One more NCAA wrestling anecdote

I chronicled much of my great experience at the NCAA Wrestling Championships this past weekend at the Wells Fargo Center, but there's one big story I left out. The subway rides to and from the event were very interesting, as I'm used to riding with Phillies/Sixers/Flyers/Eagles fans. Instead, wrestling fans from all over the country were on board discussing that night's matches.

On our way home Friday night, Kevin Esteves, Sushaan Modi and I met some former wrestlers from Duquesne and talked with them on the ride from AT&T Station to City Hall. The interaction is notable for a few reasons:

1) They were very nice, funny guys, which wrestlers typically are, despite sometimes being intimidating to talk to; 2) the assistant wrestling coach at their Pittsburgh-area high school? Local hero and wrestling legend Kurt Angle, a two-time NCAA champion at Clarion University (Pa.), 1996 Olympic gold medalist and, later, a World Wrestling Federation superstar. Apparently Angle is also a nice guy, and coached high school while training for the Olympics; 3) Duquesne plans to drop its wrestling program in the near future, an all-too-common occurrence on the collegiate level since wrestling is not a revenue-generating sport like football and basketball. The sport may also be dealing with the consequences of Title IX. La Salle, Temple and Villanova have all dropped their varsity programs. 4) One of the reporters at the championships was a woman studying how wrestling in college can help people the rest of their lives. She's found that wrestlers are particularly good at preparing themselves for things like tests, job interviews and speeches because they prepared so rigorously for wrestling. The guys we talked to said this was definitely true.

Last thing of note: this weekend's event was such a success that a push to bring the tournament back to Philly in 2015 has already begun. I can say first-hand that this would be a great thing for the city, and a great thing for Penn.