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The PWN Annual All-Name Wrestling Team
By Joe Baranik, April 2010

     It is time once again for the 2010 PA Wrestling Newsmagazine All-Name Wrestling Team.  What’s in a name?  You would be surprised!  These are names that can relate to wrestling.  These names are great for announcers; they roll off your tongue and attack you.  Do you have to have a wrestling name to be good?  No, but it helps.  With no further stalling, here is the 2010 team.

     We start off the list with Randy Cruz, a sophomore from Bethlehem Catholic.  Randy “Cruised” to the semi-finals with his 37^th win of the year with a fall, 7-2 decision and a 9-2 decision before going off of “Cruz control” and being up-ended by David White of Athens in the finals 5-3 at 112 lbs.

     We stay at 112 with Colt Cotten from Benton.  This young colt may only be a freshman, but there is nothing soft about him.  He bucked the competition to the tune of 35 wins this year and a 5^th place finish.       Not bad for a softy!  Then there is Cameron Fine, a senior out of Elizabeth Forward; he’s “mighty fine” as this well oiled machine placed a fine 6^th at 152 and won 39 matches.  I must ask though, what if Fine wrestled Cotten in a match-would the announcer say “now wrestling Fine/Cotten?”  Not a bad Hanes commercial!

     Do you shop till you drop?  Well you don’t have to “schopp around” for a good fight, look not further than A.J. Schopp, the 3x finalist and 2010 state champion from Tyrone.  Schopp will drop you like a bad habit.

     How about Dirk Cowburn, it has that rugged cowboy sound.  Cowburn from Coudersport won a state title last year and won the silver this year at 160 lbs.  Though Cowburn will wrestle at Penn St., what if he wrestled for the Cowboys of Okie State?  Get’em Dirk!  Then there is Marshall Peppelman, the 3x state champion from Central Dauphin.  There will be a new sheriff in town when “The Marshall” goes to Cornell.  With 181 career wins, he could win the “Big Badge.”  Sticking with CD, what if junior, Kenny Courts played basketball?  He would be “King of the Court” with his 42-0 record and state championship.  It is a good thing he found the mats vs. the hardwood, he is a slam dunk when it comes to wrestling.

     Next my friend is Travis Friend at 215 for Cumberland Valley.  How can a combatant be your “Friend?”  On the mat, he is anything but your Friend!  He was All-State my friend, placing 8^th.

     A great name out of state is Joey Dance from Christiansburg, VA.  Can you imagine the possibilities?  He is dancing around the mat like a heavyweight, he has made it to the finals, and Joey is in the Big Dance!

     On the college scene we look up to 2x AA Jarrod King of Edinboro by way of Connellsville HS.  What if King went to Columbia University to wrestle for the Lions?  Would he be the “Lion King?”  I know one thing; this national champ is King of the mat at 165 lbs.  One of my other favorite college names is Tucker Lane out of Nebraska.  The name fits the heavyweight category, has a nice ring to it.  If you are wrestling with “Lane,” you are definitely in the wrong Lane!  We will hear more from this sophomore who placed 3^rd in the Big 12.  And a “Doozy” of a kid is Konrad Dudziak (285) of the Duke Blue Devils.  The “Dude” who was NCAA runner-up last year didn’t have quite a doozy of a year this time around as he placed 4^th.  Finally, there is Jarion Beets.  Well, we know his favorite vegetable, but the junior “Beets” most opponents as he won the Western Regional for Northern Iowa.

Team Mascots

     Since were talking about names, let’s take a look at some unique mascots or nicknames.

Here is my top 10:

1)       Easton “Red Rovers.”  The Nazareth wrestling fans used to chant ‘Red Rover, Red Rover send Bobby Weaver right over!’

2)       Northeast “Grape Pickers.”  Does picking grapes help your grip strength?  Just wondering.

3)       Northampton “Koncrete Kids.”  What a great name for wrestling.  Solid and unbreakable.  They even re-named the wrestling maneuver “The Cement Job” and invented the “Cement Mixer.”  Wouldn’t it be cool if Mason Beckman, the state champion from Reynolds, wrestled for the Koncrete Kids?

4)       Nazareth “Blue Eagles.”  I never saw a blue eagle, but I guess they are from Blue Mountain or Blue Ridge.  What if you defeated a Blue Eagle, would you be a Blue Devil?

5)       The Boiling Springs “Bubblers.”  You can imagine the celebrations!

6)       Punxsutawney “Woodchucks” or “Chucks” for short.  We can’t leave out the famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil!  Every time he sees his shadow, there is six more weeks of wrestling.

7)       Selinsgrove “Seals.”  Doesn’t really fit the area, and except for the sound they make, they are not very hostile.

8)       Gateway “Gators.”  Sounds good, very ferocious, but like the Seals, not many Gators in Pittsburgh.  Although, there is the “Gator Roll,” not to be confused with the “Granby Roll.”

9)       The Smethport “Hubbers.”.  It represents the “Hub” of McKean County.  Maybe someday it will be the hub of wrestling like Mat-Town USA in Lock Haven.

10)   Thiel “Tomcats.”  Ran out of unique high school names and went to an unusual college mascot.  Believed to be the only college with this mascot.  What if it was a female cat, would they be called the Thiel “Tammiecats?”