*** Official Youth, High School, College and International Wrestling Thread ***

[rico]

So this Pin Doctors thing that I started a couple years ago has gotten huge. Almost at 30k followers right now and average 3.5 million readers a week. It’s getting to the point where I can’t keep up with my pm’s every day because I receive an average of about 50 per day and it’s just crazy… I quit my job a while back to pursue some sort of monetization process with it… it’s a process… a slow one… and I am struggling bad. Basically the only thing I have consistently going right now is a subscription only section, in which I am able to make some stuff free and some stuff for a fee that I chose… I ended up choosing the lowest fee of $4.99… dunno if that was a good move or not.

Anyways, to any of you wrestling fans out there who may be interested, I just wanted to let you know about the subscription only stuff I just set up there, for it’s literally my only source of income right now.

The page is called “The Pin Doctors” and my home base for that is generally Facebook… I’ll write about anything wrestling-related, from any region, for any talent-level…. And my goal is always to write content that a non wrestler could find interesting.

So to any of you out there who loves wrestling content or would just love to help a CP brother out when he’s struggling, here is the link to the subscription section and I promise I won’t let you guys down! I post really interesting and different types of wrestling stories that have been received well.

Thanks guys…

Shout-out to Junior out of Akron-Westfield HS, Cael Morrow, for not only did he win the Cherokee Invite this last weekend, but he also picked up his 100th win in doing so! Cael was the state runner-up at 1A 106 last year. He had a HUGE win over Jayden Rinken of Nashua-Plainfield in the semis at state last year. He’s a TOUGH wrestler.

https://www.facebook.com/becomesupporter/thepindoctors/

[rico]

I can't take it anymore... I have to show my CP homies how much of a macho man I am (was)!!!

So my HS wrestling coach hooked me up with a bunch of VCR tapes of duals and tourneys from my day (1998-2001 was my HS years) and I found a bunch of my old wrestling matches in them! So what was my next step?!?! I made a highlight reel of myself, of course!! Lol, and shamelessly so! I've made like 50 of these for other dudes... You think it's possibleto shake off the thought of what you would look like in a reel?!?! Haha, I lasted like 2 days!

So here is a video of a lot of my HS wrestling career! Let me know what you think!

[thabear04]

Originally Posted by rico

I can't take it anymore... I have to show my CP homies how much of a macho man I am (was)!!!

So my HS wrestling coach hooked me up with a bunch of VCR tapes of duals and tourneys from my day (1998-2001 was my HS years) and I found a bunch of my old wrestling matches in them! So what was my next step?!?! I made a highlight reel of myself, of course!! Lol, and shamelessly so! I've made like 50 of these for other dudes... You think it's possibleto shake off the thought of what you would look like in a reel?!?! Haha, I lasted like 2 days!

So here is a video of a lot of my HS wrestling career! Let me know what you think!

Nice first move

[rico]

Originally Posted by thabear04

Nice first move

The one at the beginning of the reel or just a first move off the whistle in general?

[EPodolak]

More cradles than a nursery!

I checked out your YT channel the other night, good stuff.

[rico]

Originally Posted by EPodolak

More cradles than a nursery!

I checked out your YT channel the other night, good stuff.

Right on! The Facebook page is where it’s hopping! Up to 42K followers there now! Thanks for watching it man! Did you wrestle?!

[EPodolak]

Originally Posted by rico

Right on! The Facebook page is where it’s hopping! Up to 42K followers there now! Thanks for watching it man! Did you wrestle?!

Yeah, and still a fan. Got to see the NCAA tourney in Tulsa last month.

[rico]

Originally Posted by EPodolak

Yeah, and still a fan. Got to see the NCAA tourney in Tulsa last month.

I’ve never in my life seen the NCAA Tournament. They are the only ones who ever turn down my credential requests anymore and last time I flipped out on them and publicly blasted them on the page, so yeah… lol will prolly never Happen

Vito Arujau is insane…

My brother shares a locker with Spencer Lee… they come in doubles and Brennan and Spencer were assigned to the same one… therefore Spencer is who my bro talks to every day before and after practice. He loves the guy. Brennan got shoulder surgery and is just now starting to drill… took a medical this year!

[EPodolak]

Originally Posted by rico

I’ve never in my life seen the NCAA Tournament. They are the only ones who ever turn down my credential requests anymore and last time I flipped out on them and publicly blasted them on the page, so yeah… lol will prolly never Happen

Vito Arujau is insane…

My brother shares a locker with Spencer Lee… they come in doubles and Brennan and Spencer were assigned to the same one… therefore Spencer is who my bro talks to every day before and after practice. He loves the guy. Brennan got shoulder surgery and is just now starting to drill… took a medical this year!

Did you see the US Open match between Vito and DeSanto this week? Yeah Vito has leveled up more than anybody I can think of.

Next year the NCAA tournament is in KC. This year the tickets online were pretty cheap for the sessions if you bought same day. Even for the finals. Keep it in mind if you can't get in with a pass.

Shame about Spencer Lee, still hope the guy can get healthy and go far. Is your brother competing for a spot next year then?

[rico]

Here are a couple reels I recently made for Mark Schwab of Osage HS and Johnny Scott of Waterloo East. Most all wrestling fans are aware of Mark Schwab. He's considered one of the best ever HS wrestlers... 4X state champ, 5X National champ... battled a horrible injury in college at UNI... His bro Doug is now coach at UNI... He won a natty title for the Hawkeyes in the '90s... I've become pretty good friends with Mark the past couple years... one of my fave people...

Johnny Scott is known as the dude who's mom attacked the ref in two out of the 3 years he got 2nd at state, which sucks because he was phenomenal... That's why I made a reel for him... so people will remember him for his wrestling... Poor guy placed 4-2-2-2 at state and lost all finals matches by 1 point....

[rico]

3 years ago I started The Pin Doctors and now it has 42K followers just on Facebook alone… and sometimes I wonder if this number would be even more if it wasn’t ONLY me who had written 99.9% of the 5000 or so articles that have been posted on there. It has been a grind and it’s tough as hell to keep up with states that don’t border iowa since that’s where im from…

With that said… it hit me in a pm to someone on here a bit ago… there aren’t any other online communities that Ive ever seen that has more intelligent posters on it compared to CP… In fact, CP helped me develop my writing style that I use for the page and I really don’t think I would be as successful with it as I have to this point if it weren’t for the wise posters I’ve learned from on this page.

With that said, are any of you passionate about wrestling to the point to where you’d like to see your articles about it posted on a page that has literally become one of the biggest ones out there?! I mean, the one area that I’m STUPID in with this is the business side, so I haven’t quite figured monetization out to where I can pay someone YET, but I surely will when I can! Would love to get some more contributors from areas outside of Iowa on there! And it doesn’t have to be journalism type articles that cover strictly current events… I emphasize the personal side of the sport quite a bit, so even if you just had a story from your career or anything really that you’d like to share, then I’ll be all for it! I post tons of history on there…

Let me know!

[rico]

Here is one I posted recently on Randy Couture… fun stuff like this is what I would encourage if anyone out there is interested!



CELEBRITIES WHO WRESTLED: Randy Couture; Lynwood HS ‘81/US Army/Oklahoma State

Growing up in Lynwood, WA, Randy Couture’s mother, Sharan Couture had two rules that she stuck to. 1.) She didn’t want Randy hanging out with his friends at a place called Alderwood Mall, for the loitering that took place there had a reputation for making consistently frequent transitions to mischief. And 2.) No boxing. Randy had been caught sneaking his way to a place in town called Lynnwood Elks Club, which had a successful youth boxing program at the time. This is pretty funny in retrospect, given the hefty amount of boxing that Randy did over the course of his life while training in MMA, in which he is now considered one of the greatest MMA fighters in history. Decades later, Randy “The Natural” Couture would become a 3X UFC HWT Champion, a 2X UFC Light HWT Champion and an interim UFC Light HWT Champion, making him a 6X UFC Champion. The skills he learned in the art of boxing played a role in these accomplishments… So would something else…

Now, while Randy’s mother said she didn’t want her son boxing, she didn’t mention anything about wrestling. Therefore when Randy’s PE teacher and wrestling coach at Alderwood Junior High School, John Casebeer, spread his passion for the sport of wrestling to him, Randy was all in. Hooked for life, in fact… Wrestling was and is a major part of his life. He has competed in it, he has coached it, he has promoted it, etc. And he accomplished some incredible feats in it.

Randy Couture went to Lynnwood High School, where he won a state wrestling championship at 168 pounds as a senior in 1981. After HS, he briefly attended Washington State University, but left to spend six years in the Army, during which he trained and competed with the All-Army wrestling team. It’s been mentioned that part of his reasoning for doing this was because he was never offered a wrestling scholarship from any college… which would end up being their loss. Randy served six years in the Army, attaining the rank of sergeant in the 101st Airborne. He served from 1982-1988 and while there he wrestled and boxed a bit. While in the Army, Randy competed in Greco-Roman wrestling despite not ever competing in it before. Word is, there was a clerical error on his application for the freestyle team which led to him being sent to the Greco-Roman tryouts. Apparently he would have to wait another year to join the Army Freestyle squad, in which Randy didn’t want to wait that long, so he tried out for Greco and made the team despite having little experience. Couture married young and actually spent his first couple of years in the Army as an air traffic controller. However, when the Army found out he could wrestle, his final four years of service were spent via winning the All-Army championships and an Inter-Service title. Randy initially planned on only being enlisted in the Army for 4 years, but he got so deep into Greco-Roman wrestling that he decided to stay an additional 2 years to try to make the Olympic team in 1988, in which he earned the alternate spot for the team.

After Randy’s service in the Army, he decided to enroll at Oklahoma State, where he joined one of the nation’s most historically good wrestling programs of all time. He was a 25 year old Freshman when he first joined the squad. And it didn’t take long for him to make a statement as to how much potential he had to become the major contributor to the team that he ultimately became… he started out with a nice record of 14-2 and placed 3rd at the prestigious Las Vegas Invitational in that first year. After he got off to this red-hot start, his coach at OSU, Joe Seay made the following statement:

COACH JOE SEAY: “Randy is one of the most pleasant surprises I've had in my coaching career. It's like the other coaches and I were saying the other day, we're seelng day-to-day improvement. He's just getting better each time he walks on the mat. And his attitude about It, he's such a gentleman and works hard.”

Randy expressed having some difficulty at first adjusting from the exclusively upper-body style of Greco-Roman wrestling to folkstyle wrestling, primarily when in the bottom position. Bottom was his weak position for a duration there, but he eventually adapted to become one of the best all-around NCAA wrestlers in the nation. When it was over for Randy at Oklahoma State, he was a three-time NCAA All-American and 2X NCAA finalist, finishing sixth in 1990 and second in 1991 and 1992 while helping the Cowboys to the team title in 1990 and runner-up finishes in 1991 and 1992.

Randy Couture was also accomplished in the international scene, competing in Greco-Roman wrestling. He wrestled at the World Championships in Greco-Roman in 1991, 1993, 1995 and 1997 and was an Olympic team alternate in 1988, 1992 and 1996. He was also a semifinalist at the Olympic Trials in 2000.

Following his collegiate career at Oklahoma State, Randy would go on to become an Assistant Coach at Oregan State. He did this until 1996. The next year was when he began his MMA/UFC career, which he became famous for. As mentioned, Randy was a six-time UFC world champion and was the only competitor to hold titles in both the heavyweight and light heavyweight divisions. Couture became the fourth fighter inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2006, and was inducted into the Oklahoma State College of Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 2016. In 2018, Randy was honored by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame by being named as the organization's Outstanding American for 2018. The NWHOF also awarded him the George Tragos Award in 2014.

Randy was so popular while fighting in the UFC, that he became an actor. Randy has appeared in the hit films The Expendables, The Expendables 2 and The Expendables 3, as well as a variety of TV shows/movies. Randy was married multiple times and has 3 children.

Randy Couture is one of only 2 over the age of 40 to have won a UFC championship fight. He did it 4 times. Randy is also the only UFC fighter to win a championship after becoming a Hall-of-Famer and is the oldest champion in MMA history with his title victory after defeating over Tim Sylvia at age 43. For me, as a 39 year old guy with only has 2 more months to spend in my 30’s, these achievements give me hope that maybe I won’t be doomed to a life of factory work. Thanks for that, Randy!

RANDY COUTURE: “I don't really feel old because I can still compete with any of the younger guys, and probably have an edge in maturity and experience. I'm just going to compete as long as I can compete, and I believe that probably will be when I'm well over 30.”

-Randy Couture (in 1989-1990 during his first season at Oklahoma State)

🔨

[rico]

I grew up calling this one the Jones Move.... but after posting this clip, it's become clear that most people call it the "Merkle!" It's pretty interesting... the name changes in certain regions... The Eastern part of the Nation calls it the Merkle it seems... as well as Flordida.... A lot of Eastern Iowa and Illinois calls it the Jones move... Some scattered people call it the Oklahoma.... a lot from out west seem to call it the "side by side."

What do you call it!!?!