Beyond the Mat - Isaiah Cromwell

Vice President Isaiah Cromwell. Not the title one would expect a typical college freshman to carry. But like many of F&M’s freshman, saying Cromwell is typical fails to do him justice.

Scanning through F&M’s stat sheets, Cromwell’s name doesn’t appear too often. In fact, Cromwell has yet to participate in a dual match this season. However, just because he hasn’t had a huge impact on the mat so far, Cromwell has made his presence felt elsewhere, which, in many ways, trumps anything he could accomplish as a wrestler.

A product of Newark, NJ, Cromwell has faced his fair share of obstacles. Growing up, Cromwell was exposed to much of the crime and dysfunction Newark is known for.

“Newark New Jersey is really a struggling city with a lot of violence,” Cromwell said. “But right now we’re in a state of change. We have a mayor who’s great and who’s one of my mentors. He motivates me. He’s preparing Newark for the future.”

The second part of that statement is what Cromwell holds on to when he thinks of his hometown. For all the struggles and the obstacles Cromwell has faced during his time in Newark, he has chosen to focus on the bright future Newark has with Mayor Cory A. Booker at the helm. Perhaps that is why Cromwell has been so heavily involved in the non-profit organization Embracing Arms, Inc.

Founded by his mother, Cromwell has dove head first into the organization and is the acting Vice President for Embracing Arms. According to Cromwell, Embracing Arms engages in a wide variety of community service projects aimed at strengthening the ties between those within the neighborhoods of Newark.

“[The goal of] Embracing Arms is to bridge the gap between the elderly and the youth in the community of Newark, New Jersey,” Cromwell said. “Right now, there’s just chaos, it’s not really a community. We’re trying to bring the unity back to community slowly.”

“My mother is the brains behind the organization,” Cromwell continued. “The reason [we started Embracing Arms]? We just wanted to start our own organization to get involved in the community. We started in about seven years ago. We feed the homeless on holidays; we take children on educational trips. We try to get kids out of the city. It’s good for them to see the world and see the country.”

While Cromwell has given a lot back to the community through his organization, he has learned just as much from those he has helped. These lessons have kept Cromwell grounded and given him an appreciation for what he has.

“Especially from feeding the homeless,” Cromwell said when asked about what his experience with Embracing Arms has taught him. “Now I never take life for granted because you never know what can happen. I just try to be kind to them because you might need them someday. You might that homeless person someday, so never take anything for granted.”

“Just show everyone respect.”

At F&M, Cromwell hopes to continue to make a difference with his life. Although its cliché, Cromwell’s desire is to become president and to make an impact in the world around him. He genuinely hopes to one day be an agent for change both in his hometown and the country at large.

Cromwell aims to be a government major and hopes to turn that degree and his experiences outside the classroom into a law career and eventually into a career in the public sector.

“I plan on becoming a lawyer and working on education reform law,” Cromwell said. “After that I want to run for office and become mayor of Newark, New Jersey. [I want to] run for president, change the world.”

Impacting those around him in a positive manner is Cromwell’s highest priority. It’s also one of the most interesting parts of his personality. Just doing the bare minimum doesn’t satisfy Cromwell. Going above and beyond what is normally expected is what he demands of himself.

As a wrestler, even though he has seen little time on the mat, Cromwell has maintained lofty goals for himself. Much like his pursuits and activities outside wrestling, Cromwell expects more from himself than just about anyone else. One of the few exceptions may be his mother, who never allowed Cromwell to stray when he was a kid growing up in Newark.

“My mother, she kept me focused,” Cromwell said. “She got me into a great high school and that’s where I started wrestling. I never had time to play in the streets. The sun came up and I was in school and then the sun came down and I was at home. I didn’t have time to be involved in all that other nonsense.”

Cromwell got involved in wrestling more or less by chance. The sport was not one he thought about much during his childhood. In fact, basketball was Cromwell’s first love, and he hoped one day to take his talents to the NBA. Unfortunately, that dream was not meant to be, as Cromwell was cut from his high school squad and was told he did not have the body to be a basketball player.

It was at that point he turned to wrestling.

“I was kind of forced to wrestle when I couldn’t make my high school basketball team,” Cromwell said. “They sat me down and said, ‘Hey, you’ve got the body of wrestler.’ I said, ‘I don’t want to wrestle!’ I thought wrestling was what I saw in WWE with the slamming chairs and I didn’t want to be a part of that. I wanted to go to the NBA.”

“They kind of had to force me into it,” Cromwell added. “Fortunately, I stuck with it because I started to like it.”

Like so many others on F&M’s wrestling team, Cromwell has drawn a great deal from his time as a wrestler. The sport has taught him a lot about life and how to persevere through struggles. Cromwell is used to facing seemingly insurmountable tasks on the mat and he has tried to translate that into his experience off it.

“I believe wrestling is a little different than other sports because I believe it does teach you life skills,” Cromwell said. “It has taught me to persevere. When you’re on the bottom, you have to get up. You have to do it step-by-step and just get off the bottom. Sometimes, you just want to give up, but you have to understand that you can’t. [Giving up] shows mental weakness. So you have to try and overcome that mental weakness. After that, everything else is easy.”

So far in his young collegiate career, Cromwell has not let his lack of time on the mat dampen his spirits or his goals. They remain the same as when he first took to the mat.

“My goal as a wrestler is to be a champion,” Cromwell said. “I just want to win. But the sport of wrestling is about more than just winning. If I become a champion, it shows everybody out there and myself that I’m a hard worker and that I have overcome all my struggles. It’s those who work the hardest who are the champions. I just want to work hard and become a champion.”

Cromwell for the most part is a fairly quiet kid. He’s not the loudest one on the bench and he’s not one to announce his presence. But that does not diminish what he has accomplished, nor does it put a limit on what he hopes to achieve.

From working hard on the mat to working to serve others in his community off it, Cromwell aims to make a positive impact in the lives of everyone he comes across. Even if he never does become a national champion on the mat, he’s already well on his way to becoming a champion off it.

Beyond the Mat - Robert Ruiz

For some, it takes years of practice. For others, it seems natural. Much like any other sport, wrestling features both those who started young and worked tirelessly before they determined wrestling was their sport of choice and those who stepped on the mat and knew almost instantaneously. Neither group works harder than the other. The sport just resonates with people at different times.

Robert Ruiz, a 133-pound freshman, the latter group is closest to his wrestling experience. Ruiz, despite his relative inexperience on the mat, has stepped into the spotlight that is division one wrestling and excelled in his first year. Most recently, Ruiz captured the Messiah Open title for his weight class.

It wasn’t until 2006 Ruiz picked up wrestling. He still considers himself new to the sport, but that does not mean he lacks the skill, drive, or work ethic necessary to compete at the highest levels of competition. In fact, Ruiz has excelled ever since he first stepped onto the mat.

“I started wrestling in November 2006,” Ruiz said. “I’m still new to the sport. I saw wrestling for the first time when I was 14 or 15. When I saw it, I was like, ‘What is this?’ When I first stepped on the mat, I took down this 171-pounder and I knew wrestling was something I wanted to stick with. I never thought twice about wrestling.”

In a way, wrestling was a blessing for Ruiz. The sport has kept him dedicated and kept him focused. Growing up in Hartford, Ruiz described his childhood days as “kind of ghetto.” While many of his friends fell by the wayside, Ruiz elected to stay true to his newfound passion. It kept him on the straight and narrow and now, when he returns home, many of the friends he used to hang out with wish they had listened to Ruiz more when they had the chance.

“I grew up in Hartford. A lot of my friends were out there and they started just hanging out and doing drugs,” Ruiz said. “I go back to Hartford and see my friends and they always say they should’ve listened to me more. I never really followed anybody, except for my teachers and my mother, of course.”

“Wrestling has made me…ever since kindergarten I was very focused,” Ruiz added. “My Mom taught me everything I needed to know. I mean everything about everything.”

Talking to Ruiz is a fascinating experience. When he discusses his childhood, background, and where he’s come from, it’s clear he has beaten the odds. He speaks of experiences and situations that few can imagine, let alone claim to understand. However, intertwined within all the tales and experiences is his mother. For Ruiz, even before wrestling began to influence him, his mother was the one who ensured he wouldn’t stray from the right path.

Ruiz likes to tell a story about how, one day during his early childhood years, he picked up a twenty-dollar bill off the street. He brought it home with him and, as soon as his mother came home from work, she could tell something was wrong. Rather than hide and keep the money for himself, Ruiz turned it over to his mother so she could at least try and find its owner.

Unfortunately, as life progressed, Ruiz’s mother fell on hard times, turning to drugs like many of his friends had done. For someone who loved and respected her so much, it was difficult for Ruiz to take it all in and accept what was happening.

“From the middle of eighth grade to the beginning of 2010 I only had very brief encounters with my mother,” Ruiz said. “She was in and out of rehab. It was very tough and I knew I couldn’t help her. I feel like I dealt with it really well though.”

Part of the reason Ruiz coped with the situation well was due to his surroundings. After making his way through public school, Ruiz went on to the Salisbury School in Salisbury, CT. It was there Ruiz surrounded himself with good people and began to absorb wrestling

“After I went to public school I went to the Salisbury School for four years,” Ruiz said. “It helped me out a bunch because it was a small school and I just became friends with the right people.”

“I had the same roommate for three years and he and his family took me in,” Ruiz said. “My roommate helped me out a lot. But I was able to help him out a lot too. I got him to start wrestling and he eventually began to lose weight and he became an athlete, which he wasn’t before.”

At Salisbury, his high school wrestling coach Paul Myers and his club coach John Knapp pressed Ruiz and made sure he didn’t fall behind. Both Myers and Knapp “believed in [Ruiz] and never” gave him the chance to fail. It was here wrestling began to develop and play a prominent role in Ruiz’s life.

At F&M, Ruiz hopes to take his broad range of experiences and draw on them so as to positively impact the community around him. He hopes to impact F&M and the broader community in ways other than through his wrestling experiences.

“I want to get to do work in the community in Lancaster,” Ruiz said. “I’ve given a few talks about making the right choices. Hopefully I can inspire people. I grew up at one point without couches and we moved around because my mother was into drugs. From nothing to something.”

From a wrestling standpoint, Ruiz hopes to capitalize on his relatively young passion and reach his full potential. Given what he has overcome to get to this point, achieving his goals and reaching his dreams on the mat seem almost simplistic and unchallenging.

“I want to be a part of the change on the wrestling team,” Ruiz said. “I want to be a part of bringing the team to a new level. I want to be a national champion. I’m physically capable, but I just need to grow a little bit stronger mentally.”

Off the mat, Ruiz is a fascinating character. In some ways, he’s a bit contradictory. How many wrestlers aspire to write Spanish poetry in their spare time? He loves inventions. Ruiz is an inquisitive kid, one who loves challenging the norm and exploring different ways to approach the world. Abiding by the social norms is not part of who Ruiz is.

“I like to play a little squash when I get a break,” Ruiz said when asked what he does for fun. “I love to meet with my professors and talk about stuff that we don’t necessarily talk about in class, about the world in general. I want to be a geology major.”

“I like to write Spanish poetry,” Ruiz continued. “I’m fluent in Spanish. It’s easy for me, it just flows. I also love inventions. Anything that makes stuff easier. Anything that’s causing a problem is something I want to fix.”

Ruiz is quite possibly the most fascinating character you will meet. His interests, his desires, and his past make him special. He is the epitome of well rounded and he is the ideal candidate an institution like F&M looks for. His personality is diverse and it only serves to strengthen him.

Combined with several other fascinating and talented individuals, Ruiz is one of the freshmen that ensure the Diplomats have a bright future. Both on the mat and off it, Ruiz is an ambassador for what people look for. It’s hard not to like him and, just by speaking to him, it’s easy to have an easier appreciation for life and what it means to live it to the fullest.

Beyond the Mat - Richard Durso

Squaring off against many of his competitors, Richard Durso is the young one. As a freshman, he’s relatively inexperienced and lacks the seasoning of his older wrestling counterparts who have been around the block a few times. But that hasn’t slowed him down.

With 16 victories, the first-year 141-pounder has more wins than anyone else on the F&M squad. He has established a high standard for himself, and he is one of several reasons to be excited about what lies ahead for F&M wrestling. Durso is excited about what he has accomplished thus far, but recognizes the need to keep working and to remain hungry.

“It feels good,” Durso said when asked about his fast start. “It looks like a good road from here. However, you just can’t be satisfied with where you’re at. At F&M, there is a lot of good competition. I’ve already gotten better in the few months I’ve been here. To get better here requires a lot of heart.”

Despite his accomplishments as a wrestler, Durso was not always enamored by the sport. He had to be coaxed by those around him to stay with the sport, and he admits the first years as a wrestler were not always kind. He struggled to catch on and it wasn’t until high school that he really began to enjoy the sport.

“I have been wrestling since kindergarten,” Durso said. “My Dad asked if I wanted to go out [for wrestling] as a kid and I said yes. I didn’t love it at first. I cried after my first practice. It wasn’t until high school that I really started to love it.”

That image is a far cry from what Durso has become. He is the leader of what many hope will be a rejuvenation of the program. Along with the other members of his freshman class, Durso believes the goal of restoring the Diplomats to prominence can be achieved. He’s a quiet guy, but beneath the soft, reserved exterior is a passionate kid. He wants to win and he wants to be remembered as one of the wrestlers who helped F&M bounce back.

“When it comes to wrestling, I hope the freshman class is the start of a new tradition,” Durso said. “When I graduate, I want to know we helped start a new tradition here. I want to know we started to turn the program around.”

Although he exudes confidence and truly believes F&M is on the verge of turning around what was recently a sputtering program, he realizes the task will require a great deal of work and dedication. It will need to come not only from himself and his fellow freshman, but from everyone involved with the program as well. He may have more wins than anyone else on the team, but he acknowledges the tremendous contributions and guidance that comes from everyone around him.

In particular, Durso singled out Matt Fullowan as someone he hopes to emulate and hopes his class will take after as they continue to grow and develop into the leaders of the program.

“Fullowan is a great influence,” Durso said. “I look up to what he’s doing. He’s always working and making the sure the freshmen are staying hungry.”

It may take awhile, but Durso is convinced that, with a little heart, he and his teammates can accomplish a lot in there time at F&M.

“Heart goes a long way,” Durso said. “With it, you can pretty much accomplish anything. Not just in wrestling, but in the business world as well. It’s the key to everything.”

Durso’s quote about heart and how it translates to the world outside wrestling is indicative of how Durso views the world. He’s a division one wrestler, but at the same time, he is cognizant of the world off the mat. He recognizes he cannot focus solely on wrestling.

Likewise, Durso is humble when it comes to his status. At a primarily division three school, he believes that wrestling at the division one level does not make him any more special than his athletic counterparts, nor does it mean he works harder than they do. He is held to the standard that every other athlete at F&M is, and he likes that. In Durso’s mind, every athlete at F&M is on an equal footing. Everyone works hard to excel at his or her respective craft.

“Hard work,” Durso said when asked what it takes to combine the rigors of a division one sport with the academic demands he faces in the classroom. “I really have to stay on top of it. It’s a division one sport, but you can’t let it go to your head. It may be a little tougher competition, but everyone is putting in that same hard work.”

Durso is perhaps one of the most well rounded individuals on the wrestling team. In high school, Durso placed an emphasis on his studies and he did his best to acquire as many friends as he could. He has continued these efforts in college, aspiring to be a business major and seeking out friendships both within and outside the wrestling program.

“I like to stay on top of my schoolwork,” Durso said. “I also want to be remembered as a good guy. I want to be remembered as a good friend. I’ve already made a ton of friends outside the team.”

“In high school, I had a very large group of friends,” Durso added. “I spent a lot of time outside with my friends. I like to be outside doing things rather than sitting inside on a couch.”

Durso credits these friendships and his adventurous personality with keeping him focused and ambitious during his years leading up to college.

It isn’t hard to believe Durso has amassed a large friendship base throughout both his high school and college tenures. Despite his quiet nature, he is a likable individual. Sitting at a table in the College Center, teammate Colin Ely leaned over his shoulder and told me Durso was a “stellar athlete, model citizen, and has the most sock savvy on the team.”

Quirks like Durso’s stylish socks are what make people want to hang around him. When asked about what Ely meant when he said “sock savvy,” Durso replied, “Always gotta have a good appearance. Look fresh. I always have to make sure the colors are matching.”

He may be quiet, but he’s the kind of guy people want to be around. A lot of that comes from his humble nature. He may have more wins than any other wrestler at F&M, but he hasn’t lost focus and recognizes he still has much to learn. In his mind, the seniors still run the ship and he is still trying to absorb as many tidbits of information from them as he possibly can. In short, Durso has a burning desire to improve and is convinced that to do so will require hard work and attention to detail. He could let his early success go to his head, but he has chosen to remain grounded.

Perhaps that is a product of what the sport has taught him over the years.

“Wrestling teaches you mental toughness,” Durso said. “A lot of it is a mix of natural talent and hard work. You can’t have the former without the latter, however.”

If Durso is indicative of what the future is like for the F&M wrestling program, there is much to like. Durso has launched a successful career at F&M and he is eager to reach his full potential. He may not be as outgoing as Ely or as physically imposing as some of his wrestling counterparts, but he wrestles as if he has been around the block more than a few times.

He’s come a long way from crying after his first practice. Durso will be a leader for F&M wrestling for years to come.

Beyond the Mat - Andrew Murano

We sat down across from one another in the Steinman College Center for our interview and the first words out of Andrew Murano's mouth were, "It's so great you're doing this, we appreciate everything you're doing. Is this something you enjoy?"

Of course, the answer is yes. I actually love writing, particularly when the subject is one that I am invested in and passionate about. Writing for the wrestling team certainly qualifies. However, the point is not that I love writing, nor is it to toot my own horn so to speak. Rather, the point is to illustrate what kind of person Murano is.

Sitting down to talk about him and for him to speak about his accomplishments, the first words out of Murano's mouth concerned my happiness and whether or not I enjoyed what I was doing. His personality lends itself to interaction with others. Working with and pleasing people is Murano's strong suit.

I suggested the term "people person," and Murano seemed to take a liking to it right off the bat.

"I'm definitely big into interacting with people," Murano said. "I'm always about saying hi to people on the street and even if I've never met them, just getting to know them and saying hi to them. I like that classification. I'm definitely a people person. That's kind of something I want to hone in on later after college. I haven't really found that profession yet, but I'd like to find something that suits my personality as being a people person."

Murano, who is in the middle of his second season wrestling for F&M, has always placed a high emphasis on charity, pleasing others, and working to ensure that everyone who crosses his path leaves feeling a little bit better. Talking with him just for those 15 minutes, he struck me as another Colin Ely. In other words, Murano takes pride in hearing that others left a conversation with him feeling better than they did before they began speaking with him.

Coming from a Jesuit high school, Murano has always made charity and service a primary part of his life.

"I actually did a lot more charity in high school than I do now, which is probably not a good thing," Murano said. "I should definitely get back into that. Being in an Jesuit environment, they really hone in on being a man for others. I spent time at soup kitchens. On Saturdays, our [school] cafeteria would become a soup kitchen for the homeless, where they could sleep in the cafeteria. It was an overnight thing. I would always show up to that a couple times a month."

"For my senior year, I worked at a school for disabled children," he added. "That really touched me. Every Monday, I would go there and I would work with the children there. That's what I've done and I know it's not a huge amount of charity, but it's something I really want to do in life."

"I want to help people."

It's clear Murano is one who wants to make a difference. His own personal happiness is linked to the happiness of those around him in some way. Although my time with him was short, I got the sense he was genuinely interested in whether or not I took an interest in writing for the wrestling team. It was obvious at least to me that he was happy when I said yes.


While many people are specifically concerned with how to succeed on a personal level and what the most direct route to that success is, Murano is seemingly more concerned with how to be successful while at the same time helping others and leaving a smile on their faces at the same time.

This is not to say Murano isn't ambitious. When asked what he wanted his mark to be when he graduates, it was relatively short. All he wants is to be an All-American, make Dean's List every semester, and know everybody on campus.

"In terms of wrestling, I want to be an All-American," Murano said. "I want to do something big with wrestling. I want to be the start of something big. In terms of other aspects, I want to keep my friends from F&M, I love my friends from F&M. I want to be known on campus. I want to do well in school, I want to be on Dean's List from now on."

"That's kind of it."

As a wrestler, the sport has defined Murano's life. He only began wrestling as a freshman in high school at Xavier in New York, and it has helped mold and develop Murano. He has benefited from the sport and it's clear he appreciates everything the sport has given him.

"To be tough," Murano said when asked wrestling had taught him. "The more work and more preparation you put into something the easier something is going to be. Life is not easy. Wrestling dictates what you do on an off the mat. It all affects you on the mat when the spotlight is on you."

"Wrestling really has been a sport that defines me. I just have to be tough and to prepare, prepare, prepare. It has taught me to work hard, work hard in everything I do. Those are the two things. Work hard and be tough."

At F&M, Murano has loved his time as a Diplomat. Being a division one wrestler is something he views as a privilege and appreciates the opportunity that has been afforded him.

"I love being a division one athlete," Murano said. "It's like, that's kind of the main thing. If I am going to wrestle, I'm going to do it at the highest level. I love being a wrestler and that persona that comes with it. It's just been something that has defined me. I would love to be known around campus as a wrestler."

He enjoys being well known. Murano is at the center of everything and he's ambitious, but he has a healthy dose of reality, compassion, and  humility to accompany that nature. While it's difficult to tell where exactly Murano will end up, he will likely end up somewhere successful.

I could write 5,000 words about Murano and his personality. But all you really need to know is at the very beginning of this article. When he asked me whether or not I loved writing, Murano showed he is eager to please. He wants nothing more than to be well known and to contribute to all of their lives.

When I interviewed Ely a month ago, the most profound point we discussed was that Ely wants to leave every conversation knowing that the other person was feeling better at the end of the conversation. It's an admirable quality that far too few people embody.

Ely will be graduating next semester. But his personality and his mission will be carried on. Murano loves wrestling and he loves people. He says he wants leave an impact on the F&M community on every level.

He's well on his way.

Reflections at the Half: Five Things I've Learned

If you read my column "Hitting the Road with F&M Wrestling" published on November 21, you probably picked up on the fact that I'm new to this sport:

I knew nothing of wrestling when I first arrived at F&M. My small high school of just over 300 kids didn’t have enough interest to support a wrestling program. As far as I knew, the sport was more or less what my best friend and I did on “play dates” when we were six and seven years old. Any strategy, planning, or training that went into the preparation for a wrestling match was lost on me. It was a sport I would oftentimes hear about, but could never see.

As the end of the semester slowly approaches and the beginning of winter break creeps closer, I decided to take a moment and reflect on five things I've learned about this sport. Even though this is not the half way point of the season for the wrestling team, last week's match against Navy was more or less my half way point. I will miss several matches over the break, and will have the opportunity to see seven more when I return.

Although I went to many wrestling matches last year, I never picked up the nuances of the sport. It wasn't until this season that I truly began to pick up all the details. When Matt Latessa and the coaching staff approached me about the opportunity to write about the wrestling team over the course of the season, I figured I could use my writing skills to get by and learn the sport on the fly. So far, this season has gone just like I thought it would.

Below are the five biggest things about wrestling I have learned thus far. I have also included my reflections on each point.

1. Wrestling is a thinking man's game.

It's pretty easy to tell I had little appreciation for the intricacies of the sport when I first started this job just by reading the excerpt above. If you had asked me four or five months ago what the objective of a wrestling match was, I probably would have responded by saying, "To get your opponent to the ground and to keep him there." I would have said it with little understanding or knowledge of the sport.

In a way, that's right. After all, when two wrestlers square off, the goal is to pin the opponent or to keep him on the ground. The difference is that I had no appreciation of the process and I did not possess the understanding to truly comprehend what was happening before my eyes every time I watched a match unfold.

Wrestling is indeed a thinking man's game. A good wrestler will have just about every move thought out in advance and he will take every single one of his opponent's moves into account. Even those wrestlers who tend to be a bit more cavalier in their style are constantly thinking. At the division one level, wrestlers can't just expect to walk on to a mat and pummel their opponents into submission.

That's the crucial difference between freshmen and a seasoned veteran like Matt Fullowan. At the end of the day, a freshman could very well be more physically gifted than he, but, chances are, Fullowan has the mental edge. As a senior, he's seen it all. He knows all the tricks in the book. I'd be willing to bet Fullowan will win several matches this season because of his intelligence and his experience.

There are many other sports people tend to associate with intelligence and thinking. Wrestling is too often left out of the mix.

2. I finally know what a pin is

Believe it or not, I had not idea what constituted a pin when I first started this job. Now I know. Two shoulder blades to the mat. If I only got one thing out of this experience of writing about the F&M wrestling program for an entire season, this was it. After all, not knowing what a pin is would be like asking a football fan what a touchdown is, or a baseball player what it means to hit a home run.

In other words, it's a little embarrassing not to know, particularly when your with other wrestlers or fans of the sport. What is also a little tough to swallow is to go to an F&M-Campbell meet (like I did last year) as the sports editor of a college newspaper at a school with a wrestling team and have a five-year-old kid lecture you on the art of the pin.

Granted, that was the first wrestling match I had ever been to, so I am willing to cut myself a little slack. But regardless, I put learning the rules of the sport at the top of my list of things to accomplish. After all, wrestling is not just simply slugging it out with an opponent until one falls down. It's a far more intricate and complicated sport than many people realize (hence the little "thinking man's piece above). There are so many nuances to appreciate, and I'd like to learn as many as possible by the time this season concludes.

3. I can't imagine being in that good of shape.

I've played football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, and have run marathons. Some of the greatest athletes in the world play these sports. However, after watching wrestling closely since the season began, I'm not sure there is a group of athletes that are collectively in better shape than wrestlers.

Could some of the athletes jump from their sport to wrestling? Possibly. The truly elite athletes in any sport can cross the boundaries between sports with relative ease. That is, after all, what makes them truly special. But collectively, from top to bottom, I'm not sure there is a sport that has more athletes who are in as close to perfect shape as they can humanly be. It's awfully impressive and is a fact that too often gets lost on people when they talk about the greatest athletes in the world.

4. Is there anything more exciting than good wrestling?

Admittedly, I am a football guy. When the New England Patriots won Super Bowl XXXVI on Adam Vinatieri's now famous field goal, I think that was the most excited I have ever been for a sports moment. But that was the championship game. The kick was for all the marbles. It was the biggest kick in franchise history.

Would I have as been excited about that field goal had it happened, say, in week 10 of the NFL regular season? I doubt it.

Now, thinking back to F&M's match with Navy last Friday. Watching Matt Fullowan's long drawn out affair with his opponent and then Colin Ely's impressive pin of his opponent was the most excited I have been at a sporting event in quite some time. Maybe this excitement comes from the fact that a wrestler has only a few minutes before he runs out of time, so there really is no "I'll get him during the next play" moments. It's now or never, and every move counts.

(Side note: This is another reason why wrestling is a thinking man's game. There is no such thing as a meaningless move in a wrestling match. If a wrestler screws up, he could get pinned. If he falls into a 4-0 hole, good luck digging out of it in the short amount of time he has. I'm not saying it's impossible to come back from such a deficit, but being down 4-0 or 4-1 midway through the second period with your opponent on your back makes it awfully hard to come back. On the flip side of the coin, the guy ahead can't stop thinking either. If he falls asleep and his opponent gets in one good move, he could be pinned. And then it's all over, no matter what the score is. For as much as wrestling demands of its athletes from a physical standpoint, a case can be made that it demands just as much mentally.)

5. Wrestlers are some of the most genuine, humble athletes I have ever met.

I will preface this observation by saying that this is not meant to be any kind of insult towards the athletes of any other sport. Nor am I saying that every single wrestler in the world is humble, down to earth, and approachable. But, on the whole, I do not think I have ever met a group of athletes more humble than wrestlers.

Maybe it's because they know this is the end of the road. Perhaps it is because they don't get all the media and fan attention and hype. It also may be that they know they'll never make millions wrestling no matter how good they are, so they simply wrestle because they love the sport that much.

The bottom line is this: I have yet to speak to a collegiate wrestler, at F&M or somewhere else, where I have left the conversation thinking he was pretentious, arrogant, full of himself, or all of the above. I genuinely believe that because division one wrestling is the pinnacle of the sport and that there aren't million of dollars waiting for them after college that wrestlers simply wrestle for the love of the sport. After all, is there another reason to work so hard and to get pummeled repeatedly? I certainly can't think of one.

In many other sports, kids see it as a get rich quick scheme or as a way to rocket themselves to fame. That option is not there for wrestlers. At the end of the day, division one wrestlers wrestle for the love of the sport. This makes them appreciative of the little time they do have to wrestle, and they are thankful for it.

Beyond the Mat - Eric Norgard

In a lot of ways, Eric Norgard is just like any of the other wrestlers on the F&M wrestling squad. Hard working, intelligent, and charismatic are all words and phrases that aptly describe Norgard.

At the same time, Norgard is definitely one who marches to his own beat, preferring to stand out as an individual rather than blend in with the rest of the crowd.

“I’ve kind of always been [an individual],” Norgard said. “When I got here as a freshman, I think that really started it, at least here. I always had my friends on the team, but I also always had my friends on my hall. If I ever needed to get away from it all [wrestling], I would just go hang out with them. But I don’t always need to be around people, and I actually enjoy it a lot sometimes.”

As a wrestler at F&M, Norgard has appreciated the simpler things that have come with being a wrestler. When asked what his favorite part about being on the team was, his answer essentially amounted to simply loving the fact he had the opportunity to wrestle after high school.

“I guess that I can say that I’m a division one wrestler, which really carries a lot weight,” Norgard said when asked what his favorite part about wrestling was. “I’ll be able to say that for the rest of my life.”

As the sole junior on F&M’s roster, Norgard will be in the unique position soon of being the only senior on the squad. Although being the only senior on the team next year will likely be a role that comes with a great deal of responsibility, it hasn’t fazed Norgard. In fact, the thought hardly ever crosses his mind.

“I haven’t really put a lot of thought into it yet,” Norgard said. “When I was a freshman, we had a class of three and the other two dropped out. It’s just something I’ve become used to. I don’t see it as a, I don’t think I’m supposed to be the one to set all the examples for everyone, I think I will, but it’s just not something I’m going to think of like that.”

Perhaps the reason behind Norgard’s calm, comfortable approach to his future role with the team comes from the support he already receives from the coaching staff.

“I think he’ll handle [the responsibility] well,” assistant coach Matt Greenberg said when asked about Norgard’s upcoming role with the team. “He’s not someone I ever have to worry about not showing up. He’s always there, always doing what you tell him. As far as an example of what you need to do or how you need to do it, there’s nobody I’d rather have doing that. I think he embodies what it take to balance everything.”

“I think he’s the perfect person to have if you can only have one senior.”

It didn’t take long for Greenberg to figure out what he had in Norgard. Ironically, that moment occurred during Norgard’s freshman year and involved him making a mistake rather than excelling on the mat or in the classroom.

“His freshman year, we went down to North Carolina for a match,” Greenberg said. “After we went through skin checks, he thought he had weighed in, but forgot he hadn’t weighed in officially. He sat down and started chugging a Gatorade. I said, ‘What are you doing? You can’t drink, you haven’t weighed in yet!’ He was three pounds over by the time he chugged his Gatorade, so he had to lose that weight in like thirty seconds.”

“He ran sprints and he was doing all kinds of crazy stuff [to lose the weight],” Greenberg continued. “Seeing him do all that, I knew this kid was legit. I knew he really wanted to make it work and he made it. He got out there and wrestled. Most kids would have been like, ‘Aw, I screwed up, I’m done. I can’t wrestle.’ He made it work though. I think that kind of embodies the kind of kid he is.”

“It was actually apple juice,” Norgard said, grinning as he began recounting the story. “I just started drinking and didn’t think anything of it and then I had this moment of sheer panic in the locker room and thought, ‘What did I just do?’ I started jump roping thinking I was going to lose the weight in two seconds. As soon as I realized that wasn’t going to work, I just found the nearest garbage can and, well, you know.”

This is just one of many examples of Norgard’s dedication to the wrestling team. He has developed a very personal bond with the program, and is thrilled to see it thriving in head coach Mike Rogers’ second season at the helm.

“It’s going to be weird next year because I’m going to be the only person who was here before Rogers so I’ll be the only one who has seen just how far this team has come,” Norgard said. “At the end of the year last year, we won four matches in a row. And this year, we have so many freshman doing incredible things just stepping on the mat for the first time at the college level. So I’m excited for the rest of the season and for next year, but once I graduate it will be crazy to see how far this thing can go.”

Off the mat, Norgard’s maintains his status as being a little different than almost everyone else. He has grown up loving the beach and the water, and has a tattoo of the beach. With a house on the Jersey Shore, Norgard has plenty of opportunity to get his fill of the water.

“[The beach] is definitely my place, where I like to be the most,” Norgard said. “Wrestling and surfing are just my two favorite things in the world to do. It’s the best.”

Although the junior doesn’t have to focus on what his life after college will be like for a little while, Norgard has a general feeling about what he would like to pursue after his collegiate career is over.

While emulating his father is towards the top of the list, Norgard is unsure about whether or not he wants to follow step for step in his father’s path.

“My main goal would be to own my own company and to work for myself,” Norgard said. “My Dad kind of does that now, he’s the vice president of his company. He worked his way up to get that job, he’s been at the same company for thirty plus years now. I don’t know if I’d like to start at the bottom like he did though.”

“I just gotta come up with that next great idea.”

An unassuming kid, it can sometimes be easy to lose Norgard in the crowd. But he’s anything but invisible when he steps on the mat or is in the locker room. There’s a reason Greenberg said if he could only have one senior next year, Norgard would be his guy. With all of his accomplishments, positive character traits, and his general attitude towards just about everything, it is easy to understand why Greenberg feels this way about Norgard.

While he certainly doesn’t blend in with any crowd, Norgard certainly fits in with just about everyone, the hallmark of an adaptable leader who can relate and connect with everyone around him.

Although F&M will be downsizing numbers wise in terms of senior leadership next season, the wrestling program will be in good hands.

Anatomy of a Coach - Matt Greenberg

What makes a great coaching tandem? Is it discipline? The ability to relate and connect with athletes? Possessing the aptitude to fully understand and comprehend the X’s and O’s of a sport? What about fundraising for a program or recruiting? Or, like a special recipe, is it some complex combination of all of the above, plus a little something extra?

Being the perfect coach at any level of competition is hard enough. What makes it even more difficult is finding that perfect complement—the assistant coach. The next two articles will take a look at head coach Mike Rogers and assistant coach Matt Greenberg to see what makes them click. In this two part series, the goal is to uncover what makes them so good at what they do and to discover why they work so well together. The following is part two in the series.

“I felt like I could make more of an impact here than selling sponsorships or chasing money,” assistant coach Matt Greenberg said when asked why he chose to come to F&M. Those who have worked for both the MLB and NBA and had begun to carve out a spot in an advertising firm don’t generally leave their jobs to become assistant wrestling coaches at small colleges in Pennsylvania. But to say Greenberg is just like most guys would be both inaccurate and shortsighted.

After he graduated from Cornell, Greenberg went to New York University to get a degree in sports marketing. Following his education, he had little difficulty finding some initial success in the field. After working for both of the aforementioned professional sports leagues, Greenberg went to a private company to help manage all of its sports advertising.

Although Greenberg’s early career path was one that many college graduates would give their eyeteeth to have, it still didn’t feel quite right. Even though he was certainly leaving an impact in the professional world, it wasn’t the type of influence he was hoping to have.

And that’s when he ended up in Lancaster.

“Andy Noel, who is the athletic director at Cornell and an F&M wrestling alum, said [F&M was] looking for an assistant coach,” Greenberg said. “I had missed wrestling incredibly doing what I was doing. So I said, ‘You know what? I think I’d be happier doing this.’ I interviewed and was able to make all the arrangements necessary.”

“I made the choice to come here and I think it was one of the best decisions I ever made.”

It was a roundabout way to get into coaching, and although it took him a little while to come full circle, the urge to get back into wrestling in some capacity and to have the opportunity to provide young men with a little guidance was just too much to pass up. At F&M, Greenberg has the chance to leave a mark on the development of all the wrestlers who compete in a Diplomat uniform, which is more rewarding to Greenberg than almost anything else.

“I’d be lying if I said that was all I cared about because we want to be successful as coaches,” Greenberg said. “We want to build this program. But [wrestling] changed my life and if we can do that for others…I don’t know. I don’t know where I would be if I didn’t wrestle. I don’t think I would have been at Cornell. Seventeen or eighteen-year-old kids, they don’t know what they’re doing. They change their minds fifty times. If you can be there for them when they need help and kind of teach them not to make mistakes or do the things you did right and were rewarded for, that’s what it’s all about.”

“I don’t have kids, so these are my kids. These are my brothers and my boys that I have to take care of.”

For Greenberg, wrestling has certainly left a meaningful impact on his own life, which is one of the biggest reasons he continues to remain so passionate and invested the sport. It opened doors for him that he believes would never have been opened otherwise, and it provided him guidance at times when it would have been very easy for him to fall off the bandwagon and get caught up in something that didn’t contribute to his future.

While it would probably be misleading to say wrestling was the only guiding light over the course of his adolescent and young adult life, he talks about it as if it were. The drive to succeed and the demanding nature of the sport itself kept Greenberg in line, and he credits the sport with helping him stay in line.

“I think wrestling kept me on track,” Greenberg said. “If I didn’t wrestle, I don’t know if I would have been as focused. It just kept me really grounded and it kept me focused on staying a good person and working towards my goals and accomplishing things that I set out to do. I was a little bit of a crazy kid, I was not an angel by any means. So I think that wrestling and being around a program that was really on the rise, I think really being a part of that helped keep me focused and on track to be successful in life.”

“It was my life, it was all I cared about,” Greenberg added. “Outside of my academics was being a good wrestler and accomplishing my goals. I was surrounded by people who had the same goals as I did so I didn’t want to be the one who didn’t get to go to the party. I wanted to be at nationals every year, I wanted to be an All-American, I wanted to be part of a championship team. I was given all of those opportunities at Cornell.”

Cornell has been perennially ranked in the top ten since Greenberg competed there, and it is one of the programs other schools around the country look towards when seeking a role model to base their rebuilding squad on. F&M is one of those schools, as the Diplomats are working to become relevant in the wrestling world.

Greenberg has worked with two head coaches since he arrived here at F&M, the current one being Mike Rogers. Rogers, who was an assistant coach at American, another wrestling powerhouse, before he came to F&M has found almost the perfect working partner in Greenberg. Their personalities match up together flawlessly, with both of them relying on one another to help complement their own respective strengths and weaknesses. It’s quite a tandem, with Rogers looking at Greenberg almost as like a co-head coach.

“Working with Matt has been great,” Rogers said. “He complements me in things I may be lacking skill wise, he more than makes up for them. And then things he may be lacking in I’m strong in. So we have a set of skill sets that complement each other and work well with one another. Whether it was by fate or by design, it worked out.”

“[Greenberg] is a good sounding board for me. Sometimes I get a little too ramped up about a lot of things,” Rogers continued. “I like to be very organized where everything has its place and I like very calculated ways of doing things, which I think is good, but you also have to be willing to deviate and relax a little bit on some things and go in a different direction. I think he does a good job of bounding ideas off of me.”

All one has to do is sit in the wrestling office for ten minutes and the chemistry between the two makes itself obvious.

“We’re like the two brothers from Step Brothers,” Rogers quipped. “We’re always joking.”

But while Greenberg is the perfect counterbalance to Rogers on a personal level, the contributions he makes to the well-being and the future of the wrestling program are invaluable.

“He relates really well to our student athletes and he does a great job recruiting wise,” Rogers said. “I think the biggest impact he’s had has been the recruiting part of it. He can pick up a phone and talk to a kid about any topic. Whether it be music, or school, or shoes. I think I do a good job with the parents. I think I can understand where the parents are coming from. He looks at it from the kids’ point of view, and he does a really good job reaching out to them.”

Now that he’s here, Greenberg wants to mold the program into one that commands respect from its opponents. However, beyond garnering success and awards on the mat, he hopes the wrestlers that make their way through F&M’s program continue on to become successful people after college, hopefully developing a positive name and reputation for the program.

“Five years down the road I want this program to be solid as far as every year we’re bringing in a solid group of recruits, that the program is thriving as far as success on the mats, and we’re bringing in kids who, when they graduate, they’re going into the real world and being successful. They’re going out and they’re getting the internships and they’re getting the jobs. Hopefully our fundraising increases because the people who come through here are graduating and becoming very successful.”

“I hope that when you think F&M, I hope you think of wrestling five years from now,” Greenberg continued. “The same way you think of Duke you think basketball. I hope one day when you think of F&M you think of wrestling and you think of successful alums and we have people all over this country being successful in life.”

While producing wins and recruiting All-Americans and, hopefully, one day competing for a national title on a consistent basis are all things that are important for Greenberg, how the wrestlers that come through the program develop as students and as young leaders is just as, if not more, important.

Greenberg had a very successful wrestling career. He spent a summer training for the Olympic qualifiers. There are plenty of athletic successes he could draw upon as being the best memories he has from wrestling.

But that’s not the reason he’s here at F&M. It’s not the reason he left the marketing world to be an assistant coach at a small liberal arts college that, when he first got here, didn’t have much to speak of when it came to wrestling. No, it’s definitely not the athletic achievements that drove Greenberg to return to the sport and motivates him today to work so hard with the guys on the team.

For Greenberg, wrestling is a way of life, and it contributed to his own in so many ways that have nothing to do with athletic prowess. Rather, it is the life lessons he has learned that have made him love the sport so much. While winning championships and being the best on the mat is certainly a priority, it’s not the only one, nor is it the primary one for this coaching staff.

No, wrestling is a sport that teaches its participants about life and how to be successful. This is what drew Greenberg back and as long as he can help the 17 and 18-year-olds who walk through his office door become better men through the sport, it’s safe to say Greenberg isn’t going anywhere.

For Rogers and the entire F&M wrestling community, that is something everyone has to be excited about