Our 103-pounder was sick with the flu, and I didn't have a replacement. Fortunately, the forfeit didn't hurt us. |
Ryan had a little more pressure on him this year. He wrestled a little tentatively and didn't open up the entire tournament. He realized that. He knows if he doesn't open up at states, he won't place. |
Ryan knew we needed something big and he pumped up the team and our fans. Ryan has won a lot of things, but that was probably, to him, the most exciting win he's had. |
The Central Mountain tournament was much stronger than it's been in the past. And we got some kids banged up. |
The only difference (Saturday) was I was jumping up and down. I was sick as a dog on Friday and I was fortunate the best medicine I could have had was a win against Connellsville. |
The Steelers had to beat the top three seeds in the AFC. We had to beat two of the top three teams and a team that upset the No. 4 seed. |
This is unbelievable and so exciting. We got banged up a little bit. This is all new to us, so we're going to try to enjoy this as much as we can and keep praying. |
Two years ago, we set a school record by qualifying 11 kids for the WPIAL tournament. Last year, we had 10 qualify. That's 21 in two years. It will be very tough to match that total this year. |
We are a stronger dual-meet team than a tournament team. We don't have a lot of big guns. What we have is a lot of foot soldiers that work very hard. |
We are two proven programs going at it for the section lead. Both teams are looking forward to this match. Anytime we wrestle Latrobe, you can throw out the records, because almost anything can happen. |
We both won a title that nobody thought we would win. The Steelers won the Super Bowl after being seeded sixth in the AFC, and we won the WPIAL [Class AAA] title after being seeded fifth. |
We had to get a split there. The coaches and I worked things out before the match and every time it came out 7-7 in matches. We just got enough bonus points. |
We kept in it and I'm so proud of these kids. It's just amazing. |
We're just happy to be in the semifinals, and we're happy to be meeting Connellsville. The 1995 team had a lot of balance, and I would compare other teams to that one. These guys can be mentioned in the same breath as that team. |
We're looking at a pretty tough schedule. New competition is going to be a test. |