Wrestlers at the Trials

THE TRIALS... 1976 to beat him so badly and felt like I could, but it just didn’t happen.

Iowa’s Chuck Yagla recalls his wrestling days and his Trials experience: I grew up as the youngest of four boys in Waterloo, Iowa. As a youngster I played lots of sports – golf, tennis, football, baseball and wrestling. By the time I got to high school, I decided I liked wrestling the best. It was the only sport I went out for at Columbus, the Catholic high school in Waterloo.

I had an okay high school career. I made varsity as sophomore – but didn’t make it past the sectionals. Ken Snyder was a teammate and my same size. I couldn’t beat him, so I had to wrestle up a weight. In my junior year, I won the sectionals but lost in the district semis and didn’t go to states. My senior year was better.

My nemesis was Bruce Wilson from Waterloo West who beat me in the finals of the sectionals, districts and states.

I started wrestling Freestyle in high school.

In my senior year I won the state Freestyle tournament and went to the USWF Junior Nationals in Iowa City where I won a couple of bouts but didn’t place. I also went with a group of Waterloo West guys, including Dan Gable, to a national tournament in Oklahoma City. I won the tournament at 154, tying Gable’s protégée Tony Cordes, but winning on fewer black marks.

That was great exposure for me. I was not heavily recruited but I chose to go to the University of Iowa mainly because my brothers were there and I knew that my idol, Dan Gable, was an assistant there.

In college I made the varsity as a freshman, wrestling at 150 much of the year. In my sophomore year I started working out twice a day and set my goals to be in the top four in the country. The Gable influence started to take hold. I ended up 4th at the NCAAs. Good conditioning was making the difference.

My goal junior year was to be a National champ, Big Ten champ and Midlands champ.

The season got off to a rocky start for me. The first tournament of the year was the Northern Open in Madison. I get to the finals and meet a freshman from the University of Wisconsin – Lee Kemp. He beats me in overtime. I’m 104 Wrestlers At The Trials

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THE TRIALS... 1976

My best move was the ‘seat-belt’. Over the years I pinned a lot of people with it but I don’t think Keaser knew about it.

Anyway, I worked it and put Keaser on his back. I thought I had him pinned but the ref didn’t call it.

– CHUCK YAGLA

crushed. Coach Gable comes up to me after the match and says, ‘I don’t know how you are ever going to figure out how to beat that kid.’ That was his way of motivating me.

I made it to the finals of the Midlands where I promptly lost to Bob Holland of ISU. Then things started to get better. I came back and tied Holland in our dual. I beat Kemp three times that season – in our dual, the Big Tens and in the NCAA finals in overtime.

My senior year, I again faltered at the start.

I won the ’75 Northern Open. [Author’s note: That’s the tournament where Kemp spoiled Gable’s comeback attempt, 7-6.] At the Midlands, I faced Michigan freshman Mark Churella and he beat me. I came back through the consolations and beat him to take 3rd. Later in the season, I beat Churella in our dual meet and in the Big Ten tourney. I went on to win the NCAAs without wrestling Churella.

Up until I won the NCAAs as a senior in ’76 I had not thought much about entering the Olympic Trials. It was not one of my pre-season goals, but I decided, ‘why not’, so I entered the Cleveland tournament. I ended up 5th, losing to Lloyd Keaser and Larry Morgan in close matches. I think I wrestled Dave Schultz, who was a high school kid at the time, and beat him.

My match with Keaser was a good one. To me, he was the guy to beat. He was a World Champion. He had a great ankle-pick and used it effectively on me a lot. My best move was the ‘seat-belt’. Over the years I pinned a lot of people with it but I don’t think Keaser knew about it.

Anyway, I worked it and put Keaser on his back.

I thought I had him pinned but the ref didn’t call it. Then we are back on our feet and Keaser goes in for his ankle-pick again. We are near the edge of the mat and Keaser not only gets a point

Kemp upset Dziedzic at the Cleveland Trials but fell to the more experienced Pennsylvanian at Brockport Photograph by Chris Poff, courtesy of Scholastic Wrestling News

for taking me down, but two more for my ‘stalling’ and for my ‘running out of bounds’. I never did understand how he could get three points for that – maybe two at the most. Anyway, he ends up beating me, 10-9. The next day the ref comes up to me and tells me that he was sorry that he made a mistake giving Keaser three points, but it’s too late to do anything about it.

I went back to Iowa City and worked out there getting ready for Brockport. Larry Morgan was training at Iowa City as well, but I don’t think I ever worked out with him. I went to Brockport ready to go and won the mini-tournament. I then had to wrestle Churella and I did beat him in two-out-of-three. Next up was Keaser. He beat me twice in close matches. His darn ankle-pick still got me and he now knew to keep away from my ‘seat-belt’. He went on to beat Morgan and in my opinion was the right guy to go to Montreal.

I stayed around for the rest of the Camp and was a team alternate. They took me to Montreal and that was a fantastic experience for me. It set my sights for what I wanted to accomplish in 1980.

163 Freestyle – Stan Dziedzic vs Lee Kemp vs Wade Schalles

D

ziedzic and Schalles were two fierce middleweight rivals from Pennsylvania.

Throughout their high school careers, save for Schalles’ senior season, they were rather ordinary teenage wrestlers. There was little evidence that they would one day attain Hall of Fame stature. In the early ’70s they attended small Pennsylvania state teachers colleges only 45 miles apart – Slippery Rock and Clarion – where they both became NCAA champions.

Both later distinguished themselves as international Freestyle champion wrestlers. Prior to the ’76 Trials their career record against each other was reported to be 7-7.

Meanwhile, Lee Kemp from Chardon, Ohio and just a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin, was the emerging star at 163. Several years the junior to the two Pennsylvania phenoms, Kemp proved his mettle in the colWrestlers At The Trials 105