Varsity Kansas - The Blog

by joanna

I’m loving this tournament. I’ve got a front-row seat to both mats with semifinal matches on them. Can’t beat it. I can beat the food. I bought a polish — God help me. I think I’m sick now. And I love Polish dogs, yet I don’t think I can eat it anymore. Ever.

Uh-oh. At 130 pounds, Heights assistant Mike Church asked a Maize assistant if he could have his water to help Kendric Maple out, I guess the guy said yes. Church took it and Karl Oeser, the Maize head coach is angry — (that’s ROY Oeser. Man, I am stinking in this father-son thing here lately). They just yelled at each other for about 20 seconds. No big deal. But that’s wrestling coaches. They are waaaay intense. Aren’t they? If you’ve ever seen even one match, you know what I mean.

Church cracks me up, I mean this guy is now an assistant - -he was the South coach — but he still thinks he’s a head coach. He’s funny to watch, so animated

Derby and Goddard each have nine in the semis. Not bad, huh?

Talked to Goddard coach Brett Means before the semis. I’d seen him with his eyes closed before the quarters, and his mouth was moving. I asked if it was yoga or a relaxation technique. Nope, it’s prayer. This is obviously a stressful time — when aren’t coaches stressed, though? — so he said he was talking to God and asking for help. Hey, whatever works. You know, Means smiled at me, too. Ha! That’s two points for me.

Chatted with Manhattan coach Bob Gonzalez. He’s got to be the most gregarious person ever. Lovin’ him. I could talk to him all day.

East’s Bill Coffman is standing in the corner, bending all kinds of crazy ways. He looks like how I do when I’m playing video games — If I’m trying to turn my , whatever it is, I stand up, I have my arms high. Yeah, I don’t do the video games. Uh-oh, he just bent his arm all crazy to the side.

The match is over now, and I told Coffman how I was laughing at him inside — he just wants me to get his name right. Nice response to the fact that I had written Brian Byers instead of his son MATT Byers in a story last week about East basketball. No offense taken, I really like coach Sue Coffman. HA! Just kidding, Bill (although I enjoy dealing with his wife, the Andover volleyball coach).

So I interviewed Maize’s Tim Dunham, a winner at 130, turned around to watch Heights’ Chase Nelson at 135 against Lawrence’s Blake Greenfield, but he wasn’t on Mat 1. I asked around where Nelson was. I looked like an idiot because he was already done - -he pinned Greenfield in 17 seconds. Whoa.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 22nd, 2008 at 6:40 p.m. and is filed under wrestling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.