Southern Scuffle experience

[BHF23]

Hi,

I'm a Penn State guy living in Georgia. I always enjoy going to the Southern Scuffle, and I usually post a (humorous, I hope) recap on the Penn State BWI wrestling message board afterward. I did that earlier today. I won't inflict the whole thing on you here, but I thought you guys might be interested in this particular piece of it:

1. 285: Sometimes, the tournament experience is enhanced in the most unexpected ways. Early on Day One, I was sitting in Section 102 with JonZ and another friend, with pretty much all Penn State people around us. Until a couple (husband and wife James and Debbie, as it turns out) dressed in orange climbed over us to their seats…right next to me. I wasn’t sure if I should start a conversation or a fight, but…well, you probably know me well enough by now to know which direction it took. They actually seemed pretty nice, and by late morning, they trusted me enough to share a horrifying personal secret: they were the parents of OKST 285-pounder Derek White. Hey…we all have our skeletons…so conversation remained friendly through the two-day event, even as it became clear that the tournament would come down to the two Penn Staters, Nevills and Cassar…and Derek White. Mom and Dad behaved acceptably throughout White’s 4-0 semifinal victory over Nevills (Not a given. Debbie found herself on the business end of a headlock from the mother of Derek’s opponent after his high school state final victory over the defending champion. She claims complete innocence in the encounter.) and exhibited an appropriate degree of excitement and enthusiasm…but with no outward gloating…when he took down Cassar 2-1 to win the championship. Clearly, I’m taking some artistic license here. What nice people! By that time, many of the nearby Penn Staters realized who the Whites were, and those who did congratulated them sincerely on Derek’s victory. Sure, we were rooting for our guys (some more vociferously than others), but the final was a good match between two good wrestlers, with a fair result. And in my view, the congratulations offered to the Whites weren’t necessarily just a perfunctory display of good sportsmanship, but those offering them were genuinely happy for these fine folks who had been such good company over the course of the tournament. Derek came up to see them right after the match, so we all congratulated him, as well. For their part, the Whites freely admitted that we (speaking primarily of JonZ and me, I think) treated them far better than we treat each other. Of course, that was only after I threatened to post that James enjoyed JonZ’s singing (of the national anthem) on the message board. (“That’s not what I said! I just said ‘It wasn’t that bad!’ ”) Anyway, I think our guys are going to be OK, I expect Derek will be around at the end in March, and I’m pretty sure we made a couple new friends.
   
   All around great event, once again. Hoping for speedy recoveries for Brock and Rogers. Thanks for listening.

SR/BHF

 

[cbond]

Your account pretty much matches theirs. They are great people and enjoyed sitting around you all.