holmes to discuss how this opportunity came together and what he hopes to accomplish in the new role.
The two also hit on a variety of topics. With it being the middle of the Summer Olympics, Scott talks about the unique circumstances surrounding him making the 2012 team, along with his Olympic experience, and having to pick himself up and wrestle for the bronze medal after a difficult semifinal loss.
Scott also talks about the situation at Oklahoma State this year – as he was an associate head coach and in the running for the head coaching job that ultimately went to David Taylor. He also addresses a situation regarding financial allegations that were made against him.
Scott is very honest about his feelings to potentially leave … more at … https://intermatwrestle.com/articles.html/college/coleman-scott-sounds-off-r99417/
Maryland wrestler aims to be the greatest of all time
The 24-year-old from Hagerstown won four NCAA titles
Aaron Brooks, a standout wrestler from Hagerstown, Maryland, is set to make his Olympic debut in Paris. According to this family, Brooks is likely the first Olympian ever from his hometown.
Brooks, who recently won the prestigious Hodge Trophy as the nation’s top collegiate wrestler, has been chasing his dream for 19 years. “When his dad asked him what he wanted to be, he said he wanted to be the greatest of all time,” Brooks’ mom, Ranelle Boyd, said.
Brooks is already on his way. He boasted an impressive 163-2 record at North Hagerstown High School before moving on to Penn State University, where he won four national titles.
Boyd recalls her first time watching him wrestle: “I didn’t know he was winning because I didn’t understand the points, so I’m crying because I just see his opponent being really physical with him.” Since then, Boyd has become well-versed in wrestling rules, which will be handy as she watches her son compete in Paris. “I never would’ve imagined that I, Ranelle Boyd, would have an Olympian,” Boyd said. “He’s always going to be my baby boy, not the Olympian, not the 24-year-old man. That’s my baby.” … more at … https://www.nbcwashington.com/paris-2024-summer-olympics/maryland-wrestler-aims-to-be-the-greatest-of-all-time/3675270/
Editorial: Olympics challenge us all to do better
Every year, the world has a chance to be better for a few days.
Right now, more than 10,000 athletes from 206 countries have gathered in France for the Olympic Games. They will compete in 329 events over 32 sports. There are the classics such as running and cycling. There are team sports such as basketball and soccer. There are water sports such as swimming and diving. And there are new and different sports such as break dancing and skateboarding.
And every contest is an opportunity for peace.
That might seem strange. How can Pittsburgh native Michael Grady work for peace by rowing? How can Murrysville’s Spencer Lee do so through wrestling or Upper St. Clair alum Josh Matheny with the breaststroke? How will Greensburg’s Bridget Williams make the world better through pole vault?
It’s a demonstration of the power of possibility.
No one accidentally ends up at the Olympics. It is the culmination of a lifetime of effort. It is the work of years. It is early morning practices and doing just one more try when you feel like you have nothing left to give. It is sacrificing things you would like to do for a goal that has become your reason for getting up in the morning.
It is the fact that all Olympians, regardless of sport and regardless of how many people have the same goal, compete less with any person on any other team than with themselves.
That dedication and commitment is a lesson to the world. Wars rage while the Olympics go on, but the lesson of the games is there is always a better way than war. Politics grinds its gears in France right now, just the way it does in the United Kingdom and here in the United States. The Olympics says there is a better way than the mutinous obstinacy of partisanship.
And after each of those 329 events, the podiums will be filled with competitors who stand beside one another in shows of sportsmanship. They will do their best, and, when the scores are tallied, despite broken hearts and sometimes broken bodies, they will stand up and smile. The winners will wave proudly. The others — not losers because no one who has achieved an invitation to the Olympics is a loser — resolve to more.
They resolve to do better.
In the conflicts between nations, we must all resolve to do better. … more at … https://triblive.com/opinion/editorial-olympics-challenge-us-all-to-do-better/
NCAA, college leaders file landmark agreement in antitrust cases; here’s what was settled and what’s next
For decades, the NCAA and college sports leaders went to great lengths to both avoid court and congressional intervention.
Now, in the wake of a landmark settlement agreement, the courts hold significant oversight over the industry’s new model and only Congress can prevent what some college leaders see as an inevitable end — athlete employment.
The NCAA and power conferences on Friday filed their 100-plus page long-form agreement in the settlement of three antitrust lawsuits (House, Hubbard and Carter), ushering in a future of athlete revenue sharing, expanding scholarships to full rosters and creating a historic enforcement system of arbitration overseen by the courts. The new concepts take effect at the start of the 2025-26 academic year next summer or fall.
The plaintiff attorneys, representing thousands of athletes who brought the class-action suits over athlete compensation or lack thereof, separately filed documents Friday detailing how they plan to distribute nearly $2.8 billion in back damages to former players over a 10-year period.
According to documents sent to Yahoo Sports, 83% of the back pay — $2.3 billion — is expected to go to an estimated 19,000 football and men’s basketball players, many of them from power conferences. That is an average of about $120,000 per player over the 10-year period, or $12,000 a year. … more at … https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa-college-leaders-file-landmark-agreement-in-antitrust-cases-heres-what-was-settled-and-whats-next-210539610.html
Paris Olympics: Five wrestlers to be country’s flagbearers at opening ceremony
PARIS (July 26) — Five wrestlers will be the flag bearers of their respective nations at the opening ceremony at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Saturday.
The opening ceremony parade will take place in boats down the river Seine with Greece opening the parade followed by the Refugee Olympic Team and then the countries in alphabetic order. France, the host, will be the last in the parade. The United States and Australia, hosts for the next two Olympics, will come before France.
Albania‘s first world champion in wrestling Zelimkhan ABAKAROV (ALB) will be the flagbearer for his country. He will wrestle in the 57kg weight class.
For Puerto Rico, world silver medalist in 65kg Sebastian RIVERIA (PUR) will be the flagbearer alongside Jasmine Camacho-Quinn from Athletics.
Guam has given the responsibility to its first-ever female wrestler Rckaela AQUINO (GUM). She will be wrestling in the 57kg weight class.
Diamantino IUNA FAFE (GBS) will be the flagbearer for Guinee-Bissau at the opening ceremony. He wrestled in Tokyo at 57kg and will perform in Paris in the same weight class.
Honduras has given the responsibility to its first-ever Greco-Roman wrestler Kevin MEJIA (HON).
Wrestling begins on August 5 in Paris and ends on August 11 … more at … https://uww.org/article/paris-olympics-five-wrestlers-be-countrys-flagbearers-opening-ceremony
Spencer Lee’s Begins Quest For An Olympic Gold Medal In Paris
IOWA CITY (KWWL) Tom Brands and Dan Gable both like Spencer Lee’s chances of bring home a Gold Medal from the Paris Olympics.
Gable and Brands should know. They are both Olympic Gold Medal winners for Team USA in wrestling. Gable in 192. Brands in 1996.
While many consider Spencer Lee a favorite to win Gold in the 57 kilogram free style division, Spencer doesn’t see it that way right now. Spencer sees it this way: “I wouldn’t say that I’m the favorite. I mean there’s four world champs in this field, and if the Russian was in there would be 5. So I wouldn’t say I’m the favorite.”
He adds: “I would say, they know of me. There are only 16 guys in the bracket for a reason. You’ve got to qualify. It’s a tough tournament to get into. They are the best guys in the world, so, you know that every match is going to be a tough one, and you prepare for that and I’m ready for that.”
Spencer has done it all. The 25-year old is one of the Hawkeyes all-time greatest All-Americans. He’s won wrestling’s top honor, the Dan Hodge Trophy, twice. He’s a three-time world, national and Big 10 Champion. Lee has also battled through tremendous adversity…requiring surgery on both knees from two torn ACL’s.
Then there was the stunning loss to Purdue’s Matt Ramos in the Big 10 Conference semi-finals in 2023, when Ramos got Lee on his back for the shocking fall.
Hawkeye Head Coach, Tom Brands, adds, “What is means is that he stayed in there. He’s taken everything that’s been thrown at him that’s negative, and he’s always, always rebounded. Always . And, I ‘ll say it again. I’ve said it three or 4 times now. It’s time to perform. The future is upon us for Spencer Lee. Zero hour is upon us.”
Coach Brands notes there is some similarity between Spencer’s stunning loss to Matt Ramos in the Big 10’s and Dan Gable’s loss to Larry Owings in the 1970 NCAA Championship.
University of Washington Sophomore, Larry Owings, pulled the upset of the century in beating Gable. The shocking 13-11 Owings victory ended Dan Gable’s 181-match winning streak, which had started when he wrestled for Waterloo West High School under Coach Bob Siddens, and continued at Iowa State under Coach Harold Nichols.
The loss to Larry Owings proved to be a major motivation for Dan Gable to win the Olympics. Gable once said he “Used the pain of the loss as motivation to dominate my future opposition.” He would go on to win all six matches at Munich, and did not give up a single point to his opposition.
For Coach Tom Brands, who wrestled for Gable at Iowa, it’s like this for Spencer. “Here’s the significance of it. What do you do after you’ve been kicked to the curb? What do you do after you’ve been in a situation where you got your entire guts and heart and spirit ripped out of you? Well, you persevere.”
For Spencer, it’s also significant. “It just meant you’ve got to be better. You can never really be bullet proof, but, you can train harder and smarter, and, do your best to stay healthy. Stay mentally healthy. Stay strong.” When watching Spencer Lee wrestle, the 1972 Olympic Gold Medalist and former Iowa Head Coach says, “I think that’s where Spencer Lee needs to be. … more at … https://www.kwwl.com/news/spencer-lees-quest-for-an-olympic-gold-medal-in-paris/article_94ccbbe2-4bcd-11ef-8a7f-db65b6ebc070.html
Former wrestlers raising funds for legendary Pitt-Johnstown coach Pecora’s family
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – A GoFundMe page to help support the family of University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown wrestling coach Pat Pecora, who has been battling lung cancer in a Pittsburgh hospital for nearly a month, raised almost $15,000 within a few hours of being posted Friday.
The Mountain Cat Wrestling Club, a 501(c)(3) organization, created the online fundraiser for the family. It can be found at https://www.gofundme.com/f/rally-for-coach-pecora-never-let-go-of-the-rope. For decades, Pecora has encouraged his wrestlers to support each other and “never let go of the rope” that connects them.
During his 48 years as coach of the Mountain Cats, Pecora has created an atmosphere in which he considers his wrestlers “sons” and his student-athletes regularly refer to themselves as “brothers for life.”
That was evident Friday as Isaac Greeley and Mike Corcetti, former All-American wrestlers at Pitt-Johnstown who now serve on the MCWC board, talked about what Pecora has meant to them and many others. “Coach has generations of men and women that he’s affected,” Greeley said. “After my parents, he’s probably the most influential human on my life, and (the same is probably true) for hundreds of other people.”
Corcetti and Greeley discussed financial support for Pecora’s family members, who have been at his side at UPMC Presbyterian’s cardiothoracic intensive care unit. “I said, ‘We need to be there for him like he was there for us,’ ” Corcetti said. “And that ‘us’ is literally thousands of people – from wrestlers to people in the Johnstown community.”
‘Amazing humans’
Corcetti owes a debt of gratitude not only to his legendary mentor, but also to the coach’s wife, Tracy Pecora, as she introduced Corcetti to the woman who would become his wife, Lindsey. “I married the love of my life and have kids because of Tracy Pecora,” Corcetti said. … more at … https://www.tribdem.com/news/former-wrestlers-raising-funds-for-legendary-pitt-johnstown-coachs-family/article_4fd927a2-4b8f-11ef-8012-ef0b08c31c31.html
OSU Wrestling: Details of David Taylor’s Contract Released
Taylor is set to make $1 million in Year 1
By all accounts, the highest-paid college wrestling coach in the country now resides in Stillwater.
PFB obtained details of new Oklahoma State wrestling coach David Taylor’s contract on Friday. Taylor, 33, was hired to replace John Smith, who retired after leading the Cowboys for 33 years. Smith made $500,000 in 2023, according to Tulsa World’s state employee salary database.
According to the six-year contract, which runs through March 31, 2030, Taylor is set to make $1 million the first year, followed by $30,000 raises each year after, putting Taylor’s contract at $1.15 million in the final year of the contract. The deal, which was signed by Taylor and administration this week, is worth $6.45 million total over six years. According to available public records, Taylor is now the highest-paid college wrestling coach in the country and is the first college wrestling coach to have a salary reach the $1 million threshold.
On top of the salary, Taylor will also have the opportunity for performance incentive bonuses. Those include $125,000 for an NCAA championship, $80,000 for a runner-up finish, $60,000 for a third-place finish and $10,000 for every individual NCAA champion. He will also get a one-time payment of $1 million. Benefits also include a golf course membership, four tickets to OSU football games, the use of a luxury suite during wrestling duals, up to 12 tickets to wrestling duals and up to 12 tickets to postseason tournaments. … more at … https://pistolsfiringblog.com/osu-wrestling-details-of-david-taylors-contract-released/
McMillon still leans on wrestling experience in roaming the secondary for Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh safety Donovan McMillon said his experience as a wrestler still impacts how he plays football
By AARON BEARD – Associated Press July 23, 2024
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Donovan McMillon roams Pittsburgh’s secondary thinking about angles to take on a ballcarrier and the eagerness to take him down in a 1-on-1 shot. The safety said his time on a very different stage — the wrestling mat — still influences how he manages those split-second moments. “You’re trying to attack your opponent at his weakest angle, at his blind spot, and trying to get leverage,” McMillon said Tuesday during the Atlantic Coast Conference’s preseason football media days.
The Florida transfer who led the Panthers with 105 tackles — the most by a Pitt defender since 2015 — was a wrestler for his first three years of high school in Pennsylvania. He still thinks like a wrestler, too. “When I see that running back, tight end, receiver, even quarterback in the open, making a move, it really comes down to me seeing where he’s spotting and what I think he’s going to do,” he said. “And I attack that spot.”
McMillon thrived in wrestling as he grew about five inches in a year toward his current 6-foot-2 frame, including being a Class 3-A runner-up at 182 pounds in Pennsylvania in 2020. He said getting in wrestling shape is “by far the hardest shape I think in any sport,” describing a routine of running a few miles and lifting weights before school, not eating because of cutting weight, running some more, having a match, eat a big meal — and then start all over again. “At the end of the day I might not be in that shape I used to be in,” he said, “but that (wrestling) shape is in my head. … I can move and play 70, 80 snaps a game and I’m not worried about anything.” … more at … https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-news/mcmillon-still-leans-on-wrestling-experience-in-roaming-the-secondary-for-pittsburgh/WQQ3ZY4MTRG55KDRTUDFILCZPA/
More girls playing high school sports in NC than ever before : ‘We’ve come a long way, baby’
After an alarming decline during the COVID-19 pandemic, more girls are participating in high school sports in North Carolina than ever before.
Que Tucker played high school basketball as a student at Stoneville High School in Reidsville in the late 1960s. At the time, it was the only sport girls could play, but it wasn’t the only sport Tucker was interested in. “I look back and I think about what I could have participated in because I wanted to. I mean, I high jumped when I was in high school, but it wasn’t on an organized track team, it was just in a sawdust pit at a field day with four or five schools in Rockingham County,” Tucker said.
Title IX of the Civil Rights Act was not signed into law until 1972, so opportunities for girls in sports were limited. “You know that old saying that we used to see a lot – ‘we’ve come a long way, baby.’ I look back and I think about that now, and we truly have come a long way,” said Tucker. “I think we see that in so many different areas.”
Now the first female commissioner of the N.C. High School Athletic Association, Tucker is seeing the results firsthand. According to data released by the NCHSAA, there have never been more girls playing high school sports in North Carolina than there are today.
During the 2023-2024 school year, the number of girls playing high school sports in the state surpassed 90,000 for the first time ever. Every single sanctioned girls sport saw participation rise, bringing the total number of female participants to 91,111, representing an increase of 6.6% from the prior school year.
The previous all-time high was 89,826 set during the 2016-2017 school year. …
The pandemic effect
After the COVID-19 pandemic, girls sports participation dropped 12.5% in North Carolina to 76,612 athletes. It was the lowest participation rate among girls in two decades. But in just two years, the NCHSAA has seen a full recovery and is now setting participation records.
While it was not shocking participation dropped during and immediately after the pandemic, the drop in female participation was alarming, and significantly higher than the 6.4% decline seen in boys sports. “I just think that perhaps coming out of COVID … perhaps our girls were a little slower to get back into the mix of playing multiple sports, maybe even just playing one sport” said Tucker.
Boys participation returned to pre-pandemic levels during the 2022-2023 school year and grew another 4.5% this past school year to 117,611.
Girls participation has never matched or surpassed boys participation in North Carolina high school sports, but the impact of the pandemic was seen more widely on the girls side. Multiple surveys of athletic directors conducted by HighSchoolOT in 2020 and 2021 showed a high level of concern about girls sports participation.
But now the pandemic may be creating new opportunities.
This past fall, a new record was set for the number of schools offering girls golf and the number of girls participating in the sport statewide. …
New opportunities for girls in sports
This past winter, the NCHSAA officially sanctioned girls wrestling for the first time. A total of 1,432 girls wrestlers from 248 different schools participated in the sport, which culminated in an individual wrestling state championship tournament. It was the product of several years worth of work, which included a non-sanctioned girls wrestling invitational. “We’ve known for a number of years that it has grown, and I think after it was well known and well publicized that the 2023 school year would be the last year of an invitational, and that then the next year it would be standalone, I think we’ve just had a lot more girls participating in that sport in and of itself,” Tucker said.
In fact, the number of girls participating in wrestling grew by 74.4% from 2023 to 2024.
First NCHSAA girls wrestling champions crowned; Lumberton wins team title
“I think it’s very important, if for no other reason, we want to be an inclusive organization. We believe that every student-athlete who goes through the front door of a school should have the opportunity to participate in sports,” said Tucker. “It’s part of our mission. It’s part of what we want to do and what we want to be about, for us to provide those opportunities for females, for anybody who participates or who goes into the front door of our member schools.”
The NCHSAA Board of Directors approved the sanctioning of girls wrestling during the 50th anniversary of Title IX in 2022. “It took us a long time to get to where we were able to sanction wrestling, and our wrestling coaches, to their credit, they worked hard to try to maintain, to try to sustain the interest so that their numbers would be there,” said Tucker.
The hard work of wrestling coaches has not gone unnoticed at the school level either. East said the Millbrook wrestling coaches have done a good job of bringing out new female athletes. “I think our coaches do a good job of working the hallways and trying to find those kids that need some form of connection to the school in some way. I know I can say that a lot about our wrestlers because there are kids that basically don’t do anything else and they’re out there wrestling, which I thought was pretty cool,” he said. … more at … https://www.highschoolot.com/story/we-ve-come-a-long-way-baby-more-girls-playing-high-school-sports-in-nc-than-ever-before/21536255/
TDR blog
After 20 seasons of publicizing wrestling The TakeDown Report’s (TDR) focus has changed to the collecting of college coaching records from North America since 1903. We will continue to recognize and reward successful wrestlers in eastern North Carolina (east of Raleigh & Fayetteville), assist with schools in starting or re-starting a team and this blog. Join us on our FaceBook Page – “The TakeDown Report” for photos and news. Please send results, stories, links and news to pass along. E-mail us at takedownreport@gmail.com
Martin Fleming, Editor
Takedown Report
Takedown Report 