Aw, c'mon, coach!!

I don't think I ever told you all about one of the funniest times I ever had as the head wrestling coach at Troy high school. We had a dual match one evening between my guys and the wrestlers of Springfield North High School, and it was at their school.

There were some people around the area who might not have known my team, because they were saying that Springfield was far and away the better team. My guys and I obviously knew better, but it was kinda funny watching the Springfield guys warm up with a real cavalier attitude, laughing and not knowing that they were in for a real bad whoopin'.

So, just in case we needed any motivation, I kinda made up a little story and fed it to them.  

Springfield North in those days was a pretty affluent school.  They went out and recruited all the good athletes in that town (which was a pretty good sized district) and they kinda walked around with their noses up in the air. Plus -- they had something that pretty much no other high school in that part of Ohio had -- a swimming team and their own pool, right in the middle of their athletic building. 

So, I was pretty sure my guys knew they had a swimming team and a pool, but I was also pretty sure they didn't know where that pool was. I told them that it was under the floor beneath the wrestling mat they were competing on.  They would just push a button and the floor would retract, revealing the pool's waters. I'm pretty sure that I also told them it had been reported that there had been instances in the past where the floor just started to open and the mats fell into the water. I told them that they had better go out there quickly, get the takedown, get the pin and get off the mat -- just in case.

It was a thing to behold.They went out there like mad men.  It might have been the quickest meet we ever had,  Even the referees were amazed. Out of the 13 matches we had 6 or 7 pins, with several of them in the first period.

After the meet was over and the guys got dressed and came out to the gym to get ready to leave, I saw some of the sophomores kinda lifting the mat, looking for the place where the floor came together.  And just when I was about to tell them the story, some of my seniors  came running out and jumped up and down behind them.  The Sophs thought the floor was opening and hightailed it right off that mat!! Everyone had a big laugh. I doubt that anyone other than the sophomores believed my story, but they didn't let on.

Oh yeah, we educated some doubters that night and made it happen.

There are three types of players: those who make it happen, those who watch it happen and those who wonder what just happened. (Tommy Lasorda, former Los Angeles Dodgers manager and two-time World Series champion.)

Hooah