Moving Forward

One thing that we all can control is effort.  Lehigh wrestling made several changes last week, and took control of many of the aspects during our two matches-- but mainly we controlled our effort.  This may seem like  an odd thing to improve on, as you always want to give your best every time your on the mat-- but effort is perhaps the most important part of "showing up" when that whistle blows. No matter what the scoreboard says, for 7+ minutes you can always give more effort. If your down by 9 points -you can get the last takedown and save a team point, if your down by 1- work has hard has you possibly can to score,  and so on... Always finish on top, get that last takedown, ride your opponent out, score the last point.  This is something that comes with maturity and we will continuity get better as the season continues... EIWAS and NCAA's watch out! 

We had two great crowds this weekend, both in Grace and Stabler. I thank you for all of your support-- you make us Lehigh a a very special place to wrestle. When down matside, things are often different than what you think you see in the stands.  Trust the coaching staff, & trust YOUR team. Our goals are not for November- and come March everyone will understand. Some teams are better RIGHT NOW, that doesn't mean that they will be better in March. 

This week we are preparing for Pittsburg. They are a very solid team and we have a lot of work to do! We have a lot of positive things took continue to build off of from this past weekend. We are learning from our mistakes, and trusting in the PROCESS it takes to be the best. 

One Team. One Heartbeat. Go Hawks!

Control the Controlables

Having battled Cancer and come out on the other side, I have learned that sometimes in life things just don't seem to go your way.  Being a complete control freak, this little life lesson is something that is very hard for me to accept.  It keeps me awake at night, then haunts my night-mares, and distracts me from things that are actually in my control. Thus, I have come up with a mantra--that if you ask anyone who has been with me in particularly rough time in my life will probably be able to recite to you without blinking and find it to be a little annoying by now-- I don't know where I heard it first or who said it to me, but I know I have been saying it for a couple years now. All that you or I can do is

Control the Controlables.  Honestly, I don't even know if "Controlables" is a word, as I get a red line under it every time I type it out-- But these three words have gotten me through some of the most dark periods of my life and I plan on sticking with them until the end. 

On Saturday things did not go our way, and it was entirely our fault. I can't sit here and pretend to know every little thing that went wrong but I can say with complete confidence that we are going to learn from our embarrassment, hold ourselves personally accountable, and control our controlables this week as we plan for Bloomsburg and Penn State.  I know that with our performance doubt has planted a seed in the minds of many of fans, and to honest I don't blame you.  We did not compete, no excuses. But-- you don't judge a book by its cover and you shouldn't judge my team by a match, because if you do your going to miss out on a great story. We are going to look back at this past weekend and realize that it was a WAKE UP for our team. Don't count us out just yet, allow us to prove you wrong. 

I am headed up to practice in a few minutes to continue preparations for this weekend. I promise you that Coach Santoro and his staff are ready for this week to get started. It is going to be a fun week, and an even better weekend-- we get to step out onto that iconic Brown and White mat and show up!

Right now, we need to be inspired. If you have some inspiration for us--leave a comment or send me an email.  Help us inspire not only ourselves, but also inspire you! 

Clarion Open-- Is finally over!

I am exhausted. Early (very early) this morning our bus pulled into Lehigh, after what was perhaps on of the most exhausting days of wrestling I have ever experienced--> and I didn't even wrestle in the Clarion Open! For all members of the Lehigh Wrestling team, coaches and athletes alike, this past weekend was a full on sprint toward the finish line.  We had 2 members of our team represent us at the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) All-Star Classic, FloWreslting held a first class event with the best high school wrestlers in the country in Grace Hall, and the entire team made the trek to Clarion.

Mason and Joey had the extraordinary opportunity to compete in the NWCA All Star Classic.  They both made all of us proud as they won their respective matches.  Mason was honored after the match by being named an Outstanding Wrestler of the event. He is the first Lehigh Wrestler to ever receive the award at the Classic. As Joey and Mason competed the rest of our team crammed into a hotel room in Clarion and surrounded the TV to cheer on our fellow Mountain Hawks.

The next morning came all too early as the alarm clock rang at 5am (like some twisted joke) and the team huddled into the hotel lobby at 530am. We, along with 300+ wrestlers, filed into the Clarion student rec center in preparation for weigh ins. And so it began..... we were in the that gym for over 12 hours! I would like to thank all of our family and fans that spent the long day standing in order to support us.

We wrestled fairly well overall.  The team was full of excitement as the first whistle of the season rang, and that excitement carried us through the long day of competition. Personally I was very impressed with Zach Diekel and Laike Gardner who both kept battling throughout the day. They demonstrated what our coaches have been preaching all year so far.. SCORE AS MANY POINTS AS POSSIBLE.

We are underway... Lets keep the ball rolling. We host Bucknell Saturday and we have plenty of work to do before then.

One Team. One Heartbeat. Go Hawks!