The curious case of Paul Donahoe

Paul Donahoe was a wrestler at the University of Nebraska, who was thrown off the team because he posed for and appeared in a video involving gay porn. Donahoe has since transferred to Edinboro University. ESPN taped his story for their "Outside The Lines" and posted a lengthy story on the situation on the Web site.

Here is the link.


http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/otl/news/story?id=4242983

Bove back in at Ringgold

Bob Bove was hired again to coach Ringgold's wrestling program. Bove coached the Rams for eight seasons before taking the same position at McGuffey in 2005.

Bove replaces Luke Smith, who resigned after the season because of family obligations. Bove was an assistant coach on Smith’s staff last season.
Ringgold finished last season with an 18-10 record and earned a spot in the WPIAL Class AAA Team Tournament in Section 4B. Smith, a Ringgold graduate, had coached at his alma mater for four seasons.

On another front, Burgettstown will hire someone to coach its wrestling team, possibly Terry Havelka. Havelka took last year off to watch his son Jeff compete at the University of Findlay. Terry was supposed to return for this season but the NCAA might grant his son another year of eligibility because of an injury-filled 2007 season.

The NCAA has been dragging its feet on the matter. If the NCAA refuses the extra year, Havelka will probably return. If the grant the extra year, Havelka will probably be a volunteer assistant.

Matt Midea dies

Former Wash High wrestling and football coach Matt Midea died Sunday at age 78. Midea was the head wrestling coach for nine seasons before retiring in 1998 but spent 19 years in the program. He led the Prexies to two WPIAL Class AA Team Tournament titles and was in the corner when Aaron Gatten won two individual gold medals. At one point, Wash High advanced a wrestler to the state finals in five consecutive seasons under Midea.

What impressed me most, however, is how he carried himself during his career. He was outgoing, friendly and could laugh at himself. He also was an intense competitor and could chew a wrestler out when the need arose but it never carried over to the next match.

I enjoyed working with him because he was smart, knew the sport and had a unique quality to be comfortable in any situation. He was fun to be around. Matt might have stayed a while longer coaching wrestling but the PIAA did not permit retiring teachers to keep coaching jobs. What a stupid rule.

A viewing is going to be held from 2 to 8 p.m., Thursday at Warco-Falvo Funeral Home in Washington and the funeral is Friday.

Here is a link to the column I wrote for the paper:

http://www.observer-reporter.com/OR/Story/06-16-Midea-dies-column

Koscheck a character

Josh Koscheck has made quite a career from his wrestling roots at Waynesburg High School that sprouted into the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Maybe the pinnacle came with the release of the 2009 UFC Video Game.

Koscheck, who has been carving out a living beating on other UFC contestants in the cage, has been given a place of honor in the game. He is one of the characters in the game. I have not had the chance to play the game but I imagine it is like the typical sports video games that on the market.

Simply select Koscheck's image and then watch as you bash the other guy into a coma.

You can watch the trailer for the video game on Youtube. Here's the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuZRjbGNffk

On the competition front, Koscheck is reportedly going to sign on to fight Frank Trigg on Sept. 26 at UFC 103 in a welterweight bout.

Wrestling change

Not that you would be able to find information about this on the PIAA web site, but the PIAA has voted to not release the predrawn brackets for the individual wrestling tournament until the weekend before the start of the tournament. Normally, the brackets would appear on the PIAA Web site, showing the district matchups for the tournament. For example, if a wrestler was third in the WPIAL (District 7), he could go the predrawn bracket and see what place wrestler from another district he will have to wrestle in the first round.

Apparently, some wrestlers were attempting to manipulate where they would be in the bracket by either forfeiting out or simply losing on purpose. If a wrestler knew that there was a good chance a defending state champion was going to be on his side of the bracket, he might be able to manipulate his way to into the other side of the bracket.

The other problem that was popping up was that some districts finished their tournaments two weeks before the state tournament while others were done on the weekend before the state event. Wrestlers or coaches would be able to attend other district tournaments to scout their future opponent.

The PIAA posted the predrawn brackets on its Web site, normally around the start of the season.

I'd like to give you a little more information on this but the minutes to the PIAA meeting is not on the organization's Web site. At least, I can't find it. That's not all that surprising because this Web site was put together by someone who failed to go to Web site construction school.