Wrestling center of attention for dual

Written by Gene Morris

Wednesday, 14 January 2009 08:00

Wrestling was the center of attention at Spring Hill last week and it was awesome, fantastic, incredible, spectacular and a lot of other adjectives.
Simply amazing, really.

I heard they were bringing out a spotlight, a single bright light hanging over the wrestling mat, for the renewal of the one-on-one rivalry dual between the Spring Hill Broncos and the Paola Panthers. I couldn’t wait to feel the atmosphere for the event Jan. 7, and it didn’t disappoint.

Both teams came out in near darkness with a single light shining on the wrestling mat, making the match the only thing the eyes could focus on.
Your eyes were glued to the action.

There was a nice crowd in the auxiliary gym at Spring Hill High School, sitting back for a an old-fashioned wrestling dual.

It was a win-win for everyone.

The wrestlers got the experience of being out there under the bright lights with nothing but darkness around them. They couldn’t see the fans, but the wrestlers sure could hear them as both schools brought a respectable cheering section with hundreds of people on hand for the event.

For the fans, it was fast-paced action with someone from your team on the mat for every match. How can you beat that?

I like wrestling tournaments, don’t get me wrong. They can be pretty darn dramatic and full of suspense, as well. It just takes longer for it to build at a tournament.

The one-day tournaments can begin at 8 or 9 in the morning and run until 4 or 5 in the evening. That is a full day. And, depending on which school you want to see as a fan, there might be two wrestlers from your team who see the mat in an hour.

Larger tournaments, bringing as many as 28 teams together, are scheduled to run over two days. With action running six to eight hours or more per day, that is a lot of wrestling.

I like the duals anyway. Your school versus their school. All eyes are on one match.

We used to have them all the time in high school wrestling. Now, the duals are a dinosaur. A relic from our past.

It is too bad because the duals are great for the sport. There is no comparison between a dual and a tournament for excitement and drama.

You haven’t heard people screaming at a wrestling event until you have seen a dual come down to the heavyweight match with the outcome of a team victory coming down to your best man and their best man at 289 pounds.

Both teams, with chairs along either side of the mat, stand and rise and fall with the ebb and flow of the match, building to a crescendo of excitement that is difficult to capture in words. It’s the title town moment of wrestling — our town is better than your town — right there on the mat in the last match.

The 2009 version of the Broncos versus Panthers wrestling dual did not have the suspense some have with the team winner not in doubt late, but the excitement of the dual was still a totally different feeling than you get from a tournament with eight or more teams.

It just isn’t the same.

As a fan, I would take the dual any day. It is the stuff movies, such as Vision Quest, are made of.

There are a few exceptions to that rule, where I have to say the drama weighs in with the state-like atmosphere of the two-day Basehor-Linwood Bobcat Classic. Home tournaments are always something special, giving the athletes a chance to perform in their house.

As the drama builds, so do the tournaments. With bragging rights on the line, league wrestling tournaments are exciting, and there is quite an energy that builds during regional and state tournaments in the quest for a title.

For the fans, for a two-hour block of time, it is hard to beat that old, one-on-one dual.

It is a dinosaur the sport of wrestling should hold onto.

You can reach Gene Morris by calling (913) 294-2311 . by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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