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PA Profile-Matt Dragon (April 2005)
by Todd Irwin
In
addition to having one of the coolest wrestling names, Matt Dragon has one
of the most impressing wrestling resumes in state history.
With a 166-11 career record at Lake-Lehman High School,
he's District 2's winningest wrestler and fourth on the state's career win
list.
Dragon captured four District 2 titles at four
different weights (119, 130, 145 and 152) and he's the first from the
district to win three Northeast Regional Class AA Tournament crowns.
But, the only thing that was missing from that resume was a state title.
Dragon had reached the semifinals of the PIAA Championships the previous two
years, but he couldn't get that win he needed to reach the finals. He placed
third as a junior and fifth as a sophomore in Hershey.
Dragon finally added the "state champion" to that resume in March in
convincing fashion. He won the 152-pound title by outscoring his four
opponents 62-12, including a 17-1 technical fall over Pius X's James
Sciascia in 2:58 in the finals.
Dragon, who is Lake-Lehman's first state champion since
Ricky and Rocky Bonomo and Mike Leskowsky captured gold in 1981, had come so
close to reaching the finals the previous two years.
As a sophomore, he lost to Delone Catholic's eventual
champion Dana Gingerich, 10-7. As a junior, he dropped a 6-4 decision to
Jefferson-Morgan's Aaron Jennings in the semis.
"It definitely prepared me for this year," Dragon said
of the semifinal losses. "It was really tough losing.
It definitely made me stronger as a person and better
to compete here at Hershey. It's just a tough environment. It's survival of
the fittest."
"He remained so focused," Lake-Lehman coach Phil Lipski
said. "Those (losses) were disappointing. We felt we could win those. We
felt he should have been here as a freshman. When you have a kid that works
as hard as Matt does, I think everybody in the stadium was pretty much
pulling for the guy.
"What a way to finish. That was the epitome. He just
does it with so much grace. Those takedowns are so fast, so skilled that
it's just unbelievable. He said right from the beginning that this was going
to happen. I'm just so happy for him."
Dragon, who went 45-0 as a senior, 44-2 as a junior,
42-2 as a sophomore and 34-7 as a freshman after going undefeated in junior
high, didn't show much emotion after winning a state title.
"I just wanted to get it over with," said Dragon, who
admitted afterward that he didn't get much sleep the night before because he
was so nervous.
But, after he won he could hardly imagine what he had
just done.
"It's just a phenomenal feeling," Dragon said. "I've
been working for it the past seven years, and it just finally came true. I
still don't know what happened, what's going on."
Despite Dragon being the clear favorite to win the
weight class this season, Lipski said his star wrestler didn't approach the
tournament that way.
"He takes nothing for granted," Lipski said. "He still
studies the guy we're going to wrestle. He'll try to pick out their
weaknesses. I just continually told him 'I pretty much think that most of
these guys are worrying about what you're doing versus what they're doing.'
"He just has that uncanny ability to stop what
everybody else is doing because he's so offensive-minded. What a fitting way
to end his state run with a state title."
Dragon admitted that he thought about not winning a state title after he had
accompished so much in his career.
"I thought about it many times," he said. "But, you
gotta look at the bright side. You gotta think 'I'm going to win states. I'm
going to do this.' You just gotta keep of those negative thoughts out of
your head. It's hard to do. It's always on your shoulder and you're thinking
about it. You just have to somehow look ahead."
After the state tournament, Dragon nearly pulled off
another big win. In the Dapper Dan Classic, he dropped an 8-7 decision to
Brent Metcalf, a four-time Michigan state champion who amassed a career
record of 228-0. Metcalf had to rally to win the bout.
At the recent, NHSCA Senior Nationals in Cleveland, he
became an All-American by placing fifth at 152, beating Northampton's
three-time Class AAA champion Joey Ecklof, 8-2, in the fifth-place finals.
Dragon will continue his wrestling career at the
University of Pennsylvania. He'll fit in nicely at the Ivy League school.
According to the Times Leader, he's ranked 13th in a class of approximately
170, is a National Honor Society student and he's been accepted into Penn's
prestigious Wharton School of Business.
"I liked the environment. I liked the coaches," Dragon
said. "It's just the total package."
He told the Times Leader "I love wrestling. It means the world to me. But it
will never be more important than academics."
While he will most likely achieve success in the
classroom, Dragon's high school coach predicts he'll do very well on the mat
also.
"He's got a lot of potential," Lipski said in Hershey.
"His next goal is going to be an NCAA Division I
championship. He's got the heart, and he's got the work ethic and the drive
to do it, and I just wish him well. It's once in a lifetime when you get a
kid like this. I've just been fortunate enough to be along the way of a
great kid."
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