I’ve been in journalism for a long time. I’ve worked alongside some good writers, bad writers and jaded writers.
When you work in this business, you see guys become jaded. I’ve seen guys that just go through the motions. It drives me nuts. They don’t care about anything, especially the people they cover.
Earlier this week, my heart truly went out to Brandon Basa, a classy kid from a great family.
Basa won three matches on Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals of the Sierra Nevada Classic, but when he showed up for weigh-ins on Thursday, he was 2/10 of a pound over the limit. His championship dreams were quashed.
I know Basa eats, sleeps and breathes wrestling. He’s been doing it ever since he could walk, and not once had he ever missed weight. He’s won a lot of tournaments, but never the TOC or Sierra Nevada Classic. His time has run out on that, and I truly feel bad for him. And, after three straight wins, I think he would have made the finals.
I’ve known wrestlers who miss practices, have missed weight numerous times in their careers, missed busses, and don’t give it an honest effort. They aren’t invested. Basa is, and that’s what made it tough. I found myself wondering how Basa was doing as Thursday went along.
I’m sure Basa was hurting, but he never stopped supporting his teammates, sometimes offering advice to his teammates. He spent the bulk of his day filming matches.
When I finally talked to him, he truly felt bad; truly felt like he’d let the team down. He talked about moving forward and putting this behind him. Honestly, he’d let himself down, not the team. Tournament wrestling is individual accomplishment. Sure team scores are kept, but it’s individuals that move on based on individual success.
Was there anything Basa could have done differently the night before? Probably. You can always do things differently.
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The dual-meet nonsense has started again.
Galena High fielded just four wrestlers for its recent dual at Carson High School. Ridiculous. I expect much of the same thing to happen when Carson wrestles Manogue (three matches last year) and Wooster (I believe it was six or seven).
I said this 12 years ago, and I’ll say it again. Duals, at least on the Sierra League side are pretty meaningless. The only meaningful match is Carson against Damonte Ranch. The team who comes away with the win claims the league title because nobody else can beat either of those teams.
I’d like to make a few suggestions. Let’s have a division for the “haves” and one for the “have nots.”
Let’s put Damonte Ranch, Carson, Spanish Springs, McQueen, Reno and Reed in one league, and the rest of the 4A teams would be in the other division. Just think what great duals you could have every Wednesday. You might see duals where you actually have nine or 10 bouts contested. When I mentioned that to a coach, his first concern was regional seeding which is based on league win-loss records. That could be figured out. It wouldn’t be really difficult.
The best thing, really, would be to have one league.
Reno coach Jeff Tomac said the one league format would never fly, partially because teams don’t want to give up a tournament weekend, Reno High included.
Why can’t you wrestle a four-way on a Wednesday? Start at 4 p.m. and don’t have any JV matches. Coaches seem to be stuck on doing the same thing all the time. It drives me nuts.
Multi-team meets are the way to go. It costs a lot to light a gym and rent a bus for a dual that takes 35 minutes to wrestle.
•••
Former Carson High basketball star Rafe King’s senior season at Pacific was cut short when he broke his foot early in the first game of the season.
Current CHS basketball coach Carlos Mendeguia said that he talked to King, and urged him to apply for a medical redshirt.
