St. Christopher's School Wrestling

One of the legends of amateur wrestling, Wade Schalles, is going to put on a clinic on Tuesday, April 7th at St. Chris and I am excited! Schalles was one of the most dynamic, unorthodox, exciting wrestlers in the WORLD! The guy pinned everybody. He taped an X on the mat before a college match at Clarion University to show where he was going to pin his opponent. And you know what? He did just that! Schalles is a Distinguished Member of the National Hall of Fame and a pretty cool guy in my book. Although I never got to watch him wrestle in person, I knew of the legend of "Wonderous Wade" because we wrestled in the same district in high school. (Of course Wade wrestled college in the early 70s, when I was an infant). There are two things I remember about Wade Schalles; the first was about how the legend became the legend, and the other is a personal story involving Wade.

Believe it or not, Wade was "just" an "above average" wrestler entering his senior year of high school at Hollidaysburg in central Pennsylvania. He qualified for the PIAA States and made it to the finals. His opponent was Trinity's returning State champion John Chapman. Chapman was an outstanding wrestler- one of those supposed "unbeatable" wrestlers. This did not faze the ever confident Wade Schalles. He went out in front of a packed house at Penn State Univesity's Rec Hall and showed the returning State champion the lights. I think this pin is what really started the show for Wade. He went on to win NCAA titles at Clarion University and became the pinning machine..

After my freshman year of high school, I got a phone call from a relative stranger; he introduced himself as Wade Schalles. I was a student of the sport, so I knew all about his wrestling record. He called to invite me to a camp he was going to put on in Grundy, VA for the local kids. Grundy was the best AA team in Virginia at the time, so it was quite an honor to be selected to work his camp. A group of my peers from central Pennylvania were also selected to work the camp, so it was like going to a camp with a bunch of friends. Wade met us at a small airport near Altoona, PA where a Lear-Jet was waiting for us. A Lear-Jet! Apparently, the Grundy wrestling benefactor was extremely wealthy from all of the coal mines in southwest Virginia. For Schalles to invite me to work his camp was quite an honor. We all had a great time working at the camp; the mornings were spent working with the little kids and the afternoon was a live wrestling session with the Grundy wrestlers. I was impressed with Wade's technique and penchant for camraderie amongst wrestlers. The Grundy camp was quite an experience. What a very classy guy! Ironically, the following year at Nationals I had to wrestle the Grundy wrestler whom I stayed with at camp! We exchanged pleasantries before I went out and tech falled him in less than two minutes.

If you can make it out to the clinic- please do! You will get an opportunity to see one of the legends of the sport show his stuff to US at St. Chris. We don't get many opportunities like that in Virginia. It's going to be fun.