COLUMNIST PETER JAKEY: Tournament trail leads to Palac
…continued from last week. With a backpack over my shoulder and coffee cup in hand, I ventured down the tournament trail to The Palace of Auburn Hills bright and early Friday morning. I could have slept in, and I?m not looking for sympathy or trying to make any of the wrestlers feel bad, but if all three Huron wrestlers ? junior Justin Kelley, sophomore Chris Rhode, and freshman Dylan Centala — had won Thursday, I would have been able to get some extra shuteye.
That wouldn?t play out, so my tournament trail mission was to get to The Palace at 8:30 a.m. I knew with a straight shot through, with little traffic, I could get there in a little under four hours without breaking any speed laws.
EVEN THOUGH it was bitter cold, there was no frost on my windshield, and I departed at 4:22 a.m. I listened to recap after recap of President George W.?s press conference the night before, and when I grew bored of that, I turned on an audio cassette book on serial profiling. It was extremely fascinating and made the time fly by. I only became nervous about arriving on time when the traffic started to bog down near DTE Energy Theater, or Pine Knob. The Palace was in sight at 8:23 a.m. and I was walking through the press entrance two minutes before the first round of the morning.
I had checked the internet the night before to see how the boys were doing, and if I had known they were to start at the weight class of 130 pounds, I would have had a little more time to work with, with Rhode wrestling at 189 pounds and Kelley at 125 pounds. I had some waiting to do.
I THINK THAT?S the first thing you find out at state: there?s a lot of waiting involved. So sitting along press row, behind the stadium announcers, I scanned the arena. I hadn?t been there since the state finals a year ago when senior Andy Keller won all four of his matches for a title at 145 pounds. In the rafters I noticed a new banner for the Pistons, who were crowned Central Division champions in 2002. I suspect they?ll be adding to that again this year. The other new thing I noticed was security checking my bag, which was loaded with two tape recorders, an extra lens, notebooks, and lots of film.
During one of those long periods of nothing to do, while cleaning out my bag, I found a flathead screwdriver. It?s a good thing security didn?t find that or I might have gotten into a little trouble.
EVEN WITH an arena full of people I spotted members of the Rhode family walking down the steps to the lower bowl to get a closer view of Chris? match Friday morning. It was a great battle, with the first-time qualifier, losing by a score of 3-2. I?ve said this before, and it?s worth repeating, more wrestlers leave the finals disappointed than happy. The hallways underneath the stands are dotted with many disappointed wrestlers. Some sit with their backs to the wall, with their hands over their eyes, slumped over their knees, not ready to look up and face the disappointment of having their dream taken away from them.
Some wrestlers react differently to having their state title hopes dashed. Some throw their head gear. Some fight with their coach, while others come off the mat sobbing uncontrollably. I didn?t see that from any of the Huron athletes. There were great moments of disappointment for all three of Rogers City?s wrestlers, but they carried themselves extremely well.
IT SEEMED during my time wandering around The Palace I met some interesting people on elevators. I talked with some workers on a freight elevator. ?I bet this can be a pretty enjoyable job,? I observed. One retiree said he gets to go to all the Piston basketball games ?and Tim McGraw is coming up,? he said. On another elevator I talked to ?elevator chick.? ?Do you ever get bored?? a wrestling parent asked. ?No. When it?s slow I do,? elevator chick said. It makes sense.
There something about high school wrestling that brings out nearly every inspiration quote uttered by man. A Union City coach had a quote from Orel Hersheiser on his T-shirt. ?Ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things if they are willing to work hard and believe in themselves.?
Some are much simpler, such as the ?Backbone, guts & pride? slogan printed on the back of the shirts worn by Ithaca coaches, parents and fans. I also found out something extremely interesting from the Ithaca coach who said you can rent a suite for all three days of the wrestling finals for $500. It seems like a lot money, but it?s actually a really good deal.
SOME WRESTLERS are a little weird as well. Consider Wynn Mchalak, a 189-pound wrestler from Caro, who wore Winnie the Pooh socks up to his knees. They were extremely worn and had been through the washer a hundred times. Nicknamed ?the bear,? the wrestler closed out his senior season with a 63-0 r
So did I. And I look for to another chapter of journeys down the tournament trail, hopefully this spring.