North Carolina Scout Report

On July 19th, North Carolina's National team traveled to Fargo, North Dakota to the Cadet and Junior National Championships.  The tournament is the pinnacle of high school wrestling.  Imagine yourself, as a high school wrestler, competing with another state's top wrestler, and when the match is over you shake the hand of your opponent's coach.  This is something every wrestler does many times in his career.  At Fargo though, this coach might be an Olympic Champion like Kenny Monday (Team Texas) or Jeff Blantnick (Team New York).  They could be a former NCAA National Champion like Daryl Weber (Team Virginia) or one of the many college coaches on staff for several of the state teams.

The event is held in the Fargo Dome at North Dakota State University.  This is the school's indoor football stadium.  In the Fargo Dome, there are twenty-five wrestling mats on the floor.  The mat in the center is raised four feet off the ground, and it is used for the championship match during the All-American placing round of competition.

On Thursday, thirty-nine high school wrestlers will begin their journey to Fargo, North Dakota to participate in the USA Cadet and Junior Greco-Roman and Freestyle National Tournament.  The cadet division is for wrestlers 15 - 16 years of age.  The Junior division is for wrestlers 17 - 19 years of age that are high school wrestlers or have just graduated in 2007.  This tournament is the largest tournament in the world for high school age wrestlers.  The event will be held at North Dakota State University's indoor football stadium, the Fargo Dome.  It is the place to be for high school wrestlers wanting to catch the eye of college coaches.  The tournament will have college coaches from all across the country watching the top talent compete.  Some of those coaches will be helping coach their state's national teams, but most of the others will just be there to recruit.  Wrestlers that do well in the tournament could start receiving phone calls from college coaches as soon as they return home.  For wrestlers that place high or make it to the finals, their collegiate futures may very well be secured!  With the aspect of a college scholarship on the line, the competition is always fierce.  The best wrestlers from every state will be there, and most weight class brackets will have 100 plus wrestlers in it.  That is why making All-American by placing in the top eight of a weight class is so highly regarded by the collegiate coaches. 

Recently, I had the pleasure to personally meet and talk to a man that I have admired for over thirty-two years.  This man has accomplished so many things in his life that it would take a book to list them all.  He is a writer who has written and had published five books.  He is a skilled wrestling technician who has produced many tapes and DVDs that have helped young wrestlers across the nation reach their goals of winning a high school state championship, a feat he accomplished by becoming Ohio's first black wrestler to win a state championship wrestling in the 112lb weight class.  This provided Douglas with a scholarship to West Liberty State College (W Va.) where he won a NAIA national title wrestling in the 130lb weight class.  He later transferred to Oklahoma State and was a NCAA National Runner-Up at 147lbs.  He earned his bachelors degree from Oklahoma State in 1967.   Douglas earned his master degree from Arizona State in 1981 where he was admitted to the doctoral program.    Douglas competed in many international competition events.  Douglas had a 4th place finish at the 1964 Tokyo Games.  He was a runner-up in a World Championship.   Douglas also placed 3rd and 4th at two other World Championships.  Douglas was a multiple US National Champion winning three US freestyle national championships and two greco roman national championships where he competed mostly at 163lbs.  In 1968 Douglas was the captain of the USA Olympic team in Mexico City.  The year he retired from competition (1970), Douglas was named the nation's most outstanding wrestler.