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PA Profile of
Clint Shirk
By Todd Irwin
WINGATE - Sometimes at night, if you're roaming the halls of Bald Eagle Area
High School and you're listening hard enough, you can hear wolves howling.
It's true that hunting is a popular winter activity in
Wingate and the surrounding blue collar communities, but wolves shouldn't be
running loose in the school.
Upon further inspection, you find the howls are coming
from the wrestling room. His teammates are directing the howls toward senior
Clint Shirk, whose nickname is The Wolf.
Probably not too far from him is assistant coach Skip Pighetti, who came up with
the nickname because of Shirk's training style.
"We'd always be running in practice. I run with the
guys and he would always catch me," said Pighetti, who won a class AAA state
title in 1989 at heavyweight at BEA. "So, I called him The Wolf. He's like the
predator and I was his prey."
The wolf, however, does more than run at the head of
the pack. Head coach Don Peters called him a "coach's dream" recently.
"He goes above and beyond the call of duty," Peters
said. "He's the last one out of the room every night, and it shows. He's very
focused, very goal-oriented and he knows what he wants. Right now, at this
point, it's one thing. He wants a state title.
"He's a very intense kid. You'd like to have 14 Clint
Shirks step out on the mat for you."
Some of Shirk's opponents have probably thought there
have been 14 of him coming at them on the mat this year. As of Feb. 3, Shirk was
24-1 against some rugged competition at 135 pounds.
"I'm not so conservative this year," Shirk said. "I've
opened up more, I'd have to say. I'm finishing my shots a lot more now. I'd get
in last year, but I couldn't finish them off.
"I've been work a lot on finishing my takedowns. It's
coming along. I still have things to do. I'm not perfect or anything. I still
gotta work on some things."
His only setback this season was a 12-6 loss to an Ohio
wrestler, Massillion Perry's Jason Johnstone, in the finals of the prestigious
Brute Beast of the East Tournament.
"Actually, he thought it would be more prestigious to
be a Beast of the East champ than a state champ," Peters said. "He came out a
little shy of that, but there's still a lot of positives that came out of that.
The kid he lost to tech-falled him down there last year."
Shirk was also very happy, and probably very relieved,
that he won a title at the Manheim Tournament. He had finished second there the
previous three years and was tired of taking some good-natured ribbing from his
father, Ken.
"My dad won it back in 1975," Clint Shirk said, "and he
always got on me about him winning it and I always took second. I had to shut
him up."
Like so many other wrestlers, Shirk has been around the
mat for a long time. He says he first started wrestling when he was in
kindergarten. Between then and now, Shirk has honed his skills and become a
superb wrestler.
"We knew the potential was there," Peters said, "and
he's taken it upon himself to develop that potential. He's worked hard to do
it."
His hard work had paid off. Over his four-year career,
Shirk has amassed a 128-24 record, has made three trips to the PIAA
Championships, where he's placed twice, has won two District 6 titles and one
Northwest Regional Tournament title.
Shirk began to flash that brilliant potential as a freshman 103-pounder, going
33-9 and placing third at the District 6 Tournament and at the Northwest
Regional Tournament to qualify for the PIAA Championships.
The next year, he went 31-9, won a 103-pound district
title, took second at regionals and eighth at states.
"He's always been tough on the mat," Peters said, "but
he's come a long way on his feet. We told him years ago when he lost his
freshman and sophomore years, it was on his feet. That's where he's really made
the strides."
Last year, Shirk went 40-5, won district and regional
titles before making it to the state semifinals.
There, Reading's eventual 125-pound champion Charles Griffin beat Shirk 14-4. He
rebounded in the consolation with by winning 1-0 and 3-0 to finish third.
" It was pretty tough," Shirk said of rebounding after
the loss, "but I didn't let that distract me at all. I took it one match at a
time. I wanted to place as high as I could. I'm happy with my ending there last
year."
"I've always said if I was a college coach that's the
guy that I would want on my team," Peters said, "because that kid lost somewhere
along the line and had the heart to bounce back and take that third place. That
says a lot about a kid. He's just that focused. He knows what he has to do."
Shirk says that placing twice in Hershey has helped the mental aspect of his
wrestling.
"I think it boosted my confidence a lot," he said. "Now
I know what to expect when I go down there."
Shirk, a member of Penn State's Nittany Lion Club, has
not only developed on the mat, he's also developed as a leader in the wrestling
room.
"He and Monty Rockey have even run some practices this
year," Peters said. "Anyone steps out of line, they're the first two to put them
back in line. So, he's definitely a team leader."
He's also the top-ranked 135-pounder in the statewide Off The Mat Rankings. But,
you'd never hear Shirk bragging about that fact among his teammates and friends.
"I really don't care too much for rankings," Shirk
said, "because I was never ranked before last year."
As the regular season winds down, the postseason
tournaments loom on the horizon. Along the way, he will most likely break the
school's all-time win record of 138-29, which is held by former teammate Brandon
Guenot.
"I'm not really looking ahead to the rest of the
season," said Shirk, who was in second place on the all-time list in early
February. "I'm just taking it one match at a time. I'm not even worried about
the record right now."
That focus and determination could have The Wolf ready
to make another run toward the top of the medals stand at the Giant Center in
early March.
"He's certainly capable of being a state champ," Peters
said. "He's right there with those guys."
The above profile was printed in the
February 2004 issue of PWN.
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