Feb. 13--Brother Rice won the first regional in program history last weekend, but that might not even have been the biggest news for the Crusaders in the last year.
Rice dedicated its new wrestling room last spring, and there was a special guest on hand to speak: former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
What brought an ex-Cabinet member to Mount Greenwood? His longtime friendship with Rice coach Bill Weick.
"In 1948-49, he wrestled at New Trier, I was at Tilden," Weick said. "(The teams) wrestled against each other."
Rumsfeld earned a state medal in 1950, taking fourth at 145 pounds, before going on to a long and successful political career. Weick won the 155-pound title for Tilden in 1949.
Weick stayed with wrestling, putting together one of the sport's greatest resumes: a state title and two NCAA titles (at Northern Iowa) as a competitor, as well as coaching stints for five U.S. Olympic teams, leading the U.S. team to victory in the 1975 Pan American Games and guiding Mount Carmel to three state titles.
The pair stayed in touch over the years and Rumsfeld was glad to mark another milestone for Weick. In fact, the veteran coach is just as excited about what's been happening at Rice as at any of his higher-profile gigs.
Winning the Class 3A Hubbard Regional counts as the greatest achievement in a program that launched in 1973 and saw little success before Weick arrived in 2003.
Then, the Crusaders were a Catholic League also-ran with low numbers. Weick recalls bringing a Mount Carmel team to a Saturday dual and finding Rice had only five wrestlers.
Then, the school's small wrestling area was enough. But with participation on the rise, it was time for something better.
"The other room was a half-size room," Weick said. "This one, we can have 30 kids going at the same time."
Weick credits the support of Rice's administration and the work of his four assistants -- Jan Murzyn, Matt McNaughton, Andrew Curran and Marty Burke -- for helping raise the program's profile.
It also helps to have some talent.
Sophomore Hassan Johnson is a returning state qualifier who's ranked No. 3 among Class 3A 106-pounders by IllinoisMatmen.com.
"I've told him he's a state champ if he wants to be," Weick said. "Wrestling is so mental. It's all about you having a takedown and a set-up, shooting 100 percent. He's as good as Rudy Yates was."
Yates, now a Sandburg senior chasing his third state title, was an undefeated state champ for Rice before transferring.
Johnson was one of five regional champs for the Crusaders. Another was Dominick Capron, who avenged an 11-3 loss to St. Rita's Victor Keane at the Catholic League Tournament, winning the rematch 9-8 in the 160 regional final.
Dan Caulfield (132), Jake Hutchinson (170) and Scott Sierzega (195) also won regional titles for the Crusaders.
"Very, very pleasing," Weick said. "These kids battled like hell."
Numbers game: Under IHSA policy, wrestling -- like the other three-class sports -- has a third of participating schools in Class 1A, a third in 2A and a third in 3A.
But that hasn't translated into equal opportunity for competitors chasing berths in the state tournament later this month.
Smaller schools had plenty of problems filling their lineups at the 1A and 2A regionals. At St. Laurence in 2A, there were one-man brackets at 106 and 113 pounds, meaning those wrestlers merely had to show up and make weight to walk off with a regional title.
There were two- and three-man brackets elsewhere, allowing all participating wrestlers to move on to this week's sectionals. The road to advance was a lot rougher in 3A, where many teams had full or almost-full lineups.
Changing the number of schools assigned to each class would require action by the IHSA board of directors.
"For a long time when we had two classes, we didn't have equal percentages of schools (in each class)," IHSA executive director and wrestling administrator Craig Anderson said. "It may swing back to that: 'Participation numbers (in lower classes) are limited, so let's adjust this percentage.'"
In the meantime, some 1A and 2A wrestlers will get a second chance. Alternates -- fourth-place finishers at regionals with bigger brackets -- will get the chance to fill incomplete brackets in the 2A Antioch Sectional and 1A Lisle Sectional.
mclark@tribpub.com
