The biggest drawback to covering the sport of wrestling is the emotional toll it takes on you when you hear programs are being dropped. Ever since I started following wrestling with Mat Talk On-Line, I've had to deal first-hand with many schools cutting the sport.

For all fans, it's extremely disheartening. Then when you have to follow up and write a story and actually talk to these men and women, you just get angry when they lie to you right to your face (or in many cases, the ear).

I've had the displeasure to talk with numerous AD's and administrators who have cut wrestling for one bad reason after another. Some refused to speak with me. Probably a smart move. I'm pretty street smart and can smell out B.S. pretty good.

I came under some criticism from some wrestling-advocate A.D.'s some years ago about my comments in a W.I.N. Magazine story because my characterization (or perhaps caricaturization) of those individuals as “scum bags.” That was then, this is now. I still don’t feel any positive vibe toward any athletic department that treats kids as property and just jettisons them off, never to be seen or cared about again.

Here's a list of some of the worst AD's I've had to deal with when they dropped wrestling. I'll go in reverse order.

5. Don Lemish, Longwood College, Farmville, Va.
Early on in my career, I was doing the boat-rocking thing with a small Divison II program in Virginia. The school was a real pipeline to the state high schools for teachers and coaches. Longwood cut wrestling in 2000 to prepare for a move to Division I (sound familiar?). In conversations with Mr. Lemish, I found there to be a gross overstatement of participation numbers, forfeits and a general skewing of the numbers. I started a petition drive on Mat Talk On-Line, and was met with a cease-and-desist from the school for unapproved use of their logo. Basically, I was using their logo on “Save Longwood Wrestling” banner ads and petitions. Mr. Lemish at one point called my writing “yellow journalism,” despite the fact my information came directly from the current head coach and a number of wrestlers on the team. Mr. Lemish took an early “retirement” from Longwood after some questionable room service bills racked up by the men’s basketball team on a road trip out west. The last straw was walking into Longwood College’s (now University) Athletic Department and delivering over 3,000 signatures from high school students who would never apply to Longwood, and another 3,000 of parents who would discourage their sons, daughters, nieces, nephews and grandchildren from applying.

Anyone heard of Longwood now and their great decision to move to Division I?

4. Richard McDuffie, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Ill.
The doomsday theory of the APR. In case you’re not familiar, the APR is the Academic Progress Rate. It measures graduation and retention rates for Division I programs receiving scholarship funds (or something close to that). I’m not an expert on the issue, but there’s a three-strikes policy of sorts. If your APR falls below 925 (50% graduation rate), then you could be subject to penalties. The first violation is usually just public notice, which amounts to nothing more than a slap on the wrist. The second and third warnings basically lose a school scholarship money, of which Eastern Illinois had little. Although I’m not 100 percent clear on how many violations it takes for a school to get to the worst penalty – revocation of NCAA membership – it hasn’t happened yet.

I called McDuffie back in 2006, shortly after Kenny Robertson was a match away from placing at 174 pounds for EIU. It’s the same school Matt Hughes of UFC fame attended.

McDuffie’s claims were the wrestling APR was so poor, it put the entire athletics program in jeopardy and had to be cut. Nevermind the fact EIU was one of the lowest-funded Division I wrestling programs and the school refused an invitation to become a charter member of the Western Wrestling Conference.

Nevermind the fact that during the two years EIU was listed in the APR reports, they were below the 925, but had improved from one year to the next. With small schools with limited scholarships, one kid who fails out and is on scholarship money can disrupt the entire ration. McDuffie didn’t care. He spilled out this doomsday scenario about EIU getting kicked out of the NCAA. About a year later, McDuffie was placed on administrative leave from EIU for accusations of sexual harassment.

What’s become of EIU’s athletics program in the meantime?

3. Thomas Boeh, California State University-Fresno, Fresno, Calif.

Probably my most public Q&A, not to mention my most spirited antagonization of an Athletic Director. I was on Boeh big time. Fresno State was a proud wrestling program and the wool he pulled over the eyes of former coach Dennis DeLiddo and then-coach Shawn Charles still makes me angry. Fresno State has been embroiled in lawsuits and Title IX problems since Boeh’s arrival. He refused to talk to me over the phone, but did answer a Q&A I’d sent to him when I was working at InterMat. He ducked the questions we most wanted answers to, changed questions to suit his answers, THEN posted an edited Q&A of my questions on the Fresno State athletics site with some shoddy “admin speak” responses. Admittedly, I wasn’t the most professional in dealing with Mr. Boeh. During our e-mail correspondence, I did fire barbs at him and his failure to run a department. Of course, that’s a matter of opinion, I’m sure people in the Fresno area still think that way. Fresno State brought in a young, eager coach in Charles and a dynamite recruiting class. Boeh decided to not answer any of my e-mails after I called him out on the plagiarism of my InterMat Q&A, not to mention failing to answer the important questions that the wrestling community wanted to know.

What’s become of Fresno State’s athletics program in the meantime?

2. Pat Kilkenny, University of Oregon, Eugene, Ore.
While my distain for Pat Kilkenny and Phil Knight circles around the poor execution of how the wrestling program was cut, the biggest issue I had with the entire situation is the fact Kilkenny, a man without a college degree or any experience as an A.D., got hired anyway. He was Oregon’s second-highest booster (behind Uncle Phil) and was instrumental in buying out the previous A.D.’s contract. An avid baseball fan, Kilkenny cut wrestling to add baseball and started pumping loads of money into the program. He wanted to keep pace with rival Oregon State, who had recently won the College World Series. The previous A.D. promised the program a new wrestling room, in return, the old wrestling room would be turned into a training room, mainly for the Ducks’ football program. A new room was never built and was one of the reasons Kilkenny sited in why the sport was cut. “Lack of a functional practice facility” was I believe the terminology. Oregon had an NCAA champion in Shane Webster in 2006. They cut the program in 2007. The most troublesome thing to me is how a man could be hired at an academic institution and have the life and legacy of athletes seeking degrees in his hands. The guy never even graduated. How can he be remotely qualified to oversee student-athletes? Then volunteer assistant Jason Powell needed a degree to even be considered for his coaching position. Nebraska was called to validate Powell graduated. Yet, the “degree requirement” for the A.D. position was notably missing. This one still stinks and is the reason I’ll never buy another Nike product again. I think Nike should get out of wrestling altogether. If “Nike U” doesn’t have wrestling, then Nike shouldn’t make money on wrestling. This one still leaves me with a bitter, bitter taste.

Of note: No one from the Oregon Athletics Department ever followed up on repeated requests for interviews.

1. Trev Alberts, Nebraska-Omaha, Omaha, Neb.

This story is being written as we speak. Much like Kilkenny, was highly under-qualified to run an athletics department. Hired on “name,” which was even a head-scratcher to begin with, Alberts has treated the wrestling program like second-class citizens since his arrival. The double speak coming from that department and the “sell out” nature of Chancellor John Christensen’s treatment of his “friend,” Mike Denney is despicable. It won’t do me or the wrestling community any good to assault Alberts, although there is no shortage of things people in the wrestling community want to say to and about the man.

Wrestling programs at some of the above schools were issued ransom numbers. Large sums of money required to endow a program, rather than keep it moving. On Omaha sports radio last week, Alberts threw out an $8-9 million figure. But let’s be real, he never intended to help wrestling or give football or wrestling a fighting chance to still compete. He’s throwing a lot of fuzzy math our way.

I thought Pat Kilkenny was the worst AD wrestling had ever seen. Looks like we’re wrong. The way Alberts and his cronies (those who hired him after a failed attempt at a broadcasting career at ESPN) led the football and wrestling coaches along, like there never was a problem, is unconscionable.

At least with UNO, we’ve got a coach and a family that will stand up for what they believe in. Alberts has no business being an A.D., his actions have shown this already.

They’ve already changed the key codes on the wrestling room doors, not even hours after the Board of Regents meeting Friday morning in Lincoln.

Without wrestling winning national championships, do we think we’ll ever hear about Nebraska-Omaha again? I’m sure those Summit League games will rack up some serious ratings and attendance numbers.

We need more Debbie Yow’s in the world. The former Maryland A.D. who holds the same perch at N.C. State is proactive in her approach to running an athletics department.

People like Alberts and Kilkenny personify all that is wrong with college athletics.

So yesterday, Craig Sesker calls from downstairs to let me know I won the panel for the journalist predictions. Granted, it was a small pool this year, and already folks from The Open Mat and InterMat have let me know they hit more champs than I did.

All in good fun, of course, but I generally want to know how I did overall. It’s very tough making predictions, not just because of all the nuances in picking a winner, but we’re interviewing these kids. These kids read this stuff. So it’s pretty hard to walk up to someone after the tournament is said and done and congratulate them, when you know (and you’re positive they know) you didn’t pick them to win it.

One of those awkward moments when I congratulated Kyle Dake after the tournament was over. It’s never a personal thing. Sometimes you pick your favorites and sometimes you pick against your favorites for the fear of the dreaded “homerism” call.

That happened to me with Bubba Jenkins, a kid I’ve known since he was in the sixth grade. I doubted him twice this year … and he burned me bad both of those times. First in the All-Star Classic and second with my picks.

Injuries to great wrestlers like Kirk Smith and Darrion Caldwell put a damper on things, not just with picks, but with wrestling as a whole. I’m sure everyone would have loved to see Caldwell vs. Dake in the semifinals. Life isn’t always like that, unfortunately. I feel bad for those kids.

Anyway,
I figured I’d break down my overall picks, not just the finals picks that were posted on TheMat.com. I’m sure many of you did better than I did. I cringe when people call me an “expert,” although every now and then, my observational skills do get me a nugget of good perspective … if that makes any sense.

The picks were so prevalent, we created a sub-forum for the NCAA picks, because it was clogging up the discussion on TheMat.com’s college wrestling forum. I chose one poster, the always colorful Stephen Stonebraker, aka “JohnnyThompsonnum1” as a comparison. Why him? Well, he’s been known to go for the gusto and pick kids for the most random of reasons. When he hits, hey, there’s a talking point.

Overall, I managed to pick 58 of the 80 All-Americans correct, a 73.8 percent rate. I only hit 70 percent of the finalists (14-for-20) and only had six champions correct. While I did have the top four dead on in the team race, apparently that’s what propelled me in the media picks. I did pick 24 of the 80 placements exactly right, good for a modest 30 percent.

Against the fans, I’m sure I was just average.

At 125 pounds, I managed to get five of the eight All-Americans. My misses were Ben Kjar of Utah Valley, Ryan Mango of Stanford (I was still questioning the durability of the knee), and Oklahoma’s Jarrod Patterson. Most of Patterson’s pick against was looking at Mark Rappo as a possible unseeded wrestler making the quarters. It would have disrupted Patterson’s draw down low. Stonebraker did better, getting seven of the eight, only missing Missouri’s Alan Waters. As far as exactness went, I hit four of the eight exactly. Stonebreaker hit just Sanders at fifth.

At 133, I was going upset in the semis with Andrew Long. That cost me a finalist correct. I admittedly went homer in the consolations, hoping Old Dominion’s Kyle Hutter would break through. Unfortunately, he hit another one of my favorites, Penn’s Rollie Peterkin in the consolations and had Scotti Sentes looming. Neither Stonebraker or I had Sentes in the top eight, but I had him Top 12, as did Stonebraker. He went with a ballsy pick for a champion – Lou Ruggirello of Hofstra. I like Lou. I watched his career closely. Wouldn’t have bothered me one bit if he’d have won it. I only hit two exactly right here, and got another 5/8. Stonebraker hit 6/8 and only hit Hochstrasser exactly right. My misses: Sentes, Ruggirello and B.J. Futrell of Illinois. He missed on Peterkin and Iowa’s Tony Ramos.

At 141, two low seeds snuck in there, Missouri’s Todd Schavrien and Penn’s Zack Kemmerer. We both had VonOhlen and Alton placing, but they both didn’t. I also missed on Zack Bailey, which was disrupted because of his win over VonOhlen early.  Stonebraker beats me again here, hitting 6/8, while I hit just five. I had two exact (Russell and Marion), he just had Russell.

At 149, we both had Caldwell. Only pick I nailed correctly here was Molinaro, while I missed on Andrew Nadhir and Derek Valenti. So another 5/8 here for me. Stonebraker missed on Kinser, Lopouchanski and Mason. I’m sure most everyone, other than Oklahoma State fans were rooting for “Loopy” due to the news the program was getting cut at UNC Greensboro. The kid was a locked hands call away. Stonebraker hit 4/8 and hit none exactly right. He held on to a four-pick lead heading into 157.

At 157, I really sold Jenkins short. But with Bubba, he’s got that X-Factor. You sometimes never know what Bubba will show up. We got the ready to go Bubba in the finals. I hit 6/8 and only pegged one right – Steve Fittery. Stonebraker extended his lead, by hitting 7/8, but none exact. I held a lead in that category, but needed to make up some ground somewhere. He pegged Bryce Saddoris again to place, while I hit on Walter Peppelman. He also hit Jason Welch exactly right.

At 165, I had another 5/8 effort, missing on Hatchett, Gillespie and Onufer. Stonebraker was also 5/8, but he hit on Onufer, while missing on picks from Aaron Janssen and Kurt Swartz. I’d had Janssen and Dallas Bailey in my top eight. We each only hit one exactly right – me on Burroughs and him on Sponseller.

At 174, I thought I would make up some ground, hitting all eight All-Americans right, but only getting two exactly right. I hit perfectly on Letts and Bennett, while mixing up the top six. Stonebraker’s lead diminished, but only slightly, he hit on 7/8 and hit two right exactly – Reader and Covington. He missed on a Scott Glasser pick, with Mike Letts placing instead of Glasser for his 7/8. We both had Amuchastegui up pretty high. I was right on Amuchastegui making the semis, but I didn’t see him beating Lewnes. Considering I was one of the few who could actually say his name right out of high school, I should have known better, but the Lewnes family has been great to me over the years, so it was hard for me to pick against such a great kid like Mack. Reader was super deserving of the title, though. The kid has my respect and always has. I remember interviewing Reader in Fargo when he won Juniors and he was talking about then-unheralded Glasser. “He’s tough as …” well, you know.

I still trailed with three weights to go.

At 184, I finally took the lead. I again hit 8/8, although only hitting one exactly right – Rutt. I had both finalists correct, just not in the right order. Stonebraker hit 5/8, missing on picks from Josh Ihnen, Ryan Loder and Kirk Smith. I held a slight one pick lead at this point.

At 197, we tied it up again. While I hit for 6/8 and all six of those were exactly correct (picking 1-5, 7-8 dead on), Stonebraker managed 7/8, only missing on Logan Brown. He hit Zack Giesen of Stanford. I missed on him and Sonny Yohn.

At heavyweight, I hit the top four right and hit 5/8, which is kid of expected, since three unseeded wrestlers place here. Stonebraker hit on 4/8, which gave me a slim one pick win.

As I said earlier, there are numerous fans out there who did better than I did. I’d love to see how some of you ended up with total All-Americans, the percentage and how many you picked in the exact placement. That’s one place where I did have a significant edge over Stonebraker. I hit 24/80 while he hit on 8/80.

It was finally over.

At approximately 12:12 a.m. Mountain Time on Monday, March 22, my 19-day journey through the wrestling heartland wrapped up. And when I say wrestling “heartland,” I’m referring specifically to geography, not any quote by a current Penn State coach. So press conference quotes notwithstanding, here’s some things by the numbers.

I drove approximately 2,300 miles, and my trusty Trailblazer eclipsed the 40,000-mile mark somewhere in the middle of Kansas. In all, there were over 1,100 bouts contested across three NCAA championship events. Kyle Klingman and I manned the NCAA.com webcast for roughly 25 hours of competition and I spent 11 glorious days in Omaha.

In recapping all the action, I want to focus on Omaha as the site for the NCAA Division I Championships, because it was the first time the Qwest Center and the city of Omaha had hosted the tournament.

I drove from Colorado, so my issues in travel were limited. Those flying in, as in, those who flew in and had gotten their flight arrangements early enough to land at tiny Eppley Field (tiny considering the size of the city), had a short drive to get to the venue. There were a handful of hotels within walking distance to the Qwest Center, including my own digs at the Courtyard, which was the official media hotel of the championships.

Anything’s better than where I stayed for the Division II championships, a run down dive of a hotel called the Carol Hotel. Apparently, when Clarion dumped it, the new owners just re-arranged some letters, painted over the “sun” logo and kept all the same letterhead. Takedown Radio’s Caleb Nemmers started to get worried when I told the world via Facebook how bad the place was. Nemmers had to stay there for a night or two.

No, there weren’t any crack pipes or anything, but it was just a hole. Don’t stay there. It’s cheap … and you get what you pay for. The Courtyard … ah, nice for the five hours of sleep a night I was reluctant to get.

I thought the intimacy of the Qwest Center was an immediate plus. Granted, my seats were down at the press table AND up in the sixth floor press box. My sight lines from way up top, just above a large section of Iowa State fans, were pretty good. I didn’t have to squint too hard to see the clocks, although the green numbers on the outer mats were tough to see at times.

I wasn’t privy to complaints about seat size, because I was standing much of the tournament. But I do know it can be annoying if your knees are always jacked against hard plastic for hours on end. I can’t comment there, because I didn’t experience it. I thought the facility itself was good. I think sellouts are good for the sport of wrestling, but maybe a thousand more seats could have made this a real winner.

Speaking of winners, Omaha’s support for the event was a real plus. The Omaha World Herald covered the event better than any local paper I’d seen in the last nine years. St. Louis does a fantastic job hosting the event, but if you’re in STL and not there for wrestling, you wouldn’t know it was going on too much if you read the papers. Omaha – you couldn’t miss it. So a big shout out to the World Herald for their coverage – and especially the sports front picture with Iowa’s Jay Borschel after his semifinal victory over Chris Henrich. That picture captured the entire spirit of the sport of wrestling. The exhilarating victory coupled with a beaten opponent.

The press areas were wide, and there was none of this “schootching” in constantly to let other reporters by. Laurie Cannon at the NCAA, now in her third year in the middle of this wrestling thing, was super helpful and super easy to work with. She deserves a tip of the proverbial cap.

What about the competition? Well, you read enough about that all weekend.

The Old Market area was cool, although I think a lot of fans were let down by the early last call … and subsequent 1 a.m. shutdown. I’m sure the “establishments” in Iowa welcomed the rush of traffic over the bridge around … 12:55.

There was some good food down there, although I lost eight pounds on the trip, no thanks to some less than stellar vittles later in the tournament. I know a few other members of the media spent some of their days near some porcelain.

Spaghetti Works was solid, as was Rock Bottom. Their Prime Rib sandwich and tables with taps made St. Patrick’s Day pretty solid. As did Jake Herbert’s green tuxedo t-shirt, which said, I like to be formal, but I’m kinda Irish too.

A lot of things to really take in from the tournament, but Omaha, in my opinion, was a solid place to have this event. I would like to get more prophetic and descriptive, but I’m packing for another flight – Oklahoma City this weekend for girls folkstyle nationals. Webcast on TheMat.com!

With nothing better to do than sleep at 2:45 a.m., I figured I’d jot a few lines about what’s been happening this evening.

I’m packed up and ready to head to Omaha. Yes, I’m heading out on Thursday. Like tomorrow. For those of you sleeping under a rock, there are more national tournaments than “the big one” in Omaha next weekend. After finishing up with the Division III championships, I’m making a six-hour run from the Twin Cities to Omaha in preparation for the Division II championships hosted at UNO.

I had a chance to write a rather lengthy preview today (you can read it on TheMat.com) and I’m excited for the tournament. UNO, despite my posturing that it’s anyone’s tournament, is the heavy, heavy favorite.

I sat down this afternoon in between boiling ziti and working on some dinner, to fill out roughly half of the Division II brackets. I’ll fill out the rest of them tomorrow (well, later today) and post them here for people to pick apart.

Now, while I’m gearing up for the Division II tournament, Wednesday was the big day for college wrestling fans, as they found out not only the at-large berths into the Division I championships, but the brackets as well. Already, Thursday Morning Quarterbacks (if that is a term, well, it is if you’re a MAC Football fan) are filling out brackets, boldly picking upsets and posturing their opinions as to who will be the ultimate sleeper in Omaha at the Qwest Center.

I again, will be filling out the complete bracket and posting it here for you guys to throw darts at. Why? I dunno, I guess I’m just a glutton for punishment.

Anyway, if you go to TheMat.com, you’ll see the Division I Championship Special Section. In that section, you’ll find some breakdowns with facts and figures provided to me by Pat Tocci at the NWCA. He’s the guy who told you who was in the tournament on the NCAA webcast. He works tirelessly, and I do mean tirelessly, for the sport of wrestling. With my pending marriage coming up in two months, I wonder how Pat’s stayed married all this time, because he puts mountains of effort into promoting and working with factions to help improve the sport and its visibility.

Now, enough about my old boss … I wonder why my sleeping habits are messed up. Could it be the eight years working nights at a daily newspaper? Too much time at Brendee’s in Lancaster shooting darts and watching “just one more inning” of a Mets-Phillies game? Or perhaps the video editing from last year’s Wrestling 411 finally caught up to me.

Nah, it’s that whole glutton for punishment thing again. Sorting, fact-finding and posting information in the wee hours of the morning is nothing new. But it’s not for me to admire, it’s for you, the wrestling fan, to feast upon. So have a look at the coverage section and check out some interesting notes – like a breakdown of the home states (Pennsylvania has the most) and hometowns (guess who’s No. 1 there?) and of course, the brother combos and a breakdown by win percentage.

We’ll be creating the Division II special section tomorrow, as Craig Sesker and I arrive in Omaha.

More updates when we get there, but I’ve gotta be up and out the door in about four hours. Ack. It’s now 2:55 a.m. … do you know where your brackets are?

After getting a good night’s sleep following the festivities at the NCAA Division III Championships, I awoke Sunday, packed up and left my digs at the Cedar Rapids Marriott and headed north.

Between the Division II and III tournaments, I’m working remotely from Minnesota, getting a chance to get some more meetings and wedding planning stuff taken care of. Before leaving Cedar Rapids, I checked the boards and saw they were still rather “tame” when the volume of college wrestling going on was booming.

This would change in a matter of hours.

I got in my trusty Chevy Trailblazer (which now has over 40,000 miles on it – I bought it last January with 6,700) and started to drive up I-35. Before I got on the road, I called Iowa City Press-Citizen wrestling beat writer Andy Hamilton to find out what Iowa-based radio stations were in Ann Arbor broadcasting the Big Ten Championships.

He told me to check AM 800 KXIC. I dialed in, diverting my radio from it’s normal “90’s on 9” on XM Radio and found the signal with Steven Grace and Mark Ironside.

I have never listened to an Iowa radio broadcast, other than sitting behind Ironside in Carver-Hawkeye a few times last season. Living in Minnesota last year and Colorado now, it’s not like I can just tune in and listen.

But with the drive mounting, I was hoping I’d get enough time to listen. Grace was the first voice I heard, as Ironside was, “chillin’” during the break before the finals and consolation finals.

I must say, even though I’m not an Iowa fan (and really not a “fan” of any team when I put on my media hat, although I openly admit, in my spare time, I follow my alma mater and wrestlers I know pretty well from various schools), the broadcast was quite good.

If you’re listening from an Iowa perspective (which I’m not), it seemed to fill in everything you’d want to know as a Hawkeye fan. If you were listening from my perspective, one looking for all the results and what was going on in the finals, you were also very satisfied.

Andy had told me I’d probably get the signal for about an hour or so. I figured I’d lose it around Cedar Falls/Waterloo, which is the same spot I lost my old Blazer last year, when I played chicken with a concrete barrier on Highway 218. The concrete won.

Anyway, I was pleased to keep a strong signal all the way up to Clear Lake, just before hopping on I-35/Avenue of the Saints to get back to the Twin Cities. I listened all the way through the finale of the 184 pound match before the buzz got to be too much. I was also following Craig Sesker’s twitter updates on the USA Wrestling Twitter page, so I was covered on all aspects.

Now, expecting an Iowa-heavy broadcast, I was pleasantly surprised to hear how “even” things went during the Brent Metcalf-Lance Palmer 149-pound final. While Grace did sound somewhat surprised when Metcalf got hit for stalling in the second period, Ironside backed up the call, explaining the rule and essentially coming off unsurprised by the call.

When the flurry of action occurred, I could picture it in my head. I went back and watched it on YouTube on Monday, and the descriptions given by Grace and Ironside were dead on close to what I’d pictured in my mind. Solid broadcasting by the two.

Now, when Palmer put Metcalf to his back, I, and I’m sure a ton of other wrestling fans,let out a collective “Oh .” Why? It had nothing to do with either wrestler, but I’d know I’d have some heavy surgery to perform on the message boards in about two hours, since that’s roughly how far away I was from a computer when the result happened. I probably broke a few traffic laws by perusing the boards on my iPhone, but I knew the boards would erupt.

Before I go into the board issues, and how much I was NOT looking forward to going through the threads, Grace and Ironside’s commentary was foreign to me, yet, exactly what I’d expected.

When you grow up and live in areas where you don’t hear wrestling on the radio, especially not with the presence and push that KXIC gives the fans in Southeastern Iowa, you really come to appreciate the ability to follow one of the best wrestling tournaments in the nation while driving through the land of windmills and corn.

Because of KXIC, I was able to keep tabs with the Big Ten and not spend time averting my eyes from the road to my iPhone (at least not as much as I would have). Grace and Ironside’s passion, not just for Iowa wrestling, but for good wrestling in general shines. It’s unfortunate that I won’t have a chance to listen to those guys again for some time, but it made half of the 4 ½ hour drive back to Minnesota just fly by.

Now, as it relates to the message boards. I think I’ve combined 15-16 Metcalf ONLY related topics into one on the boards. We’re still seeing good topics pushed back 2-3 pages because people are harping about one match. But I could honestly care less about the winner or loser of the match, because it made my Sunday less than enjoyable after the fact!

I did, however, have time to go to Kinko’s and make copies of wedding directions, etc., so thankfully for my fiancée’s sake, I wasn’t stuck on a computer the entire night. We do live 1,000 miles apart right now, so wrestling gets in the way sometimes, but it won’t too much this week – until I leave for Omaha.

So this week, it’s Minnesota, with the NCAA brackets coming out in two days, and I’m sure I’ll have more forum fun come then.

A great weekend in D3’s, followed by a great drive north (the sun came out just as I got to Owatonna), and now a week of preparation for D2’s and D1’s.