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PA Profile of Garrett Scott
By Todd Irwin
     As if opponents of Juniata Valley's two-time Class AA state champion Garrett Scott didn't have enough to worry about walking onto a mat to get their butt kicked.  Now there's this horrifying news: He's more physical.

     "I think we're more powerful than last year," Juniata Valley coach Brad Boyd said, "because he's maturing. Before, he was a slick wrestler. Now, he has the physical bit with it. It's real scary with a kid like that."

     Scott's physical style of wrestling was evident in the 140-pound championship finals of the Zeigler Chevrolet Tournament against Southern Huntingdon's Justin Berrier. Already up 7-0 in the second period, Scott rode hard, using his powerful legs to stretch Berrier, put him in tenuous and painful positions and score back points.

     As Berrier was walking off the mat, he was smiling and shaking his head. It was the look of someone who knew what was coming but was powerless to stop it. Berrier, however, had an offense against Scott.

     Many of the wrestlers Scott has faced this season, Boyd says, have taken a less aggressive approach to taking on the Green Hornet junior this season.

     "What we're running a lot into is kids respect him so much that they're always backing
away," Boyd said. "It's making it hard for Garrett to perform. He's running after them
because they won't wrestle him. I have to give Berrier credit. He gave a pretty good effort.

     "I understand how his competition feels. Hey, he is a two-time state champ, but I'd like to see a kid scrap with him. And then we'll see how good Garrett is."

     Boyd and the rest of the state started to get an idea of how good Scott was as he was
winning four Pennsylvania Junior Wrestling state titles _ the first one in the 10 & under
age division in 1998.

     Battle-tested in junior wrestling, Scott took it another step his freshman year by going
33-2 and winning a 119-pound state title by pinning Brandywine Heights' Matt Guerrieri in
5:56 in the championship finals.

     "It was real great," Scott of winning as a freshman.  "I was a little nervous my freshman year. People didn't think I could do it, but I went out and I got it done."

     "We had high expectations for him," Boyd said. "Now, did I think he had a chance to win four state titles? With the weight class that he had his freshman year, I'm surprised he won it.  I knew he was good enough, but it takes a break or two, and he got them."

     Forest Hills' Jake Strayer getting upset in his first-round bout at the PIAA Championships
could be viewed as one of those breaks. Strayer had beaten Scott in the District 6
Tournament finals, 8-7, and in the Southwest Regional Tournament finals, 10-8 in overtime.

     "Strayer is a good kid and you can't take anything away from him," Boyd said. "I wish we could have gotten to wrestle him at states that year because we were getting closer every time."

     Last year, Scott breezed to district and regional titles and to the state finals, recording
two technical falls and a pin in the first three rounds of the state tournament. In the finals, however, Jeannette's Larry Hall battled him into the overtime tiebreaker, where Scott escaped with six seconds left in the rideout to pull out a 3-2 win.

     "Yeah, it was close, but I knew I could pull it out," Scott said. "I just wanted to wrestle
as hard as I could and get the win."

     It's a wonder that Scott, who went 36-0 last season, even made it to the state tournament last season given that he was wrestling with a broken arm from about midseason on. He didn't discover that injury until X-rays were taken after the season.

     "I just dealt with the pain," Scott said. "Each day I woke up with a sore arm, but I
wrestled anyway. I didn't let (the pain) show. I keep my weaknesses hidden."

     That he has weaknesses at all is debatable. As of Jan. 26, he was 16-0 at 135 and 140 with with 10 pins, including one in a lightning-quick six seconds, four technical falls, a major decision and a forfeit win. The big news regarding Scott in the Zeigler Tournament was that he gave up a point - sort of.

     He was penalized a point in his 14-1 win over Tyrone's Sam McCloskey for using what some might call a chicken wing - an illegal move similar to a bar-arm. Scott didn't give up a point last season until the state tournament, and the penalty point was the first point Scott's given up this season.

     "I don't think it should have been an illegal move," Scott said. "I think it should have
been a potentially dangerous if anything. It kind of made me mad."

     "It was a cheap penalty point," Boyd said. "I usually don't say too much about officials,
but it was a real poor call. He (the official) said he wrenched the arm up, and he didn't.
The kid's arm was on his back."

     You know a wrestler has a lot of talent when he's miffed about giving up a point in 14-1
win. The talent has been there most likely since he started wrestling when he was in
kindergarten.

     "It just comes so natural to him," Boyd said.  "Wrestling is the best thing God gave him."

     The one thing Scott is missing this year is his cousin, Brock, who made it to the 125 pound state finals last year before losing to Strayer, 15-5. 

  "Me and Brock were workout partners ever since we were both 9 years old," Garrett said. "I have nobody in our wrestling room that can really push me, so Brock was a big asset to me.  I think we both benefited from each other."

     While he still has to win another state title this season, Scott has a shot at becoming only the 10th wrestler in Pennsylvania to win four state titles, and the first since McGuffey's
Jeremy Hunter claimed his fourth in 1996. Scott has another bit of history in mind.
"I want to be the first one to win it at four different weights," he said. "I think it's very possible as long as I keep doing what I'm doing now, push myself, keep myself focused, stay healthy and don't do anything stupid to get into trouble."

Todd Irwin is the wrestling writer for the Altoona Mirror.

The above profile was printed in the February 2005 issue of PWN.