Saturday morning in Cleveland when five rookie wrestling officials from the Chattanooga area take to the mats to call matches for the season opening middle school tournament at Ocoee Middle School, it will be easy to pick out the one who, at first observation, doesn't belong. Or does he?
With lots of gray hair and years of coaching experience, former McCallie head coach Gordon Connell,66, has decided to see the sport through a different prism as he moves from the chair in the corner to the middle of the mat with a whistle and wearing a striped shirt..
"Wrestling assigner Mike Parker has given me a couple of middle school and junior varsity matches to help me get my feet wet in this part of the sport," said Connell with a smile.
"I am still helping the McCallie program as an assistant, but with my youngest son, Adam, now wrestling for the Naval Academy Prep School I thought this would be a good time to see what it is like being an official."
He feels there are only a handful of wrestling coaches/officials in this country who have seen more matches - high school, college and national level matches in this country, plus years as the director of filming for USA Wrestling around the world - than he has.
"I have been part of wrestling since the mid-1960s as a wrestler at Brainerd High School and have traveled the world watching matches, but now I am focusing on what the officials are doing, how they position themselves as the match progresses and how they make certain calls," said Connell who is in three halls of fame, including a charter member of the Tennessee Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, won an individual state title in 1966), has multiple team state titles as a coach (Hixson and McCallie) and earned a world veterans freestyle gold medal in 2004.
"I look forward to Saturday to see how I do and hope that maybe next year I can call a varsity match or two," stated Connell.
FoxCatcher ... Connell plays the role of a wrestler in the recently released movie about the life and death of Olympic gold medalist Dave Schultz, killed by john duPont ... Connell was up East watching his son Adam, wrestled in the East Stroudsburg Open (Adam went 7-2) last weekend and went to New York and saw the movie the second day it was released ... no definite date for the movei to be shown Chattanooga but possibly in mid-January.
contact B.B Branton at william.branton@comcast.net
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