| From the end of one program to the start of another |
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| Written by Ronnie Sigmon -- Top Prospects Editor | |
| Friday, 25 August 2006 | |
 - Newberry College's Wrestling Coach Jason Valek -I would like to share a story about a wrestler. He was a dedicated wrestler that won two high school state championships. For his accomplishments and hard work, he received a scholarship to a Division I university. Prior to enrolling, the university told him that they were going to cancel the wrestling program. He could either attend the university, and they would honor his scholarship, or he could give it all up and see if any other school would give him anything on a very short notice. This young man chose to use the scholarship and get his degree. After getting his degree, he jumped into the working world and got a job teaching and coaching wrestling at a South Carolina high school. One of his wrestlers went on to win two high school state championships. The champ's father was impressed with the coach, and since he was the Athletic Director at a near by college, he offered him a job as the college's wrestling coach. The only problem was the college did not even have a wrestling team, so the young coach would have to start a team up from scratch! Does this story sound like a fairy tail? Well, I guess it is a real live fairy tail for Head Coach Jason Valek of Newberry College. Read on and see how wrestling turned full circle for this wrestler and coach. Q - RS: Jason, How old are you, and where did you wrestle in high school? A - JV: I am 30 years old. I wrestled for Dutch Fork High School, and my coach was the South Carolina legend, B. D. LaPrade. Q - RS: What were your accomplishments in high school wrestling? A - JV: I was a South Carolina state champion in 1992 and 1993. Q - RS: Did you wrestle in College? A - JV: No, but I did get a wrestling scholarship to Clemson. Shortly before I enrolled there, they told me that they had decided to cancel the wrestling program. I could choose to stay at Clemson, and they would honor my scholarship for four years, or I could see if another school would give me a scholarship on short notice. I chose to stay at Clemson and get my degree, so I did not wrestle in college. Q - RS: I guess it bothered you that you could not compete in college. A - JV: Yes, but it also gave me a chance to work with my younger brother Parker while he was in high school. Parker was a state runner-up and a state champion for Irmo High School. He went on to wrestle at Appalachian State. Q - RS: What did you do after you graduated from Clemson? A - JV: I went out in the "Working World" and got a job. I started teaching and coaching at Newberry High School. Q - RS: Are you married? A - JV: No, but I recently got engaged to my girlfriend, Julia Hollins. Q - RS: How did you get the job at Newberry College? A - JV: One of my wrestlers was Aaron Carters. I coached Aaron to two high school state championships, and he now wrestles for West Point. Aaron's dad is Andy Carters, the AD at Newberry College. After Aaron graduated, Andy told me that he was going to start a wrestling program at Newberry College. He asked me if I would coach the team. He said, the first year (2004-05) we would be a club team. For the 2005-06 season, we would be a Division II team. Q - RS: I guess this means your program gets alot of support from the administration at Newberry. A - JV: Yes, we do. We are a fully funded Division II school. The wrestling team gets alot of support from the administration, the students, and the area, too. We average about 1,000 people that attend our home dual meets! So far, first as a club team and now as a Division II team, we have not lost a home dual meet. Our team is also sponsered by Adidas. They supply us with our wrestling gear, shoes, gym bages, etc... Adidas is a sponser to all of Newberry College's athletic teams. It is sort of unique for a Division II school. Q - RS: How many assistant coaches do you have, and who are they? A - JV: Our whole coaching staff are former South Carolina high school wrestlers. Our light weight coach is Kelly Revells of Summerville High School, 1995. Kelly was a former junior college national champion at Lassen College and a two-time national qualifier for Eastern Illinois. Matt Finley is our middle weight coach. He wrestled at Hillcrest high school in 1998 and for NC State. Matt also was a founder and head coach of the NCWA club team at Clemson. Eric Pack is our upperweight coach. Eric wrestled for Sumpter high school in 1993. He was a junior college All-American at California Bakersfield, and finished his college career at Anderson College. Q - RS: Where is Newberry College? A - JV: We are about an hour and fifteen minutes from Charlotte. We are located about thirty-five miles northwest of Columbia, South Carolina. Q - RS: Is Newberry a state school or private school? A - JV: We are a Luthern sponsered, private school with an enrollment of 900 students. About one half of the students compete in athletics. Q - RS: What are you looking for in a wrestling recruit? A - JV: We are looking for kids of good character, that make good grades, and love to wrestle. Our recruits typically have about a 3.2 GPA and score about 1050 on the SAT. Q - RS: In the last couple of years, there have been several Division II schools in North Carolina and South Carolina that have started up a wrestling program. What do you think about this? A - JV: It is great! Newberry is one of those schools; the others are Belmont Abby and St. Andrews in North Carolina. The other South Carolina school is Limestone. We all compete in the Northeast regional with about 16 teams. In 2008, there will be another D II regional re-alignment. Currently, there is a proposal to have a Southeast regional of about 12 teams, many of which would be in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Q - RS: Last year was your first year competing in Division II. How did your team do? A - JV: We had a great year for a first year team! Quinn Tolbert (174lbs) was an All-American. Tolbert was a NCWA club National Champion in 2004-05. Kelly Anundson (HWT) and Alonso Azumendi (165lbs) were NCAA D II Qualifiers. Anundson was one match away from making All-American. I think Tony Washington (141lbs) and Brandon Kelly (157lbs) could have at least been qualifiers, but they were injured late in the season. Overall, our team finished 23rd in the national tournament. Q - RS: How did your recruiting go last spring? A - JV: We had a very good recruiting class. Coming into our program this year, we have former high school state champions from Georgia (4), South Carolina (3) Virginia (1), Florida (1),North Carolina (1) and Maryland (1). Two of these wrestlers were ranked in the top 100 recruits in the country! They were Bryant Blanton (165lbs/174lbs) of Summerville High School and Brett Warrington (133lbs) of Henry County, Georgia. Michael Peterson of Seventy-First High School in Fayetteville was our only North Carolina recruit last year. Q - RS: About how many wrestlers will you carry on your roster? A - JV: We will have about 35 wrestlers on the roster. Q - RS: Where do you practice, and how large is your practice area? A - JV: We practice on two mats in the old gym. We have plans for a new wrestling room that could be finished in about 1 1/2 years. Q - RS: What does your starting line-up look like for this season? A - JV: At 125lbs, it will probably be sophomore Andrew Young, from Summerville. True freshman, Brett Warrington, should start at 133lbs. 141lbs should be red shirt freshman, Tony Washington, a former Georgetown wrestler. At 149lbs should be red shirt freshman Tony Simmons, also a former Summerville wrestler. Florida sophomore, Brandon Kelly, should be the starter at 157lbs. Freshman Byant Blanton, or senior NCAA Qualifier and former Wellford wrestler Alonso Azumendi, will start at 165lbs. All-American Quinn Tolbert is another former Summerville wrestler that will start at 174lbs. The 184lb starter should be junior Blane Kelly of Florida. Red shirt freshman Keeno Griffin of Florida is also a canidate to start at 184lbs. At 197lbs, another true freshman could start. Trey Rodger of Great Bridge High School in Virginia might be the starter there. Red shirt junior Kelly Anundson is back at HWT. He is from Sparks, Nevada. With this lineup, we could get a top 20 preseason ranking, and four or five of these guys might be nationally ranked in the preseason rankings. Anundson and Tolbert could be in the top three nationally. As you can see, we have alot of former Summerville high school wrestlers on the team. RS: Well it seems that things are looking good for you and your team. Thanks for the interview. JV: You're welcome. I want to thank you and Jamie for your efforts with the scouting website. It is so informative and helps the kids of North Carolina get noticed. It provides great depth and detail of the student athlete and that is very important. Thanks for the good work. |
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