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PA Profile of Quentin Wright
By Todd Irwin,
Pennsylvania Wrestling Newsmagazine, February 2007
Quentin Wright is only a junior, but
many Division I wrestling programs, including most of the Big Ten Conference
teams, are recruiting the Bald Eagle Area wrestler.
Wright finished second at 145
pounds in last season's PIAA Class AAA Championships. But Wright really opened
some eyes at the beginning of this season when he wrestled in some open
tournaments against college wrestlers.
After wrestling in the Mat-Town
USA Open on Nov. 25, he went to the Penn State Open, went 6-1 and finished
fifth, beating PSU freshman Bubba Jenkins along the way and losing only to Lock
Haven University's Seth Martin in the quarterfinals.
"Actually, my brother (Landis)
did it last year," Wright said. "My dad said I should do it this year. It gave
me a lot of confidence. I was thinking 'If I can hang with these guys, I can
hang with anybody on the high school level.' I was excited about placing fifth."
A couple weeks later, he went to
Millersville University and won the Shorty Hitchcock Open. Since then, he's won
his second title at the prestigious Beast of the East at 160 and as of Feb. 9
was 28-0 with 17 pins against high school competition.
"I've been wrestling very well,"
Wright said. "During the summer, I wrestled twice a week, but I focused on
weight training. I'm realizing how much that paid off. When I wrestled the
college kids, I realized those guys aren't much stronger than me."
"He's doing a great job," BEA
coach Skip Pighetti said. "He's a motivated kid. He wants to get better. He's
always looking for good competition. He's made a name for himself, and now
coaches are forfeiting to him."
Actually, his 100th win was a
forfeit by Bellefonte in the District 6 Team Duals.
"Two matches before that, I
realized they were going to forfeit to me," Wright said. "I was a little down,
but a win is a win. I got my team six points. I can't control what they do."
Wright began wrestling when he
was 7, and by his second year, he was winning a national folkstyle tournament in
Oklahoma. He's been winning tournaments ever since.
Wright jokes that the other
sports he plays are freestyle and Grecco. But he's not all about wrestling. He
plays the piano, trumpet, guitar and, get this, the bagpipes. He made his own
kilt and played the bagpipes at Penn State once.
He's also a singer. He's had
"quite a few" solos, and after his wrestling career is done, he'd like to become
a Christian music singer.
"I'm a big fan of music," he
said. "I just love the Lord with all of my heart. I wouldn't be as successful as
I am without Him. Sunday is my favorite day. I sing up a storm on Sunday."
"Quentin wants to do a whole lot
of everything," Pighetti said. "He's involved in school activities. He was in a
play at the high school. He's a well-rounded person. Playing the bagpipes is
tough. He puts effort into that. He puts effort into the mat. He puts effort
into school. He has his faith, and it drives him forward."
The Wrights previously lived in the State College School District, but they
moved into the Bald Eagle Area School District before Quentin's eighth-grade
year.
"Since wrestling is the main
sport here, it was pretty easy to fit in," Wright said. "It's a smaller school,
and it's just like a big family. Everyone knows everyone. At State College, you
get new friends every year. I'm a family kind of person."
Wright came up to BEA's high
school team as a freshman and won a District 6 Tournament title at 125 and won a
Northwest Regional Tournament title to qualify for the PIAA Championships.
He went 1-2 in Hershey, but his
losses were to Connellsville's eventual champion Steve Bell, 12-9, and to
Easton's eventual third-placer Seth Ciasulli, 7-2. Wright finished his freshman
season with a 39-7 record.
As a sophomore, he tore his
miniscus in the Beast semifinals against Nazareth's Tim Darling, and by the
tiebreaker, he says he couldn't stand. Two days after that, he was operated on,
and less than three weeks later was wrestling in the Cumberland Valley Duals.
"That's when the team needed me,"
Wright said. "I had a very good support staff behind me."
He went on to capture his second district and regional title to get to Hershey.
There, he had two major decisions and survived a 3-1 overtime quarterfinal win
over Council Rock South's Dillon Evans. Darling beat Wright, 8-5, in the finals
to earn his second state title.
"I wasn't surprised that I made
the finals," Wright said, "because I like to go expecting to win. I had a chance
when I had Darling on his back, but I let it slip by."
While he's ranked seventh
nationally by W.I.N. Magazine and eighth by Amateur Wrestling News, he's not
selfish in the wrestling room.
"Quentin drives the whole team,"
Pighetti said. "He's been very good in the room working with the wrestlers."
"I try to teach kids things that
I know," Wright said. "I can be a real friend to them. If they need discipline,
I'll say 'Let's wrestle right now.' "
He has plenty of time to pick a
college. He didn't want to reveal who is recruiting him, but it's probably a
safe bet that national powers like Penn State, Minnesota and Iowa are after him.
"In college, I want to be
surrounded by people like myself," he said. "I want to be the best that I can
be."
Wright wants to wrestle
internationally and eventually make the Olympic team. Before that, however,
he'll go for his second state title in March and his third next season.
"I expect myself to be the state
champ this year," he said. "I expect to go out there and wrestle as hard as I
can. I want to leave everything I have on the mat."
"I expect nothing less than he's
given me," Pighetti said. "I'd like to see him go undefeated and become a state
champion. I'd like to see him finish out on a winning note."
The above profile was printed in the February 2007 issue of PWN.
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