He went to HS in a town next to mine, his younger brother was best friend & roommate at Kent, he was a helluva wrestler too. He had floor passes for all of Bandeli’s matches. I remember seeing him at a Clutch concert during his freshman year at Penn, clearing the pit out with a former teammate of his. He got a great job after graduating & moved away, never saw him again. The guy he wrestled for 5 & 6 was also from our county, came from a big family of all stud heavyweights.
Without looking he must have been pretty good in high school. PA wrestling is different. You get guys who maybe don’t place at state and do things in college.
He was state champ & runner-up in Ohio.
I butchered the spelling lol but thanks. Pretty cool. I’m not sure I recall them wrestling.
The guy wrestled well and came after Brock with no hesitation. He got in deep and tried to finish and Brock basically did some Mighty Mouse shit that only 125lb humans should be able to do, not 275lb freaks! Lol!
I ran into Neal at the ASU/Oregon State dual yesterday. Was explaining to my high school kids just how good he was. Mention that he handled Lesnar in college and they were all like “Oh wow he must have been really good!” He said Lesnar was big and strong and very athletic but he wasn’t as technical. He did say he wished he had opened up and scored more points in the final but he thought Lesnar would attack more since the team title was on the line. He thought he could have put up a lot more points. Interesting fact I learned, Neal considered going to ASU and was offered a small scholarship amount. ASU recruited another upper weight and offered him more. That guy obviously never panned out.
Awesome! I’d love to get him out to do a football/wrestling camp. I haven’t found contact info on him
He helps coach at Poway HS just outside of San Diego. If you reached out to their coaching staff they could probably help you out.
I will do that. Thanks for the info
Really? Interesting. Thats jt$ stomping ground.
Lesnar vs Neal
Haven’t seen this match before. Just watched it with my son who wrestles and he asked why their coaches weren’t yelling at them to shoot like his coaches do. Lol, and good post. MM
Tempe or Poway? Neal’s daughter goes to ASU, which is why he was there. He is probably 6’4 at least. She is probably 6’2.
Poway.
So many youth wrestling coaches have literally nothing to offer outside of telling kids to shoot repeatedly.
I tell the ones I coach to circle and angle off.
The tournament we went to this weekend the coaches were calling for the takedown and half would say setup it up first.
In my sons bracket (12yo) we were going to wrestle a kid that was smoking everyone with the headlock from several different positions. We had watched him in three other tournaments win 1st place and were impressed.
Another kid, had a dad/coach and beat the headlock kid easily (only loss of the season).
My son was facing headlock kid for 3rd place, so I/we asked the dad/coach for advice on wrestling the headlock kid. The dad/coach was taken back when we asked, but gave us great advice. I wondered if he thought I was someone else he had issues with in the past.
Later on a group of other parents asked my what happen when I approached the dad/coach. I said nothing he was super nice and gave us good advice. They said you didn’t confront him about his kid being in high school and competing in your bracket. Lol, I knew his kid looked mature but didn’t know about the age issue.
Anyway, we lost to the headlock kid but had a great match. Jr was disappointed but when I pointed out how good he did on tape he felt better.
IMO - Wrestling is the best sport for kids and they will (as I have) use those skills throughout life.
You have to use your footwork for almost any setup so moving laterally off a tie opens something. I was telling my guys last week not to chase the leg on a shot, use your feet and make them step and bring it to you.
Will pass that to my son. His strength hasn’t caught up with the other kids (or his body) so we are losing to wrestlers he is better than just partially by getting out muscled.
Starting some strength training which should help for next season and will be transitioning to no-gi jujitsu after the wrestling season.
Any other suggestions we are open to. He has the heart of a lion and no quit in him. We are trying to salvage and get to a 500 record for the season. His opponents comment about him not giving up even when he has no chance on the scoreboard.
Thanks
MM