Here's the way I look at duals — on both sides of the issue!

The last year I was at Immaculata, we had four decent kids, a couple more that were .500 or better and a couple more who won their share. Then I had a couple of freshmen that were green — for more than just their singlet!

We didn't have a good dual record, but we usually only covered 10 weights. But what our measuring stick was who won the most actual matches. In that respect, instead of 3-8-1 in duals we were 8-4 (Lansing, Tongie, SFT and Atchison were the only "real" losses). Insofar as I was concerned, they were wins. And on the other hand, I coached meets in which we won by 15 and got three forfeits; on the mat we didn't win, but it still counts.

Actually one of my favorite dual "wins" as a coach was that year. We were at Mill Valley for a double dual. We beat Perry-Lecompton in the first match, then tied Mill Valley 42-42 when my heavyweight got a fall in the last match. We had seven pins and they had three pins and four forfeits. It was the year before they used tie-breaker criteria to decide the winner in duals, and under it we would have won. So even though officially it was tie, as far as we were concerned we won.