[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Wrestlers spendtheir hungry, thirsty, angry nights alone.They crawl into the cornersof their beds, balled up and waiting for morning to come so theycan work out again and then, finally, allow themselves a little food.They suffer their defeats in full public view, with no one to help, noone to take away the shame of giving up points from their teams;and when they do win, their victories will be the most short-livedthings in the world, because tomorrow begins another week, andanother week brings hunger and pain and sweat and uncertainty.And no one understands that more intimately than their brotherson the team.How could anyone, really? It s the most exclusive clubin the sports world.And that, to Streicher, is what makes it sacred.It is Doug s job to see that his young charges understand theyare doing God s work, or at least the work of the patron saint ofanonymous labor.The slogans and sayings taped and pinned to hiswalls at Linn-Mar make that plain.On one wall rests a long odeto the loneliness of the wrestler, this man among children.Here,inside the room, reside martyrs to the cause of superior condi-tioning, people who will work harder for it and want it morebadly than anyone on the planet.And Jay believes in that ethosstraight down the line.He welcomes the world s indifference.Hewill make them notice.In the end, they ll have no choice but toacknowledge what he has accomplished.Jay doesn t feel like messing around, but maybe that s because it is alreadyFebruary 3 and the calendar is moving so rapidly toward Des 84 / FOUR DAYS TO GLORYMoines exactly twenty days, now, before Jay s anticipated firstmatch at State.Maybe it s because he hasn t had enough matchesyet to feel fully comfortable in what he s trying to do, what he isgoing for.Or maybe, judging by his sidelong glances toward thebleachers at Iowa City High School, it is because he knows Gableis sitting over there to watch.Gable s presence at the school isn t necessarily a shocking thing.City High sits just down the road from the university itself.This isGable s school, more or less.It s the place where the legend is most aptto wander through, in part because one of his daughters attends, inpart because it isn t much more than a few blocks from his home, andin part because City High, under coach Brad Smith, has consistentlyput together a competitive at times excellent team.Jay doesn t care why Gable is here, only that he is.The truth is,Jay doesn t have the slightest idea of Gable s opinion of him.Gablemust know who he is, because everybody in Iowa wrestling knowswho Jay is.Gable undoubtedly knows Jay won t be taking classes inIowa City this fall, because that s Gable s job, to know that sort ofthing.But Jay wouldn t miss this opportunity to show Gable what theUniversity of Iowa is going to be missing.He will, tonight, face CityHigh s Josh Keller, and this match will be over before it begins.Jay attacks first, spearing one of his opponent s legs almost im-mediately after the whistle; Keller, who is no bag of rocks, is tryingto scramble away from a lockdown almost before anyone realizes thetwo seniors have begun the first period.It is Senior Night for IowaCity at the gym, which makes it officially a bad time for Keller to lose.He s the 171-pounder for his team, so he s the one who has to be outthere.The other guy on the mat right now has three state titles andstill manages to wear a chip on the shoulder.Josh can do the math.Once he goes into match mode, Jay never looks anywherenear the place where Gable sits, because he would never do that.It is disrespectful, for one thing.Besides, he knows that Gable,along with everyone else inside the City High gymnasium, will The Ghosts of Gable / 85be looking his way, just as they look at his longtime friend, City sKyle Anson, in the 125-pound match.Kyle is another of thosewrestlers with greatness attached to his resume, another onewhom the people watch because they already know they will befollowing him again in Des Moines a few weeks hence.Kyle is awonderful wrestler, all guts and heart, technically just so sound.He won t be attending the University of Iowa, either.By the time Jay drives Josh Keller hard to the mat early in thefirst period, the mystery has been taken out of the match.Jay takesJosh down again several seconds later, then uses his arms to leverKeller onto his back.Jay relies upon his legs, which have become hismost powerful attribute, to do the heavy work, slowly inching hisopponent into position to expose Keller s shoulders to the mat andthen plant them there.The strength in Jay s arms prevents Keller fromsquirming free.The pin, when it comes, is almost a relief after watch-ing Josh struggle to gain a toehold or find some daylight.It is Jay s giftas a wrestler: He has become a master of anticipation and adjustment.He makes the little moves, almost imperceptible, that expose his op-ponent.He can get himself out of a jam with what appears to be theslightest realignment of his knees, or the direction a foot is pointing.Against Keller, he has sprung back and forth around his opponent shunched-down body on the mat, looking for that small opening, andfinally has found it: a knee plunged into Josh s flank, which forcesopen just enough room for Jay to thrust his right arm under the leftarm of Keller.It is this move that eventually forces Josh onto his backand out of the match. Iowa could have had that, Jay says later. It s the only placeI ever thought about going. It only makes him one of the thousands.The one sure thing, all the way through the journey, was that the Iowacampus was the final destination.Jay knew that from the start, 86 / FOUR DAYS TO GLORYand so did Dan, and so did Mitch Mueller and Kyle Anson andRyan Morningstar and Joey Slaton, and their parents, and most oftheir friends, and their coaches and pretty much straight downthe line anyone who knew the first thing about them.Theywere kids and they were going to achieve greatness; and in time itwould be the University of Iowa that came for them.They wouldgo in together, this collective of talent, all of them pushing eachother to greater heights [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Wrestlers spendtheir hungry, thirsty, angry nights alone.They crawl into the cornersof their beds, balled up and waiting for morning to come so theycan work out again and then, finally, allow themselves a little food.They suffer their defeats in full public view, with no one to help, noone to take away the shame of giving up points from their teams;and when they do win, their victories will be the most short-livedthings in the world, because tomorrow begins another week, andanother week brings hunger and pain and sweat and uncertainty.And no one understands that more intimately than their brotherson the team.How could anyone, really? It s the most exclusive clubin the sports world.And that, to Streicher, is what makes it sacred.It is Doug s job to see that his young charges understand theyare doing God s work, or at least the work of the patron saint ofanonymous labor.The slogans and sayings taped and pinned to hiswalls at Linn-Mar make that plain.On one wall rests a long odeto the loneliness of the wrestler, this man among children.Here,inside the room, reside martyrs to the cause of superior condi-tioning, people who will work harder for it and want it morebadly than anyone on the planet.And Jay believes in that ethosstraight down the line.He welcomes the world s indifference.Hewill make them notice.In the end, they ll have no choice but toacknowledge what he has accomplished.Jay doesn t feel like messing around, but maybe that s because it is alreadyFebruary 3 and the calendar is moving so rapidly toward Des 84 / FOUR DAYS TO GLORYMoines exactly twenty days, now, before Jay s anticipated firstmatch at State.Maybe it s because he hasn t had enough matchesyet to feel fully comfortable in what he s trying to do, what he isgoing for.Or maybe, judging by his sidelong glances toward thebleachers at Iowa City High School, it is because he knows Gableis sitting over there to watch.Gable s presence at the school isn t necessarily a shocking thing.City High sits just down the road from the university itself.This isGable s school, more or less.It s the place where the legend is most aptto wander through, in part because one of his daughters attends, inpart because it isn t much more than a few blocks from his home, andin part because City High, under coach Brad Smith, has consistentlyput together a competitive at times excellent team.Jay doesn t care why Gable is here, only that he is.The truth is,Jay doesn t have the slightest idea of Gable s opinion of him.Gablemust know who he is, because everybody in Iowa wrestling knowswho Jay is.Gable undoubtedly knows Jay won t be taking classes inIowa City this fall, because that s Gable s job, to know that sort ofthing.But Jay wouldn t miss this opportunity to show Gable what theUniversity of Iowa is going to be missing.He will, tonight, face CityHigh s Josh Keller, and this match will be over before it begins.Jay attacks first, spearing one of his opponent s legs almost im-mediately after the whistle; Keller, who is no bag of rocks, is tryingto scramble away from a lockdown almost before anyone realizes thetwo seniors have begun the first period.It is Senior Night for IowaCity at the gym, which makes it officially a bad time for Keller to lose.He s the 171-pounder for his team, so he s the one who has to be outthere.The other guy on the mat right now has three state titles andstill manages to wear a chip on the shoulder.Josh can do the math.Once he goes into match mode, Jay never looks anywherenear the place where Gable sits, because he would never do that.It is disrespectful, for one thing.Besides, he knows that Gable,along with everyone else inside the City High gymnasium, will The Ghosts of Gable / 85be looking his way, just as they look at his longtime friend, City sKyle Anson, in the 125-pound match.Kyle is another of thosewrestlers with greatness attached to his resume, another onewhom the people watch because they already know they will befollowing him again in Des Moines a few weeks hence.Kyle is awonderful wrestler, all guts and heart, technically just so sound.He won t be attending the University of Iowa, either.By the time Jay drives Josh Keller hard to the mat early in thefirst period, the mystery has been taken out of the match.Jay takesJosh down again several seconds later, then uses his arms to leverKeller onto his back.Jay relies upon his legs, which have become hismost powerful attribute, to do the heavy work, slowly inching hisopponent into position to expose Keller s shoulders to the mat andthen plant them there.The strength in Jay s arms prevents Keller fromsquirming free.The pin, when it comes, is almost a relief after watch-ing Josh struggle to gain a toehold or find some daylight.It is Jay s giftas a wrestler: He has become a master of anticipation and adjustment.He makes the little moves, almost imperceptible, that expose his op-ponent.He can get himself out of a jam with what appears to be theslightest realignment of his knees, or the direction a foot is pointing.Against Keller, he has sprung back and forth around his opponent shunched-down body on the mat, looking for that small opening, andfinally has found it: a knee plunged into Josh s flank, which forcesopen just enough room for Jay to thrust his right arm under the leftarm of Keller.It is this move that eventually forces Josh onto his backand out of the match. Iowa could have had that, Jay says later. It s the only placeI ever thought about going. It only makes him one of the thousands.The one sure thing, all the way through the journey, was that the Iowacampus was the final destination.Jay knew that from the start, 86 / FOUR DAYS TO GLORYand so did Dan, and so did Mitch Mueller and Kyle Anson andRyan Morningstar and Joey Slaton, and their parents, and most oftheir friends, and their coaches and pretty much straight downthe line anyone who knew the first thing about them.Theywere kids and they were going to achieve greatness; and in time itwould be the University of Iowa that came for them.They wouldgo in together, this collective of talent, all of them pushing eachother to greater heights [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]