Few teams were better tailored for a novel than the 2005-06 Penn wrestling squad.
Last year's contingent featured a new coach, Zeke Jones, and came within striking distance of an EIWA title.
Oh yeah, it had a 2006 NCAA Champion, too.
So G. Wayne Renneisen inadvertently stumbled on a gold mine when he decided to follow the team all year for his book.
But while all the storylines were prime, Renneisen's descriptions were not. Penn Wrestling: A Collegiate Season has to go down as a compelling story gone by the wayside.
The author should score points for passion and depth of research. The book's early chapters recount the 100-plus year history of Penn Wrestling in rigorous detail.
Renneisen tells the story of the program's birth years through some of its most engaging athletes. Colorful anecdotes about the likes of Mike Dorizas and Dick DiBatista carry the reader through.
Ironically, when Renneisen gets to some of the team's best personal stories of the year, he goes for a drier approach.
In a recap of a meet against Brown and Harvard, Renneisen reports that Lior Zamir lost, 15-2. He casually mentions that Zamir was "out of gas," having lost 10 pounds in the previous 48 hours to make weight.
The passage screams for explanation. How do you go about losing 10 pounds in two days? What's it like to do that and then get wiped off the mat? But Renneisen just plods past in press-release tedium.
We do learn about the styles, strengths and weaknesses of each wrestler. Matt Dragon is the talented but inconsistent freshman; Cesar Grajales needs to "stop growing and get stronger." But the reader never sees what it's like to be an inconsistent wrestler. Nor do we hear how Rich Ferguson felt when a shoulder injury derailed his promising season.
And I think I can count on one hand the number of times I heard from a wrestler other than Matt Valenti.
The author's passion for wrestling does come through, but often in the wrong ways.
We learn what an injustice it is that Harvard wrestles on the fourth floor of its gym while its swimming pool is located conveniently on the first.
We hear about how many people would have turned up to a meet at the Palestra, if only the hoops team hadn't forced the meet into a 2 p.m. Friday start.
Nonetheless, for anyone interested in learning about Penn Wrestling, this is a good start. Renneisen is a Penn fan - he makes no apologies for that - and his book is very much a how-to for prospective fans.
I can say that I came off knowing a lot more about wrestling than I did before. As someone with a vested interest in college sports - and in Penn athletics specifically - that was enough to get to the end.
I'm not sure it would be the same for the casual reader.
