I was initially disappointed. 

The Fox Searchlight release of “Win Win” wasn’t set to be in any of the major movie theaters here in Colorado Springs. I’d read the reviews, seen the trailer and knew the background of the wrestler-turned-actor Alex Shaffer.

The promotional leg of “Win Win” even got some ad space on TheMat.com and other wrestling websites. I was wondering if I’d get a chance to see it.

Sure enough, Kimball’s Twin Peak, a small independent theater in downtown Colorado Springs, was there to end my disappointment. I’d never been to one of those “indie” theaters. I’d always wanted to check out some of the lesser known independent movies. I’m a bit of a movie buff and really don’t have any sort of aversion to movies. My DVD collection validates this claim. I like stupid humor, sports comedies, drama, action and some outright horrible flicks – we can sometimes call those “cult” films.

A Netflix account is a wonderful thing, allowing me to see such gems as “My Name is Bruce,” a terrible but lovable homage to B-movie action star Bruce Campbell. You might know him from the Evil Dead movies and Army of Darkness. 

Anyway, I searched out Kimball’s Twin Peak to see what upcoming movies they’d be showing, hoping “Win Win” would be one of their selections.

Sure enough, this past weekend, the Paul Giamatti movie hit Colorado Springs, so my wife and some friends set out to check it out. The Indie movie experience is a good one. While I didn’t partake, the opportunity is there to get an adult beverage and something to eat while in the theater. Things more “upscale” than my typical selection of popcorn and a large Cherry Coke. It’s one of the few times I’ll actually drink a “full flavor” soda. I don’t drink much of it anymore, but the movies are my one excuse.

As far as “Win Win” is concerned … I loved it. I loved every second of it. While we are feinding for the next “Vision Quest,” there have been few movies that put wrestling in a positive light. More and more are coming out, I have a list of things I still need to watch. Recently, I watched Legendary on Netflix. A sound effort, even though it was made by faux-wrestling WWE studios.

“Win Win” was a good story, a good plot, predictable at some points, and unpredictable at others. One thing I did like about the movie (without spoiling it for you) is our young wrestling hero didn’t come out like you might expect in the movies.

It came across as very real. Scenarios that enter the personal lives that impact performance. Life stories with sport as the backdrop. “Win Win” isn’t exactly a true “feel good” movie with the sports sequence. Wrestling scenes are truly believable, much of that coming from Shaffer, a New Jersey state wrestling champion making his acting debut. 

For nearly two hours, I sat and stared at the screen in the small auditorium. “Win Win” is funnier than you’d expect. From a wrestling perspective, some of the funnier moments to me were lost on many in the audience, some of the funniest scenes drew big laughs from the crowd, but I’m sure I found things funnier for different reasons than my wife did. She’s not too knowledgeable (yet) about wrestling, but she’s been around me and the sport long enough to pick up on some things the average movie-goer wouldn’t quite pick up.

I realize this review isn’t like those in Hollywood. There won’t be any Rotten Tomatoes type of acting critiques. This was just a good movie, one I’d recommend to pretty much anyone – wrestler or non-wrestler. 

Do yourself a favor. Find out where this is playing in your area and go see it. The only thing that threw me off was the R-rating. Sure, there’s a few choice words that the MPAA might deem “R,” but I’ve seen a lot more R-rated things in PG-13 movies than I did in “Win Win.” 

If you can’t see this in the theaters, just hold out until the DVD is available. It’s one of the best movies I’ve seen this year. 

Basically, I loved the movie and that’s all I’m really trying to get say. 

The last three weeks have been an absolute whirlwind of wrestling. It started with the CAA, EIWA and EWL championships, then off to La Crosse for the Division III championships, then to Philly for the Division I Championships.

There were some great matches, great friends and great times. There were also some not-so-great moments.

Let's start with renting cars.

I've had about every bad rental car in the world. I've had PT Cruisers, HHR's, Neons ... but when I was out in PA and Jersey for the trio of qualifiers, I was met with the absolute worst car I've ever encountered.

A hybrid Honda Insight. Now, picture me, a 255-pound individual cramming into a hybrid. Sure, it got 40 miles a gallon when on economy mode, but when you're driving across the Pennsylvania turnpike and navigating the New Jersey roads, being in a tiny car with horrible blind spots and negative 12 accelleration, you're in for some trouble.

It wasn't too problematic initially, with the exception there's no cruise control. I like to have cruise control in rentals because the last thing I want to get is a speeding ticket. Being out of state, it's just so easy for them not to let you off ... "them" ... yes "THEM."

Anyway, I dealt with it (parking was actually easy, the thing was slightly bigger than one of those Smart cars) until I got to Bucknell.

After crashing with Willie Saylor of The Open Mat on Saturday night after some wrestling chatter at Damon's in Lewisburg, I set out to Bloomsburg after the finals were over. I went into Sojka Pavilion under the chill of a cold Pennsylvania rain. After watching the F&M van back into a pole, then realize they weren't supposed to park in that lot, I walked in.

Then there was some wrestling.

Then as I left Bucknell, I walked out to a nice, cold, wet snowstorm. This one wasn't even expected. Now, the Insight isn't built for ... well, much of anything, and it especially couldn't handle snow too well. What's about a 25-mile drive from Bucknell to Bloomsburg took 90 minutes. I got to Bloomsburg just as the EWL Finals were starting.

Saw some wrestling.

Talked with Mark Bader and Zeb Miller from Flo. They were going to try to traverse I-80 so Zeb could teach in the morning. Yeah, not a great idea.

I was at least going to try to get closer to Harrisburg and get a room for the night. I'd initially planned on driving back to Lancaster, near my old stomping grounds to sleep for the night (and perhaps grab a Lager), but about a mile into my journey, which included sliding out of the Bloomsburg parking lot, I was on the phone (Bluetooth, people) with my wife when she said, "Babe, just turn around."

That was a battle in itself.

Did I mention the Insight isn't equipped ... for anything?

Well, after the GPS took me up a big hill, where I was going no faster than SEVEN miles an hour, I had to turn around and go back down the hill.

I eventually settled on the Hampton Inn. I checked in and moments afterwards, so did the West Virginia team. Greg Jones said his brother Vertus was trying to make it back to Pittsburgh, but made it as far as Bellefonte, which is just outside of State College.

Talked to Greg for a bit on a variety of topics, then I set out for Harrisburg, normally a 90-minute drive, to catch my 10 a.m. flight. I left at 6 a.m.

Even if it took twice as long, I'd still have time, right?

Have I told you about the Insight?

Well the roads leading out of town were bad. I-80 wasn't too bad, but US 11/15 was just atrocious. It took me 4 1/2 hours to get to Harrisburg. I'd called United prior to change my flight and bellyached enough to get them to waive the change fee. I'd already paid for a room that I wasn't anticipating, so I'm trying to save some funds here.

Well, nature called just outside of Selinsgrove (home of Maryland's All-American Spencer Myers) and I stopped at a Denny's ... I didn't leave for 30 minutes. Not for what you might be thinking, but the power (or lack thereof) of the Insight struck. I had to get pulled out of the snow by a local with a tow line.

Anyway, with time to kill, I get some work done at the NWCA offices then set back out to Colorado Springs. I turn around and leave two days later to head to Minneapolis for a drive to La Crosse.

Renting a car in Minneapolis is the most expensive in the nation, and if it's not, it's right up there. This time, I get offered a Hyundai Accent -- NOT going to happen. I get the Kia Optima. Now, if you don't know, Kia apparently has upped its game and has a nice car. The guy in the McDonalds drive-thru even told me such as I was picking up my less than savory lunch.

I make it to La Crosse and check in at the Brookstone Inn, just in time to go on Takedown Radio's Bracket Buster Special.

Joe Miller and I do the webcast for all four sessions of the Division III tournament on NCAA.com. Shout out to Turner Sports' Katy Sullivan and Web Stream Productions' Adam Coppinger -- they were awesome to work with. Coppinger, though, went to Butler. I went to Old Dominion. Actually most of WSP's folk I've worked with (like John Fritz ... not THAT John Fritz) went to Butler. So last week in Philly, I had to see that tip-in replay over and over.

Anyway, La Crosse is an awesome place. Rich Bender told me to stay off Third Street ... Easier said than done. The tournament went great, Wartburg won, some great individual performances. Minga Batsukh from St. John's is a stud.

My wife joined me in La Crosse and we drove back to "The Cities" and then spent a day with the in-laws up in Princeton. We flew out Monday morning early. Abby flew to Memphis at 6 a.m., I went back on a direct flight -- a DIRECT flight to Colorado Springs.

My bag, on the other hand, had other ideas. It apparently booked a ticket to Minot ... like Minot in North Dakota.

After going through a few less than fun conversations with Delta (the broke a one-legged man's wheelchair, too), the bag would end up in Denver and I would have to get it. I flew out on Tuesday, so this being Monday evening and all my dress clothes were in the bag, I needed that bag.

I bought it two weeks earlier and already it's got more frequent flyer miles than I do. The last flight into Colorado was at 10:51. So I made the 75-minute drive to Denver. Then about the time I get on the E-470 tollway (which is the devil, by the way), I use FlightTracker on my iPhone (Great app, by the way) and check the status.

DELAYED.

So I sit at a Boston's and have a Diet Coke for about 90 minutes, then head to DIA. I wait, and wait. It's 1:15 a.m. and my bag FINALLY gets here. Then I drive BACK to Colorado Springs. Unpack, repack, wash clothes and get to bed around 4 a.m.

I'm supposed to meet Craig Sesker at the USA Wrestling office at 8 a.m.

We get that done, then head to Philly ....

I'll post a Philly follow-up soon.

When I look back on events like the Junior Nationals, I talk about evolution. I wrote in WIN Magazine a few months back about how Fargo used to be a wrestling purgatory, a strange place where we waited and waited for results.

Now, with Trackwrestling on the scene, results are updated quickly following the completion of bouts. Fans back home don’t have to wait hours to get the results they want.

Recently, USA Wrestling released information about the 2009-10 webcast schedule and all the players who made it possible. Well, not all the players. One major player in the entire success of USAW’s webcast initiative was a company called NewTek. They provided us with the Tricaster technology that took normal, one camera webcasts to another level. This past year in Fargo, we had three camera angles on our featured mat, and integrated another NewTek add-on, TimeWarp, to add replays.

They weren’t mentioned in the release, and they should have. Some of you who dabble in webcasting might know about the Tricaster. It’s been widely used in college athletics for the past few years – so much so that CoSIDA, the national organization of Sports Information Directors has sessions about using NewTek’s products to provide a cost-efficient alternative to buying TV time. I first heard about the Tricaster at the CoSIDA convention (I’m an affiliate member) back in Tampa, shortly before I left the NWCA.

While USA Wrestling did have a position open where my technical knowledge and broadcast abilities benefit our events, NewTek has been there since before my arrival. Before I was even hired, NewTek was at the World Team Trials. In the past 10 months, I’ve had the opportunity to learn and evolve with the technology. When I spoke about integrating Trackwrestling into our webcasts, NewTek’s DataLink provided the engine.

Websites I frequent, like Takedown Radio and Swimming World Magazine, use the Tricaster for their daily and weekly shows. It’s not new, but something we’ve hit the ground running with. I sometimes wonder if we’d have had the technology last year at Wrestling 411, would the show have taken off.

But it’s all hindsight.

The reality is NewTek and Ustream are now pivotal players in our promotion and presentation of wrestling. Their work is not overlooked and it’s used heavily during the season.

Even when play-by-play resources are at a minimum or being saved for finals, the on screen graphics and steady stream is a direct result of NewTek and Ustream’s ability to provide groups like USA Wrestling the resources to give the fans a better user experience.

I didn’t personally webcast anything but the finals in Fargo, but as a fan, you really didn’t need it, because there was an on-screen scoreboard, updated live, as well as a clock. You knew who was wrestling, what mat (well, the only mat in this case), what round and bout number everything was on. It made our lives that much easier.

This year, we’ll be adding more feeds. We will have a featured mat at each event (at least each event I’ll be traveling to) with all the Tricaster/Trackwrestling add ons when available. Since Track is what we use for all our USAW events, it’s safe to say when a Track scoreboard is available, you’ll have those graphics. Supplementary events will be a different story, but with Tricaster, we’ll still be able to do the on-screen scoreboards, but manually.

We look to have at least 20 events covered this year live, and at the lion’s share of those events, will have more than one feed. Ideally, we’d love to have a feed of every mat, but manpower and managing that will still be evolving.

In the time being, I want to thank NewTek, Ustream, Trackwrestling and all our events staff for being able to facilitate this very important aspect of USA Wrestling – free live webcasts of our events.

I'm sitting here in the Fort Lauderdale airport for the second time in two days. Weather, as it's been known to do, has disrupted flights out of South Florida and forced me to have Sunday's flight rebooked.

I was in Delray Beach for the annual NWCA Convention, the first I've attended since I left the NWCA as an employee in 2008. First off, Mike Moyer, Pat Tocci, Tammy Tedesco, Jordon Griffith, Amy DiCato, Jerry Fulmer and Betsy Peachy do a fine job and tons of work for the event. New NWCA staff John Licata and Dan Mayo were also highly visible at the convention. I'm hopeful their efforts will be great in future years.

Pleasantries aside, the annual NWCA Convention's biggest hit was the second year of the Coaching Leadership Academy. I did several videos for the wrestling community talking to coaches as mentors and apprentices at the convention. You can check them out on the USA Wrestling YouTube channel here.

Some of the biggest talk came from about surrounding the future of the NWCA National Duals. Rob Koll was pretty adamant in his comments and that's generated discussion on the message boards here at the USA Wrestling Nation. Personally, the National Duals needs to be an officially recognized event by the NCAA to crown a national dual meet champion. I hope it's headed in that direction. Making a model that benefits all organizations, not just NCAA Division I, is key. A replicable model would ensure increased media coverage and legitimacy in the media with a true "NCAA" champion. If it doesn't go that way, the NWCA National Duals is still the big event teams in the Top 20 (Top 16 in all honesty) need to attend if the format keeps the status quo.

I like the idea of qualifying for the event, making dual meet and conference matches more important. The auto-bids to the NCAA National Dual Meet Championships would provide a March Madness type of atmosphere. Two years ago, Cornell met Iowa in the finals of the National Duals. Look at what Cornell's basketball team got in terms of media coverage this past year with their run to the Sweet 16. I believe the media would eat up the "Juggernaut vs. Ivy" type of angle. That was great for wrestling. But it went largely ignored outside of our wrestling community.

I did one long interview with the new chair of the NCAA Wrestling Committee, Derek van der Merwe, a Senior Associate AD at Central Michigan. Derek has a lot of great ideas that weren't touched on in the interview. My focus was on the topics discussed in the meetings, then I got on a soap box about women's wrestling, since I see so many marginal sports added as "emerging sports" under the NCAA watch, yet NCAA programs are reluctant to give women's wrestling a chance. You don't see this at the NAIA level, where school presidents are willing to add the sport to drive enrollment.

It's the opposite effect of what groups like the Women's Sports Foundation echo. They say, "If you build it, they will come." The NWCA and USA Wrestling has lobbied the NCAA for emerging sports status for women's wrestling, but until a school president (20 of them) sign off on the idea, we'll still sit there and hope. Right now, only ONE NCAA school sponsors women's wrestling -- Pacific in Oregon.

UPDATE: It should be noted that the NCAA Wrestling Committee doesn't have control of what is added to the NCAA membership. It's the responsibility of the schools, not the "NCAA" to determine. Derek van der Merwe will help improve the identity and scope of the NCAA Wrestling Championships on all levels. We need to focus on what they can do to improve the sport. Pressure the schools to add the sport, not the wrestling committee, which as I said, doesn't have that role.

Notes: Check out Coyte Cooper's interview on the YouTube Channel ... It was great to see Mike Finn of W.I.N. taking an active role in the convention. To all you media out there who read this, get to the convention next year. It will help you get a better understanding of what's going on within the sport and the coaching ranks and can help you grasp the root of the issues. Education is never a bad thing. ... Martin Floreani of Flowrestling also made an appearance, which is a positive in respect to the reasons I mentioned above. The better our wrestling community understands, the better our fans can understand as a result. ... Randy L. Buhr was honored with the Dan Gable America Needs Wrestling Award. Some of you might cringe at the thought, but all the things Randy has done have been widely notable as improving the sport and visibility of the NCAA championships. Some might disagree with "all" ... so how about most, if not all, as a better way of describing it. Randy works tirelessly for the NCAA Championships and his involvement cannot be understated.

I was on IM talking with InterMat's Andrew Hipps this afternoon and I inquired about when he'd be coming into Fargo. More specifically, I asked if he was going, to which he replied he was. Then he asked if I was.

Then he realized the folly of the question

It's not that I'm making light of it, but Fargo has become like a fifth home for me. Yes, I say fifth, because I've lived in four states, and all of those places have a "home" feel for me.

Fargo, to the common non-wrestling fan, draws sneers and comparisons to a movie by the same name. As I often say, Fargo is the greatest town in the world for eight days in July.

Of course, it depends on what happens in those eight days that makes things so special. Since I left Virginia, it's been a reunion for friends I moved away from after living in the Commonwealth for 25 years. I see old roommates, friends, old coaches, older coaches from my home state.

I also run into friends I've made specifically because of my attendance at said tournament. Wait, I didn't mention a tournament yet. Yes, the reason we go to Fargo isn't because of the great social atmopshere it provides those who give so much to the sport, but because of the sport of wrestling itself. With anywhere from 23-25 mats (depending on the schedule and set up), the USA Wrestling Cadet & Junior Nationals is THE central focal point of our wrestlers below the senior level.

I've seen some GREAT matches on the raised platform in Fargo. It has provided the opportunity to get first glimpses at wrestlers who would soon dot the mats across the nation, wrestling for various colleges across all levels.

It's allowed me to make friends, first from possibly doing stories on wrestlers, to then following their careers. I've met some of my best friends, some of the best people I can trust with my life, by spending nearly three months of my life in the Fargodome.

There's something about the place ... its haunts, its people, its landscape, its heat and of course, its mosquitoes.

This will be the fifth time I drive to Fargo for the Junior Nationals. I will set out in a few days, with a Trailblazer making its second journey. I've driven from Virginia twice, Pennsylvania once, Minnesota once and now from Colorado.

I've taken an '89 Bronco II, a 2000 Blazer and now my Oh-So-Great 08 Trailblazer (Which now has about 46,000 miles on it).

And I can't write something about Fargo without saying two words -- "The Turf."

Granted, I'm 30 now and no longer the same person I was when I first discovered the loveable dive with the great (in my opinion) Bison Burger. I always eat the burger on Thursdays ... and I plan on keeping that tradition alive.

We're webcasting a ton and I'll have to save my voice, so to my fellow "regulars" who frequent said dive, I won't be there much ...

But I'm sure the Buffalo Wild Wings across the street will be seeing my duff on a stool chowing on some Mango Habanero boneless wings on more than one occasion throughout the week.

See you there!

Oh, and this is my 12th Fargo .... the longest consecutive wrestling tournament I've attended. Next year, it will tie the Virginia Duals for the all-time lead, and the following year, eclipse it.

I'll be honest with you. I haven't read every wrestling book out there. I've read some good ones, some bad ones and a bunch of rather average ones. I think we, as a fanbase, are quick to say every book about wrestling is great. That's not always the case. But there's one book I recently read (started and finished in one day) that has been on shelves for years.

Jack Spates wrote Mat Snacks 11 years ago. I never read it until Tuesday, while I was on a plane heading from Colorado Springs to Omaha for the 2010 World Team Trials. I need to give some backstory here, first.

My wife and I were spending last weekend in Colorado Springs, which only makes sense, I live here, we're married, and she's coming here on weekends between time on the road with her job. One of the things she wanted to do last week was go to the library and get a library card. She picked up some books, I trolled the stacks for some wrestling stuff.

There were two books I'd never read, so I checked them out, knowing I'd have time on the plane and the drive back (I'm driving back with one of our events guys, Scott Tischer, after we're done) to read them.

I picked up Mat Snacks and had it halfway done before I even got to Denver. Then read more in the airport, and finished up the book while I was somewhere over Western Nebraska. Mat Snacks might be a bit dated, but the stories in the book are well worth re-reading. Some of wrestling's best names are featured. While I'm somewhat critical of spelling and grammar when it comes to published works, Jack openly admits he's not a techie and wrote the entire book by hand, scribbled on paper and notes.

That isn't the issue, in fact, there is no issue with the book. I encourage everyone to pick up a copy of Mat Snacks. The stories told are timeless and Spates offers words of inspiration and a backstory to a lot of the entries. It's a great, quick read and will help many of us understand the personalities behind the personalities in the sport of wrestling.

The USA Wrestling men's freestyle practice at the Olympic Training Center, the warm up was yet another soccer game. Who wins? Can Brandon Slay cherry pick to score the game winner? Can Derek Moore validate his claim he's the best goal keeper in Colorado.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbGsKPxoBQ

Don't let the title mislead you. This isn't about putting a kid on the mat when he or she is in diapers. This is about fandom, fanhood, fan-whatever. While I was working in the office on Tuesday, prepping for the USA Wrestling spring softball league game against ... well, that's not important ... Lonnie Morris, the head coach at Johnson & Wales, a Division III school in Providence, R.I., sent me a photo of his six-month-old son, Jackson Morris, watching the NCAA Division I wrestling championships on ESPN.

To borrow a phrase from "The Network," this picture has "instant classic" written all over it.