For those Chapman guys questioning me or should I say 1 guy and the other is a cheerleader according to the profile, maybe you need to get the whole picture. If I didn't care about Chapman I wouldn't come back and support you guys by purchasing shirts, going to tournaments to get bleacher butt, donating money to the Kids clubs which many of you may have taken part in, and even suggestion many of your names to college coaches and not just at UCO my alma mater.

I have great pride in Chapman and love the sport of wrestling...maybe if you look around there are very few former Irish alumns that even give a **** for the team anymore...I gave 4 years on varsity for a team with many people that didn't care to even be there, I was there when it was up to 3 deep in a weight and it wasn't uncommon to wrestle tell you had to crawl out...it was physical, the Real John Boy = John Paul Shepherd and I were best friends and used to come to blows. Maybe it only sunk through to a few people the other day but Coach mentioned something about your conditioning and intensity, he said "you guys should be pushing each other and if someone's not pushing you then you push them"

If you don't understand something ask for help. 1 person that I know of was interested in bettering the team came up to ask if he could get in an extra push after practice, though some of you may use the busses or chores as excuses he didn't because he realizes extra work won't kill you.

As for my loyalty and not talking about myself...I've mentioned before how poor my record was, but some people take wins for granted. I only won 3 matches in college, yet some people don't know my whole story for sticking with the sport. My best friend Corina (from Seward,NE) was one of the few friends I had while in high school... I had met her at a music camp and she was the only person that I thought believed in me at all. After a few years of knowing her, and becoming very close we ended up at Butler together in the Showchoir and singing partners in a few numbers. We toured the country together and I fell in love with her, but she knew that I was in a rut because I missed wrestling so much even working out periodically with a local school. She told me to follow my dreams of trying to letter in college wrestling, and she'd save a place for me in her life. I went on to UCO and went 0-10 the 1st year but had so much happiness because when I was back I went up to State and saw Chapman do extremely well by putting Billy Upham in the finals in 2001.

Come the fall of 2001 everything seemed to be on track for me...I was back up the the #1 ranked guy in the nation, Corina came down and we went on a fantastic date that left me speechless and I had a 2-4 record...then life got strange when 911 hit,then a month later I tore my ACL. Without wrestling, and the nation in a weird mood at that time anyway I was slighty miserable to be around...I ended up having surgery on the 14th of December and come the 23rd of December I got a call right before church...The call was short and brief but erased all my other troubles in an instant, the girl (Corina) that I'd have given my life for, who gave up the possibility of us being together so I can pursue my dreams had been killed on her way home to Nebraska. I was a loose cannon, I had lost the 2 most important things to me in wrestling and Corina. I went to her funeral on Christmas Eve on Crutches, and came back uncertain as to what was in store for me in the new year...I lost my smile, I was never a selfish guy and I became an alcoholic and very violent at times...even though UCO won the National title, and I became Mr. UCO I was unhappy because I still couldn't wrestle and I didn't have the person I love to talk to on the phone. One of my few smiles at all that spring semester (2002) came when I went to watch my beloved Irish at the State wrestling tournament...I was excited to see Ben Smith make it to state as a freshman and nearly place, I remember watching Eric Arveson, Zac Sheets, and Greg Kriesch all make it to the semis, and then Greg becoming only the 3rd person in school's history in the finals. I remember feeling crushed when Zac lost in his semis and then 2 more matches to finish 6th...well below the Champion we all know he's capable of being. I recall a humorous moment where I put the good of the school I was attending against my alma mater when I heard that a guy wrestling for Norton had high interest in UCO...I happend to be wearing UCO stuff that day and was talking to his dad who happend to be the coach of Norton about how great UCO was...but once I found out that his son was going up against Eric Arveson in the semi finals I yelled as loud as I could in support of Arv...I've always bled Green and White deep down within...I cost the team a win in Abilene when I got an unsportsmanlike conduct for celebrating putting us up by only 6 instead of 7 at Abilene and then JP got pinned I was sick to my stomach...everytime we lost I took the blame, when we won it was someone else getting the credit and that's the way I liked it.

As for how I feel on this years team, maybe you'll truly appreciate what I've got to say when you read this Friday's Chapman paper in which I went out of my way to cover both the Herington Dual and Tournament from a Chapman viewpoint instead of letting someone that doesn't understands wrestling and lives in another town attempt to write a report for a team they really don't even care about (it's all dollars and cents for them)If I get any pay from this it will probably be enough to buy a t-shirt for Chapman that I will wear proudly...if that's ok with everyone.