Sports

Wrestling

By Dave Rosengrant drosengrant@timesleader.com
Sports Reporter

KINGSTON – It’s not everyday that four athletes on a team from the same school announce intentions to attend Division I colleges.

Then again, Wyoming Seminary doesn’t have an ordinary wrestling program.

On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania State Prep champion Blue Knights announced that four grapplers will continue their athletic and academic careers at NCAA Division I schools.

Headlining the signings is Wilkes-Barre resident Adam Healey (140 pounds), who attended Wyoming Valley West before beginning his career at Seminary in seventh grade. Healey will continue wrestling at Bucknell University.

The team’s three postgraduates – Pat Walsh (285), Austin Clouse (125) and Alan Hull (152) –also accepted offers to D-I programs, with Walsh making the biggest splash.

Walsh, the undefeated Blue Knights great, will wrestle for NCAA national runner-up Ohio State in the fall, while Clouse and Hull are headed to the U.S. Naval Academy and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, respectively.

“When vision becomes reality with four guys signing with Division I schools, it’s a dream come true for me,” said Blue Knights Coach John Gordon. “It’s about trying to help these kids reach their goals, and in this case it happened.”

Healey, who is the career wins leader at Seminary with 198 and the only local of the four, won the state prep tournament this year and placed sixth at the National Prep Tournament. Although he often wondered how high his ceiling could be had he not transferred to the private school, he doesn’t regret his decision.

“If I had stayed (at Valley West), I don’t think I would be at the level I am with Coach Gordon,” Healey said. “I thought about not having the opportunity to wrestle in PIAAs, but once I got here I changed my focus to National Preps because that’s the big thing here, and I just wanted to do good there.”

Bucknell, coached by second-year man Dan Wirnsberger, placed fourth in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association tournament and sent three wrestlers to the NCAA Championships this past season.

Walsh, who won the Massachusetts state championship and New England championship in 2007, was hampered by a back injury his senior year at Stoughton High School and didn’t get any collegiate offers he found fitting. So he opted for postgraduate status at Wyoming Seminary.

He received offers this year from Virginia Tech and Rutgers among others and was ready to make an official visit to Oklahoma, but the coach there was forced to delay Walsh’s trip. As fate would have it, Walsh traveled to Brockport, N.Y., for the Northeast Senior Regional Freestyle championships instead, beat four Division I heavyweights and was spotted by an Ohio State coach.

After making an official visit with the Buckeyes’ team that finished second in the country and crowned two national champions, Walsh fell in love with the Big Ten school.

“At Ohio State the academics were perfect at a level where I think I could achieve my goals,” Walsh said. “And the wrestling team is the best coaching in the world I think for my weight class.

“I wouldn’t have got into Ohio State or a school like Rutgers if I wasn’t prepared at Wyoming Seminary. Their reputation helped me get into the schools I was looking at.”

Clouse was a two-time state finalist in Maryland in high school and will wrestle for the Midshipmen, who finished 21 out of 74 teams in the NCAA Championships.

Hull, out of St. Simons Island, Ga., was runner-up in the Georgia State Championships in 2007. Army, his college choice, and Navy also participate in the EIWA.