|
|
|
|
Imhof a constant part of Ridgway wrestling |
|
|
|
Monday, 21 December 2009 |
By Greg Reedy
Sports Editor
Bob Imhof has seen Ridgway wrestling grow from the start of the program in 1964 to a program which has seen its varsity team be recognized at the state level.
"When I was in high school was when our wrestling program started in 1964. I was a junior then. I was a basketball player," Imhof said. "I tried wrestling with some of our wrestlers just in gym class out of my own curiosity. I discovered really fast I wasn't going to be a wrestler, I was going to be a basketball player. I don't like being suffocated, twisted and broken into small pieces. Because of being around it and knowing what the guys go through to be wrestlers particularly in a state as strong in wrestling as Pennsylvania is, they never really get the same kind of recognition as a basketball or football player does because there is no real professional career, it's more of a self-discipline sport."
Imhof has seen the program rise and has became a well-known part of wrestling around District 9 and Pennsylvania.
"We weren't very good in the beginning of the program, typical of any new program," Imhof said. "Over a long, long period of time, even when I lived away from here, I followed how our guys were doing as time went on. That led from one thing to another. I'm a member of the District 9 Hall of Fame Committee, where I nominate the people that will be inducted at the District Championships each year at Clarion. I keep track, myself and a couple other people but I'm the one that seems to have the most notoriety on the District 9 trivia as I call it. Keeping track of all of our wrestlers, not just Ridgway, but all of them in the district."
Imhof's love of history and wrestling came together with his work with the District 9 Web site.
"I'm a historian-type anyway with my other interests so it was a natural progression," Imhof said. "I have an interest in wrestling so let's keep the stats on all of these people all the way back to 1938 when it was basically Clearfield, DuBois and so on."
Imhof saw years of frustration for Ridgway at the PIAA Individual Wrestling Championships. Ridgway had nine state runnerups before Jared Kuleck won Ridgway's first state championship at 189 pounds in 1991.
"Finally when Jared Kuleck won our first state championship, his dad was sitting right next to me, so after all those years and all that frustration, it doesn’t affect me personally but because of my involvement, it was so great to get that first one," Imhof said.
Greg Puncheon won the next state title in 2000 at 152. Nikko Leitzel joined that list in 2006 at 130 pounds.
"I’ve known all of them from the time they were little guys to when they were champs," Imhof said. "That’s the satisfaction I get from it. Knowing what these guys through to be on a wrestling team for a town and school of our size, we are really pretty successful. It’s a tradition in this town. It’s something that I think the town and the families have embraced. It’s very much a family sport, it goes from grandfather to father to son and now we’re potentially going into a fourth generation of wrestlers in this program. It’s just that tradition."
Imhof said wrestling in Ridgway does get a good amount of recognition although he feels that at a national level overall, wrestling takes a back seat to football and basketball.
Imhof said he will occassionaly get comments from people around the state for his work with preserving history for not only Ridgway but all of District 9.
"I will intermittently get comments. I want everything to line up a certain way. My yearly updates doesn’t take me very long because I have the whole structure in front of me," Imhof said. "My problem is getting people within the communities to get the history. Most people tend to think that history doesn’t matter because you live going forwards. I’ve received some really nice comments, some good information. Given the focus that wrestling has in Ridgway, generally speaking it is not like that in the other communities."
He said Clearfield is on its own level because of the history that program has.
"Clearfield is on a level by itself because it was one of five or six wrestling programs in the state in 1938," Imhof said. "They’ve got 27 years on us of history. They take it very seriously. That’s why it was great last year, finally, after all these years for Ridgway and Clearfield to wrestle in a dual meet. We lost but it’s always been my contention being a part of this that given the history from Ridgway has had a program until now, every year, Ridgway, Curwensville, Clearfield, DuBois, Brookville and Redbank should always wrestle each other every year because historically if you look at all the statistics, those are the programs that have been the most dominant."
One exciting moment came last season for Imhof as Ridgway hosted Clearfield in the first dual meet between the two schools in history.
"It was 45 years in the making," Imhof said. "Having been around both sides of this for so long, we only have three schools that we have losing records against historically. Realistically, it would have been interesting. But Clearfield, it would have been a tough dual meet every year for us. It’s good for the sport. From a public participation audience thing, matches like that, people love them, they want to see that kind of stuff. It keeps people interested in it. When the score’s 72-0 and five are forfeits, which can be a real problem. You just can’t get the kids involved because there are so many options that are not as difficult as wrestling. Wrestling is an extremely demanding sport on the parents and everybody. It takes a lot to develop a full team and deal with injuries and ineligibility and sickness. It’s never-ending."
Imhof said getting research from 50-70 years ago has been difficult.
"I’ve even gone to the point where I’ve spent a lot of time either at the Clearfield Progress or at the DuBois Library and printing out the microfilm, printing out newspapers from way back when trying to pull out any bits of information I could find," Imhof said. "It cost me a few hundred bucks to do it but money isn’t the point. It’s trying to get the documentation, as much of it as you can. Being a Type A personality, once I start on something, I intend to finish it. That’s how I look at the history. Most of the communities around there, their programs started around the same time ours did or later. So when you’re trying to look at Clearfield and DuBois in particular, you’re going all the way back to 1938. This is a real, real challenge. Even in those days, their newspapers did not put a tremendous amount in about them."
Imhof has always followed Ridgway wrestling at the state level, attending the state championships every year but one. He enjoys watching the wrestlers walk into the GIANT Center in Hershey.
"Watching some of the qualifiers through the state, to watch them walk into the arena for the first time after they have qualified for the state championships, particularly the kids that have done a lot of wrestling in huge environments. They go from a high school gymnasium to an arena with 10,000 people," Imhof said. "It’s like stage fright. As good as these kids, that’s still an aspect of the game. These kids are tough, they are trained, they’ve qualified to be in the state championship and they’re on the grand stage."
Imhof said he likes how Pennsylvania runs its state championships, having the individual championships one by one in front of everybody.
"I went to the Ohio state championships once, they have three divisions in Ohio. They run all three classes at the same time," Imhof said. "In my opinion as a spectator, it gives those kids no recognition to those kids for all the work they did to get to the state championship match. It’s why I like Pennsylvania. Double-A goes in, it’s down to one mat, they come out they are introduced, they wrestle and then Triple-A comes in. They get the limelight they deserve. It should not be mass production."
|
|
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 22 December 2009 )
|
|
|
|
