Not many athletes can claim to be all-state in one sport let alone THREE sports....as a SOPHOMORE! Quite impressive to say the least for the young man.
I have to agree, 1st Team All-State Football, 3rd Place* in wrestling, and two all-state performances in track and field as a Sophomore (Everyone know's what the asterik is for
). He is a great kid with a great future if he keeps doing what he is doing.
Growing up, I had the chance to see some pretty good athletes in their youth, high school, or college careers. The three best Indiana High-School multi-sport athletes I could remember are:
1.
Rod Woodson - Ft. Wayne Snider - Track & Field = 4 State Titles, All-State Football in two positions,
Basketball honorable mention all state. College - All-American at Purdue in Football & Track,
Football Hall-of-Fame & NFL all-Century team
2.
Kenny Lofton- East Chicago Washington High School - Basketball State final four, all-state in track,
went on to AZ to help lead their basketball team to final four. HOF Baseball career despite playing about
10 baseball games in college. (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Lofton ) Could have been football
star if he played full time.
3.
Tim Stoddard - East Chicago Washington - Basketball State Champs, All-State baseball. Starter for NC State NCAA Basketball champs, World Series Pitcher for Baltimore Orioles. Stoddard and Lofton may be two of the only athletes to be in NCAA final four and World Series.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_StoddardPhysically I think Gelen has all the tools that those guys had; a natural athlete with size, speed, and guts. When he really learns to perfect the art of practicing, and given another year or two to mature to the finer points of these sports, I think he has the chance to be in that company. Right now, he is a big baby Huhey..the one difference that will come with maturity, is that those guys mentioned above developed into
just ruthless assassins competitively (in a hard and clean way) in the way they prepared and played.
We saw a little bit of that competitive maturing in the 220 semifinals. Against a favored senior, and some pretty poor officiating, Gelen did not try to win by burying his head to earn stalling points for a tie & having his coaches work the officials for 6 minutes; no, he tried to win by throwing the sh!t out of the other guy. Some might have thought 'that was not the smart approach and he kept going to the well too often', but I had to give the kid credit for having the guts to keep trying and not back-down, and be a great sportsman about it when it did not work.
Topic: Wrestlers or former wrestlers making noise in other sports/areas (Read 2708 times)