THE TRIALS... 1980 The Final Olympic Team Trials, Madison, Wisconsin, May 8-13, 1980
T
he announcement of the boycott severely affected the number of wrestlers competing at the Trials. Only 150 or so turned out, less than half the total in ’76. Besides Mark Lieberman, other highly ranked wrestlers such as Lee Kemp, Bruce Kinseth and Brad Reinghans decided to skip the Madison tournament altogether. Quite a few wrestlers got knocked by the wayside due to injuries received either right before the Trials or during the Trials themselves. Don Shuler, always in the mix with the best US 180-pounders, broke his leg prior to the Trials and couldn’t compete. The Oklahoma wrestlers seemed particularly snake-bitten. Lee Roy Smith, who was voted the Outstanding Wrestler at the USWF National Open Freestyle championship in April, injured his leg in the Trials and finished 7th at 149.5. He withdrew from further competition. Andre Metzger, a finalist in the ’79 and ’80 National AAUs, broke his leg and was done while battling NCAA champion Steve Barrett in a late-round 149.5 match. Eric Wais, 1979 NCAA Champion at 190, injured his knee and withdrew. Heavyweight favorite Jimmy Jackson injured his shoulder, finished 3rd and did not make it to the final round-robin at Brockport. Bobby Weaver sprained his shoulder and dropped to 6th place, just making the Brockport wrestle-offs. Gene Mills was injured in his match with Joe Corso and didn’t place, but earned a medical hardship waiver to wrestle-off at 114.5 at Brockport. Twenty-year-old Dave Schultz pulled off a surprise move. In late March, Schultz’s dramatic victory over his Russian opponent at 149.5 was key to helping the US team beat the Russians in the World Cup. Six weeks later at the Trials, Schultz moves up to 163 – the weight class that Lee Kemp had dominated internationally for several years. Was Schultz expecting Kemp to compete or not? Finally, after six days of bouts at the 118 Wrestlers At The Trials
Andre Metzger, right, was a favorite at 149.5 but had to drop out of the Trials after breaking his leg Photgraph by Roy Hobson, courtesy of Amateur Wrestling News
University of Wisconsin Field House, 20 wrestlers emerged victorious. Seven former Olympians won their weight division – Bill Rosado, Jim Haines, Joe Corso and Russ Hellickson in Freestyle and Bruce Thompson, John Matthews and Dan Chandler in Greco. The Peterson brothers were runners-ups to Chris Campbell and Laurent Soucie, respectively. The other Freestyle winners were Randy Lewis, Steve Barrett, Dave Schultz, and Greg Wojciechowski. Other Greco winners included T.J. Jones, Brian Gust, John Hughes, Tom Minkel, Mark Johnson, Greg Gibson and Wojciechowski. It was on to Brockport six weeks later for the Final Camp and the wrestle-offs. The Final Camp, Brockport, New York, June 18 – June 22, 1980
A
different, almost indifferent, atmosphere pervaded the 1980 Final Camp. It really wasn’t a Camp per se, not as the wrestlers and coaches knew it from their experiences at prior Olympic Trials. Wrestlers kind of just showed up, wrestled and went home.
THE TRIALS... 1980 Some wrestlers who did not compete at Madison, like John Azevedo, Lee Kemp and Brad Reinghans, decided to come and wrestle at Brockport. A couple of Trials champions, Jim Haines and Steve Barrett, decided it wasn’t worth it and didn’t appear at all. The 1976 Olympian Joe Corso broke his leg while playing soccer shortly after winning the Trials and was unable to enter the wrestle-offs. Nevertheless, there were some awesome performances and heightened competition between some very, very good wrestlers. Bobby Weaver fought his way up from 6th to take the 105.5 spot. Chuck Yagla turned into a pinning machine. Lee Kemp and Dave Schultz had two of their most intense matches ever. And at 180.5, Ed Banach, Chris Campbell and John Peterson threw each other around in a wild three-way wrestle-off. Freestyle team manager Dzeidzic explains why Brockport was selected as the site for such an important event: Brockport was chosen, both in ’76 and ’80, because of Don Murray, the head coach at Brockport State University. Don was well known as a worker in the international wrestling community. He wanted to host the Trials at Brockport and was willing to do the work to bring them there. Bobby Weaver talks about the time between the ’76 Trials and ’80 Trials and his personal experiences: It took me two or three years to catch up with Bill Rosado and take command of our rivalry at 105.5. He set the bar and I gradually started climbing it. Finally, I beat him to win the National AAUs in ’78 and again to make the US World team in ’79. We’d work out a lot together and by the ’80 Trials we knew each other’s offense and defense thoroughly and what to avoid. In the meantime, I graduated from Easton High in ’77 and went to Blair Academy for a post-grad year. That helped me both academically and athletically. I got my grades and SATs up high enough to qualify for admission to Lehigh, which is where I wanted to go to college. Tom Hutchinson was a great coach for me at Blair especially teaching me how to get out from
underneath. I won the National Preps in ’78. My freshman year at Lehigh I was on the wrestling squad, but my record was only 1-2-1. I was competing at 118 even though I only weighed around 110. I sat out the ’79-’80 college season, working on my studies and preparing myself for the Olympic Trials. By the time the Trials came around I had been wrestling well in Freestyle. I won my weight class in the ’80 World Cup, won the USWF Nationals at 114.5 and the AAU Nationals at 105.5. However, when I went to the Trials at Madison, I ran into a problem. While wrestling Richard Salamone, a teammate from the NYAC, I sprained my shoulder. I didn’t forfeit, but I couldn’t wrestle well at all and lost to Salamone and then to Rosado. In the one month interim, my shoulder recovered and I headed up to Brockport. I had to beat three guys to get into the final two-out-ofthree round-robin. I did so and it was down to Rosado, Salamone and me. I can’t remember for sure who I wrestled first in the round-robin. I think it was Rosado. I decisioned him once and then pinned him. Then I had to wrestle Salamone, whom I pinned to win the tournament. Chuck Yagla was probably the most dominant wrestler at Brockport. He recalls his campaign to make the US Olympic team and some thoughts about the Soviets: After using up my college eligibility in ’76, I needed a fifth year at the University of Iowa to get my degree. I was an Education major, married and working part-time in construction. On the mats, I turned all my attention to Freestyle. In November of ’76, I went to the Great Plains tournament, hoping to win and to qualify to wrestle in Tbilisi. I got to the finals where my opponent was a high school senior from California. This young guy had been following me around all weekend asking if he could have his picture taken with me, asking for tips on wrestling, and so on. I was a two-time NCAA champion now and didn’t worry much about high school wrestlers. However, this 16 year-old kid, Dave Schultz, pinned me and he got to go to Tbilisi – the first of many trips he made to Russia. Oh, yea, I forgot, they gave me the Sportsmanship award. Wrestlers At The Trials 119