Wrestling With the Past

 

Phillipsburg and Howell at Franklin High School, 2022

I mentioned in a recent post that we were going to try to broadcast wrestling at Brunswick today.

I could cut to the chase. Then again, you can guess how it went.

(Narrator: He didn't broadcast wrestling today)

After an active morning, I drove over to Brunswick.

Keep in mind, I've been in the wrestling room only once before and that was to look into the camera that is used on nearby Cosby Field. So, basically, I passed through the room.

In this case, I arrived nice and early, parking my car and sipping on my cup of coffee for a moment.

I grabbed the equipment, the coffee, and my backpack and walked into the Burke Field House.

The field house is, basically, the length of a football field (which parallels the building), stretching north to south. I walked in the main door at the north end of the building where there's a lobby, locker rooms, and restrooms. After walking through that corridor, a set of double doors open into the field house itself, which consists of basketball and multi-purpose courts.

The wrestling room is at the opposite end of the building.

A few students were milling around, shooting baskets, and doing kid things. I kept to myself. At the far end of the basketball courts, a modular wall with a door held the entrance into the Ostrye Wrestling Room.

I opened the door and walked in. A few students were in there and noticed me but no words were exchanged.

Brunswick Wrestling had a match on Saturday, so I watched some of the LocalLive coverage to see how it looked and sounded.

To that end, I found the proper angle and, looking up, noticed the camera.

And that's when I noticed -- officially -- there was no audio input.

There would be no wrestling broadcast with my commentary today.

Blast.

I had psyched myself up for this a bit. In truth, wrestling and I have had a difficult relationship at best. I did some wrestling in gym in junior high school and, if you know anything about those years, you realize how awkward that can be.

I wanted to crawl into a hole when we did it and was happy to never return to it again.

Additionally, I've never been into the professional wrestling world, though I realize the two are not alike.

But if you want to talk to me at arguably my most uncomfortable as a teenager, wrestling in eighth grade would likely be it.

Thus, the opportunity to broadcast wrestling wasn't high on my list of things to do. It wasn't until I was at the HAN Network that I was told that I'd be broadcasting wrestling.

It was time to suck it up and learn.

I can narrate a lot of stuff. I'd like to think I can narrate almost anything with a "fake to make it" mentality. More importantly, I need to have a solid analyst who can help in this case.

In those couple of wrestling events that I did with HAN, I had the assistance of people like Bill Bloxsom, the wonderful writer who knows his stuff. It's not unfair to say I put Bill at ease being on the air but more to the point, Bill put me at ease with wrestling.

Then, after HAN, I was asked to cover the New Jersey Wrestling championships for LocalLive.

Enter Chris Erway, who was a wrestler at Brien McMahon High School and knows his stuff.

We had to call the matches from LocalLive's Stamford offices off a monitor.

We made it work.

He and developed a rhythm where I handled the "lead broadcasting duties" and he handled the nuts and bolts.

We crushed it.

When LocalLive asked us to do the FCIAC championships in New Canaan, I asked Chris to come along.

We had it down to a science. 

Then we were asked to go to New Jersey in person. But this is where it got tricky, as Chris and I were told we could work together for the first and last meets, but the in-between meet needed another voice.

Three mats would be in use for that one, with Dan Long handling one and "The A-Team" splitting up. 

If you're following along, that means I had to carry the broadcast alone, because Chris had his own mat to call.

It was time to face the monster, as I called the Phillipsburg/Howell championship.

Look, I'm not going to tell you I'm some great wrestling broadcaster ("Bah Gawd!" insert Jim Ross references). I had to remind myself that I could do this, just as I've done with field hockey and water polo and soccer and lacrosse and, hell, even all the way back to my first ice hockey broadcast.

I once had to learn to do basically everything with the possible exceptions of baseball and football. 

I reminded myself that this was a video broadcast, so my play-by-play didn't have to include every detail. I needed to fill in the cracks.

I trusted my ability.

I was proud of myself. This was sort of a moment of conquering a demon, I suppose.

That being said, one school in particular wasn't very happy with me because they had their own "local" broadcasters who felt they should be on the call. Who the hell was I to do this?

Well, I suppose I was a professional who didn't make the broadcast all about me but your mileage may vary.

"The A-Team" takes Atlantic City, 2022

Not long after that, Chris and I were asked to go to Atlantic City for the New Jersey Individual Championships. Broadcasting from Boardwalk Hall was a huge thrill.

Unfortunately, we haven't called a wrestling meet since.

So I was excited for the challenge of carrying this today but it wasn't to be.

In the spirit of telling the story completely, Brunswick won the meet by taking all 11 contested matches.

Can the situation be fixed in the future? Good question. I don't have an answer as of now.

I simply grabbed my stuff and disappeared quickly.

I went home and hosted "Doubleheader."

I'm disappointed but it's fine. Maybe it leads to things getting fixed. I'll be back there on Wednesday for either hockey or basketball (I think it's going to be hockey).

Tomorrow, I'll see Greenwich basketball in a special broadcast on Robcasting as the Cardinals visit Fairfield Ludlowe.

Greenwich. Fairfield.

I do sort of have a relationship with both of those towns.

A wrestling opportunity will come up again and I'll be ready when it does.