Re-Visiting the "Old World"

On Saturday afternoon, after attending to political, professional, and family commitments, I realized it was 2 pm. I realized that at 3 pm over at the Easton Middle School, the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference was having their "Day of Champions" wrestling dual meets. I decided it would be good to catch a match for an hour or two. I got there just in time for the 3 pm "finals" session, with three matches going on at once- Easton and Parkland, Liberty and Emmaus, and the championship between Nazareth and Bethlehem Catholic. I had a few takeaways-

1. Bethlehem Catholic is really, really good. I get that they have some unfair advantages as a non-public school, and I get that people don't like them for that and other reasons, but those kids are really good. They have some serious talents, and it is always more fun to watch people who are good at what they do.
2. Easton and Parkland wrestled to an old-school tie, but criteria H gave Easton the 29-29 win. What is criteria H, you ask? No one in the gym knew, to be honest. About 30 minutes after the match ended, we learned that Easton won on the account of scoring the first point in more bouts than Parkland did. In other words, the teams won the same number of bouts, falls, technical falls, major decisions, and probably takedowns, back points, and some other criteria too. When it's that close, I'm not sure what the point of awarding a win is, unless it's for a championship. 
3. Lehigh Valley wrestling is almost back. I know, we've heard in recent years about how the western part of the state, or the central part of the state for that matter, has caught and passed the locals. I think when they get to Hershey this year, you will see several wrestlers from Bethlehem Catholic, Nazareth, Easton, Liberty, Northampton, and Parkland place very high in the tournament. I believe Bethlehem Catholic will win the state duals as well. I get that it's maybe not where it was fifteen years ago, but the kids currently wrestling locally are really good.

Last year I went to just one wrestling match all season, a college match between Penn State and Rutgers. This was my third Easton match this season. I'm glad i'm getting back to some matches this year. My last match was in 2001 (!), or 15 years ago this month. While life does go on, my time on the mats was fun, and did have a lot of molding me into the person I am today. Being back around the sport I competed in for eleven years is entertaining, and I enjoy both reminiscing in the past and enjoying the competition today.

You Can't Beat an Easton-Phillipsburg Wrestling Match

Saturday night I did something that used to be an annual thing for me- I went to the Easton-Phillipsburg wrestling match. When I was a kid, I never missed it, back in the days it was at Lafayette College's Kirby Field House. The match was there from the time I was about three or four years old until I was in college, and then they went back to the high schools. Then a few years later, I graduated college and wasn't always here in January for the match. With the match being on TV more often as well, I don't always go, especially years when it's at Phillipsburg and I can't get a ticket. This year though, I wanted to go.

The 25th Street Gymnasium at Easton High School was packed- there wasn't really anywhere to sit by match time. I had posted up in the top row, middle mat on the home side, and had the best seat in the place (until I later moved to sit with a buddy). The crowd was loud and rowdy, and had literally every demographic group in both towns there to watch the match. You hear some "interesting" stuff from the stands, but that's half the fun. Easton paid tribute to part of it's tradition, the 1981 and 1983 state championship squads, and brought back quite a few alums for that as well. The funny moment of the life came when Easton's DJ played "Man! I Feel Like a Woman" by Shania Twain during Phillipsburg's warm-ups.

The match itself was good, with Easton breaking a two year losing streak with a 32-18 win. There were a number of very exciting bouts, and both teams came to compete. It was what you expected from the historic best programs in each of their states. Next year is slated to be in Phillipsburg's new gym for the first time. While I know a lot of people in Phillipsburg don't like that, the gym they have doesn't seat nearly enough people for the kind of program they run, even if it is the best venue in the country. I'm looking forward to the 2017 match.

A Great Night at 25th Street

For my two cents, there's not many better places to see a wrestling match than Easton High School's 25th Street Gym. Wednesday night I went to see a match there for the first time in many year's. The Nazareth Blue Eagles handled the Easton Red Rovers fairly easily, and were quite impressive. The Blue Eagles have a solid six wrestlers that I expect to do very well in states, and none was more impressive than sophomore Sam Sasso, who won the night's final match, an easy victory over Easton star Evan Fidelibus. Nazareth has a very nice team this year.

It was great to see a packed gym for a big match again. The 25th Street gym was pretty much full, very loud, and felt more "compact" than matches at the Middle School. This was the gym I grew up going to matches in, and enjoyed many a night in. It was great to go back there for a match.