RENO RE-VISITED
Looking Back With Former Director & Writer BOB PREUSSE

The nation was buzzing in December 1995, about a big new event on the West Coast. I remember being at the Elite Duals in Pennsylvania and Easton coach Steve Powell asked me "Are you going to be at Reno?" I told coach Powell, that yes, I would be there. In my home state of Ohio, St. Edward was planning on going, if for no other reason than because their Ohio rival Walsh Jesuit was certainly going. And no way was Walsh Jesuit in those days going to get a leg up on St. Edward, if St. Eds could help it.

And so it came to pass that we all were packed into the Cleveland Airport in early January trying to get to Reno NV for the inaugural Tournament of Champions, featuring 32 of the best teams from throughout the nation. As I recall, I was doing the national rankings for Wresting USA magazine at the time and NINE of the nation's top 10 teams were at Reno! The only one who wasn't there was Nazareth PA, ranked around # 6 at the time. There were probems at the airport, snow was flying, flights were being cancelled, decisons had to be made. As it turned out, some of the Walsh Jesuit parents gave up their seats to ensure that the team could get out of Cleveland that night, which was imperative because the tournament was starting the next morning! St. Edward made the decison to fly south to Cincinnati, then to Seattle, and then back to Reno, just to be able to get there in time to wrestle. It was not one of St. Eds greatest teams, but they did very well to finish 7th in the tournament, because noone got any sleep and they went through 4 airports.

I remember walking into the Reno Convention Center and saying "Wow", this trip was worth it. You just knew this was "bigtime" as the kids say. For the record, Easton PA won the first event by 4 or 5 points over Walsh Jesuit. Choctaw OK surprised many people with a 3rd place finish. Pre-tournament favorite Blair Academy took only 4th, followed by Calvary Chapel CA, Wasatch UT, St Edward, Midwest City OK, Independence CA, and Palmer Alaska was 10th. Everything about the T of C was first class and revolutionary. The officials wore PURPLE uniform shirts and black pants! Each mat had the name of a sponsoring hotel/casino. The hospitality room served great food. And the T of C program was laid out beautifully. Along with the high school event, the T of C had incorporated a college dual meet tournament, 8 teams at that time, big names like Oklahoma State and Arizona State. I was impressed.

A match of gigantic proportion occured in either the quarter or the semis at 145 lb, I cannot recall which, and i cannot recall the exact score either. But Cael Sanderson of Wasatch was one point ahead of Joe Heskett of Walsh Jesuit to start the 3rd period, it was Cael's choice and he made the mistake of choosing down on Joe Heskett. Heskett tilted Sanderson and beat him by one point. Of course this past season both these kids won NCAA titles for Iowa State. By the way, Heskett then lost in the finals to Rocky Smart of Pleasant Grove UT. Another gigantic match occured early in the tournament at 140 lb, when Eric Greshko of Easton caught future NCAA champ Adam Tirapelle of Buchanan CA in the lethal "cement mixer"and pinned him. Greshko advanced all the way to the finals, taking second to Cole Sanderson. But that second place allowed Easton to narrowly edge Walsh Jesuit for the team title.

The second T of C which occured in January 1997 is simply known as "the Flood Year". It was a great tournament competitively, despite about 40% of the teams could not get to Reno because of the once in a century flood (caused by alot of snow in the mountains and a warm spell of weather). Financially it was a disaster. For the record, # 1 Blair Academy got redemption for their disappointing 4th place the previous year and won the second T of C. Choctaw OK under coach Benny Coleman took second with Walsh Jesuit 3rd and Easton 4th. Unfortunately for Walsh Jesuit and their coach Bill Barger, his great 189 lb Jeff Knupp was unable to compete due to injury. Knupp's points would have gotten Walsh close to Blair, but not enough to overtake coach Jeff Buxton's national champs.

I got involved with the T of C later that Spring in 1997, when the former tournament director was not hired back. President Ross Aguiar asked if I would come in as the Recruiting & Seeding Director, helping new Tournament Director Dave Nevin out. I was honored and accepted. We made a few changes when I came aboard, especially in how the seeding is done by coaching committee with an established criteria. For another thing we moved the event from January to December between Christmas and New Year. We figured that since school was out, it would be easier for teams to travel. Choctaw OK won the 3rd T of C in a race to the wire with Idaho Falls ID. Here is what it came down to, the Choctaw 215 lber had to win his 3rd place match to clinch because Idaho Falls had a heavyweight in the finals. I can still recall the Idaho Falls coaches racing over to the 3rd place mat to watch and their jaws dropping as the Choctaw wrestlers opponent forfeited. That was 6 points for Choctaw, and they edged a disheartened Idaho Falls. Easton was 6th and that is the lowest Easton has ever finished at Reno.

The 4th T of C in December 1998 was moved to dates just before Christmas, because the T of C was able to get the best hotel rates during that slow time. By this time the T of C had officially moved its headquarters to downtown with the Silver Legacy and the Eldorado as hosts. Fans liked that location better, there was more action than the lone hotel by the Convention Center. Powerhouse Northampton PA under their great coach Don Rohn won this event comfortably over Choctaw. One of the T of C's greatest matches ever occured at 130 lb in the finals when Northampton's Seth Lisa came back with a furious last seconds rally to get a takedown and back points for a one point win over Anthony Carizzales of Delta Ohio in a high scoring shootout. Tiny Delta proved they could go with the big boys by tying Choctaw for second place. Huber Hts Ohio was 4th, Easton 5th, and Ravenna Ohio was 7th. A trend for Eastern schools to do very well in the T of C was firmly established. This T of C became known as "the Refrigerator" because, to put it bluntly, the Convention Center gave us almost no heat in the face of unusual very cold and snowy weather. I walked around the entire 3 days of the tournament in a Winter coat, I could actually see my breath.

The 5th T of C was particularly memorable for me because we had made the decison to move to the Livestock Event Center, which was much bigger and only 1 ½ miles from downtown. The directors were not very happy with the lack of heat the previous year at the Convention Center for one thing. Most important, at the Convention Center we could only get down 9 mats, which was a problem because we had decided to expand the size of the T of C from the original 32 to approximately 80 teams. The popularity of the event was such that the directors felt that we should allow more teams to enter. The fact that more teams would bring in more revenue to the tournament was a factor, too, because it costs alot of money to put this event on and the T of C was still suffering from the effects of the "Flood Year".

Wasatch UT stole the show and won the event handily over Easton with Calvary Chapel taking third. There were doubters who thought a Utah team could not win this event. Coach Wade Discher's team moved out to a big lead in the second round by getting alot of pins using their great arm-bar. Coach Discher could be seen actually sitting and reading a book between his kids matches during the torrid second round. I mentioned this to Broken Arrow OK coach Steve Dunlap and Steve replied dryly to me "Maybe I'll start reading that book, too." Broken Arrow came in 5th, while Dallastown PA was 4th.

The 6th T of C was noteworthy in that finally one of the many powerful California teams prevailed. Calvary Chapel took this one over Broken Arrow OK with Bakesfield CA in 3rd and always-contending Easton taking 4th. Coach John Azevedo broke through in his last season as Calvary's coach. I was no longer involved with the T of C at that time. I had resigned 7 months earlier due to the pressure of other responsibilities.

The 7th T of C in 2001 was memorable in that the Easton Red Rovers became the first team to win TWO Reno T of C's, quite an acomplishment. Easton was in a dogfight to win it, barely edging another great Eastern team Great Bridge VA, 245 ½ points to 237. Those were the two highest point totals ever recorded in the T of C. Mighty Bakersfield CA, who would go on to set a state tournament scoring record in March, took 3rd with Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary Ohio taking 4th.

As I go back through the records I find that Reno has had 5 kids who went on to become NCAA Div I champions: Cael Sanderson & Joe Heskett of Iowa State, Michael Lightner of Oklahoma U (who by the way only took 3rd at 130 lb in the first T of C), Adam Tirapelle of Illinois U (who also only took 3rd), and Jared Lawrence of the U of Minnesota. Three others have made the finals but lost: Zach Thompson of Iowa State, Cole Sanderson of Iowa State, and Bryan Snyder of Nebraska. Thats quite a record for a tournament only heading into its 8th year in 2002.

You can be sure almost every NCAA tournament from now on will feature kids in the finals who wrestled at Reno. Congratulations to the teams that have made the decision to give their kids this level of competition in what is, perhaps, the biggest show in high school wrestling. I am now writing for Amateur Wrestling News, so even if I do not make the T of C every year any more, I still pay close attention to the results. And I recall with relish the setting , drama, and competition that make the T of C the classic that it is. (You can reach Bob Preusse at fax/ph 216-941-7956.)