Many people think about the road not taken. My thoughts though are, “What if I had not taken the road I took, the one that had and still has Penn State wrestling as the main course of my highway?” There are days when walking by the wrestling room, I still get butterflies when I smell the mats. But it is not because of having to worry about running into the likes of Andy Matter, Jerry Villecco, Jerry White, or Dave Becker, but because I think, “What if I never butted heads with them?”
As futile as it may have seemed for a walk-on from Jersey that never wrestled a varsity match in high school, one could not stay on a Bill Koll team for three years and even wind up starting a few matches and winning one, without becoming something greater than what you thought you would showing up. Bill KolI re-enforced values I may have lost for a time after being at Penn State for a while. But once on the team, I was back to the person my mom and dad raised. I grew close to God, if only for self-preservation, but still that stuck with me and grew through thick and thin.
My grades shot up, opposite of what the common idea about student athletes is. I never won a national championship in wrestling, but I did to the best of my knowledge become the only accredited meteorologist—not some pretend-one you see on TV—to letter in Division I wrestling. I take my Penn State wrestling work ethic to my job each day. It’s easy to work 16-20 hour days after wrestling under Bill Koll.
The persistence and stubbornness and faith in a higher calling that comes into the soul of anyone that truly listens and learns the lessons in the room have served me more than I can say. While I work hard to please my Lord, I also have a secret wish to be in a position that I can give back to this program what it gave to me, though it is a debt I can never repay. One can’t imagine.
I told Jerry Villecco a few weeks back that if we hadn’t been friends, if he hadn’t convinced me to walk on, my whole life may have been different. I believe it. My wife, who is the assistant gymnastics coach here, captained the gymnastics team in 1988. One of her brothers was someone I knew of in high school—he was ranked number one in the state. I think if I were but a geeky weatherman, that we may not have wound up together. As it is, the Lord dropped Villecco into my life, and he talked me into something that a sane man would have laughed at. Twelve years later, bingo, here comes the woman of my dreams.
The stubbornness and persistence has paid off in a drug-free body-building career that has netted me a couple of national titles in over 40 categories and has kept me healthy. It also enabled me to learn much about nutrition and muscle efficiency and apply it to training wrestlers, some who have gone on to great things here at Penn State (Greg Haladay, Chad Dubin, and Kerry McCoy in his Olympic run). Even now I have become involved with the grandson of Coach Koll and also Rich Lorenzo’s boy, Mike.
It was something training them. Along with Kerry, they trained in the dungeon of my basement, two doors down from Hachiro Oishi [long-time assistant wrestling coach at Penn State]. In it are the memorabilia of all the titles won in bodybuilding by my wife and me. I told both of them I would trade every one of those titles to have them [Koll’s grandson and Lorenzo’s son] walk on to lead PSU to a national title in wrestling.
And when I talk to the Lord above, I ask him every night to let Coach Koll know that I will pay him back for all he did for me. As for Coach Lorenzo, he let me help out with the team when I was going through a tough time and I owe him more than he knows. John Fritz is my daughter’s godfather along with Mike Bevilacqua, who is also my son’s. What did Penn State wrestling mean to me, and what does it still mean? Let’s see, it got me close to God, helped me in school, and drives me today in my job and other aspects. It has formed bonds that will never break and has indirectly led me to the woman of my dreams and to a family I love. You do the math—it’s more than I can add up and more than I can ever repay.
