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an Olympic Trials runner-up in freestyle. Earl Walker remains active in wrestling, and was among the leaders of our alumni fight to save the BU team. One other upset comes to mind. Cornell’s past NCAA champi-
on Troy Nickerson came into the 2010 NCAAs as a senior, hop- ing to go out of college wrestling with another title. Honestly, Nickerson was banged up physically that year, but believed in his ability to win it all again. In the second round, a BU kid from New Jersey, Freddy Santaite, kept his match close with Nickerson and pulled off a 2-1 upset. Santaite could not make it through the brackets after that big win and did not place. Nickerson rallied in the wrestlebacks and finished fourth. BU had high hopes for senior Nestor Taffur at this year’s NCAAs. He was No. 6 seed, and on a roll after his EIWA title. The kid is talented, focused and mentally strong, and was the clear leader of the Terrier team which had its farewell tour all season long.
Thursday is the most hectic day at the NCAAs, and I am busy chasing down athletes for video interviews, spending much of my time in the tunnel and back hallways. People like interview videos, and
TheMat.com does what it can to provide them all tournament long. Of course, I kept a special eye out for the BU kids, and spent some time with the athletes and coaches during the day. Nestor Taffur had an exciting day. He opened with a pin in
1:11 over Austin Matthews of Clarion. The second round was a crazy match against No. 11 Taylor Walsh of Indiana. Taffur looked good early, but Walsh jumped to a big lead in the second period. It looked like Nestor’s run was in peril. I had to run off and do another interview and missed the amazing finish of that match, where Taffur came back to get the lead and pin Walsh at 6:58. All season long, Walsh was the top pinner in NCAA wrestling. Yet it was Taffur who had two falls on day one of the NCAAs.
The other two BU guys were unable to advance, and I saw portions of their matches. Scotton fell to No. 14 seed Edgar Bright of Pitt 3-1 and then was eliminated in the consolations by Nick Lester of Oklahoma 7-0. Wightman opened with a 7-0 loss to Ramon Santiago of Rider in the pigtails, and was knocked out in his next bout by Peyton Walsh of Navy 3-1. Friday is the big day of the NCAAs. At the end of the day, we not only have our finalists, but the field is whittled down to the All-Americans. If you survive Friday, you get to wrestle Saturday as an All-American. Taffur entered the day with his goal of being a national champion still alive, but he had a tremendous quar- terfinal challenger in No. 3 seed and Junior World silver medal- ist Alex Dieringer of Oklahoma State. Taffur fell behind Dieringer early, but he came storming back, throwing Dieringer to his back and closing the lead. The talented Dieringer was able to answer Taffur’s comeback charge, and the match finished 18-11, a true crowd pleaser. After the match, when I was shooting my video interview with Dieringer, I could see a disappointed Nestor in the background with his coaches. Prior to the Friday night session, I had an opportunity to visit with Coach Adams and talk about the situation at BU and about his 30-plus years in Boston. The program had over 50 years of existence, and was a leader within the wrestling community in New England. Thousands of young men had gone through Carl’s summer camps at BU over the decades, and hundreds of his athletes had graduated from college and gone on to tremen- dous careers in other walks of life. We talked about the impact of the BU program, on the mats, in the classroom and in society. I also told Coach Adams that I would probably not get to see Taffur’s match in the round of 12 against Rider’s Anthony
Perrotti of Rutgers, an opponent that he had beaten twice dur- ing the season. Every year during the NCAA semifinals, I am in the interview room talking to the 20 semifinals winners. The NCAA brings every winner in after their matches, and we inter- view every one of them. Since video has become popular, I film every press conference, which we post to YouTube. I end up watching the semis on ESPN on a TV in the interview room, so I would not miss a single interview. Unfortunately, I am not able to watch those amazing All-American round matches in the conso- lations, which are not on the ESPN telecast. After a number of weights ended and interviews conducted, I noticed on the results ticker on the ESPN show that showed results from 165 and 174 consolation matches. Taffur’s 157- pound match had already ended. I called up the brackets on TrackWrestling on my I-phone, and that is when I found out that Taffur lost to Perrotti, 10-2. The last Terrier standing had fallen just short of All-American status. I felt for Taffur, a great kid with a positive attitude and some special wrestling skills, who did not get the chance to show his stuff as an All-American on Saturday. I also have to admit that, over 30 years watching the BU wrestlers out of the corner of my eye at nationals, I was very disappointed that I did not see the final BU wrestling match. And now it is over. I sit in the arena on Saturday, All-American
day, and there are no more BU Terriers on the mat. And may never be there again. A big chapter in my life, which began as a high school senior in 1978 looking for a college, had ended. Going into this year, only two colleges which competed in the old New England Wrestling Conference remained in college wrestling, BU and Brown. Since my time, Brown joined the EIWA. I thought about the old days, when Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Boston College and Maine all had Div. I varsity teams and were in our conference. Now only Brown remains from that New England Conference tournament. (Congrats go to Brown’s Ophir Bernstein for reaching All- American status this year for first year coach Todd Beckerman!!). I think of my teammates and coaches, and the wrestlers who came after me. It was so long ago, but it seems like just yesterday.
My question now is simple. What’s next? The seniors on the BU team will graduate and go on with their lives. The younger guys will have to choose whether to transfer to compete some- where else or just finish their studies at BU without wrestling. Coach Adams is undecided about what is next in his career. He tells me our little wrestling room, perhaps the smallest in Div. I wrestling, may be slated to become a lacrosse team locker room. I hope that the group of alumni that worked so hard this year will stay in touch in the future, and continue to let BU know that they should reinstate wrestling.
For me, I have joined the thousands of wrestling alumni who no longer can see their college team on the mats. I finally understand the pain felt by those former wrestlers who watched their own program eliminated for whatever reason. It is not a group that I enjoy being part of. However, it strengthens my commitment to promote and support those colleges which do sponsor varsity wrestling, and to work hard to find creative ways to encourage other colleges to add our sport. When I wrestled, there were over 150 Div. I college wrestling teams. Our number is now down in the 70s. Every one of these teams that remain are precious to our sport and deserve our support. Every wrestling team is worth fighting for. The Save BU Wrestling effort did not succeed. But we need to continue to stand up for college wrestling programs, even if they are in col- leges that we did not attend. Will there be a place for the future Gary Abbotts, Tod Gileses, Earl Walkers and Nestor Taffurs of the wrestling world to go?
USA Wrestler 9
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