No one on the OSU wrestling team was happy in March when, for the first time in five years, the season ended without a Cowboy championship.
“That was by far the hardest loss I’ve ever taken in my life,” senior Coleman Scott said. “I trained seven months for one thing, and that was to win a title, and I didn’t get it. It burns in me every day.”
Coach John Smith, never satisfied with anything less than being the best, said he’s been more demanding in working out the team to make sure it’s ready this year.
“I’ve trained this team harder than I’ve ever trained any team since school started, no question about it,” Smith said.
His wrestlers have noticed the different intensity level of the workouts.
“I don’t ever remember doing stuff we’re doing, but he’s the master,” junior Brandon Mason said. “He knows what he’s doing. He’s going to prepare us. All we can do is follow along and believe in what he’s telling us to do and preaching to us.”
The Boomer run is at the heart of the Cowboys’ training this fall. Senior Nathan Morgan said the Cowboys take off from Gallagher-Iba Arena, run to Boomer Lake, around the lake and back to the arena.
The run is more than seven miles nonstop, with Cowboy coaches stationed at checkpoints or following along in cars to make sure no one cuts any corners.
“That’s what you need,” Morgan said. “You want to do what you don’t want to do. And afterwards, when you’re done with the run; it feels good to know you did it; you conquered it.
“All this training, all the running, all these drills, I think we’re taking it to a new level this year that we haven’t been to before. A few things just went wrong (last year), but this training now is taking away the chances for those mistakes.”
As hard as the runs and technique drills can be, the wrestlers said they know that all the hard work will pay off.
“(The training) gives us a lot of confidence when we’re out there,” Scott said. “When you know you’re in the best shape you can be in, and you’re best prepared for a match, it means all the world out there on the mat.”
In addition to the physical training, the Cowboys said their workouts have benefited from having several graduated wrestlers also working out at the arena.
Older wrestlers, such as Zack Esposito and Steve Mocco, are allowed to use the Cowboy wrestling room as they train to make the Olympic team, and they also help train current Cowboys.
Smith said six of the seven weight classes are represented in the Olympic hopefuls, so nearly all of his wrestlers get to practice against some of the best in the world, an opportunity that the Cowboys appreciate.
“It’s great wrestling with the older guys,” Morgan said. “Just the techniques that they bring, when you wrestle with one of those guys, you better be mentally focused, or you’re going to get your butt kicked.”
Mason said practicing against wrestlers of that caliber help him gauge where he stands.
“I’m going against them about every other day at least, and that’ll make me better,” he said. “They’re better than anyone I’ll be wrestling this year.”
Although Smith said he is happy with the way his wrestlers have trained and practiced so far, he knows they must keep the intensity up all year to end this season the way they want.
“Early on, everybody’s excited, everybody’s motivated, everybody has goals, but it takes a season of adversity, whatever it may be, that’s thrown your way and maintaining some type of consistency,” Smith said.
“We have a tendency in wrestling to go right to the NCAA Championship in the preseason, but there’s a whole season here, and it’s that season that makes you at the end. You can’t ignore that you’ve got to earn it all through the year.”
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