Page 13 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 93, No. 2 Winter 2013

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An overdue haircut was all it took for Jeff
King ’01 to lose concentration in the final
match of the 112-pound consolation round
at the 1998 Graves-Kelsey Tournament,
which determines the Independent School
League wrestling champions.
Unranked heading into the tournament,
King, a Third Former, had beaten two
seeded wrestlers to secure his spot in the
consolation bracket, which would deter-
mine third place in the weight class.
“I was ahead by one point with about
20 seconds to go,” recalls King, “and I lifted
my right hand to push the hair out of my
eyes. My opponent attacked my feet and
took me down. Two points, right there, and
he won the match – all because I lost my
concentration for a split second. Literally,
a split second. No other sport punishes
you for a slip in concentration as
much as wrestling.”
PHOTO BY GEOFF FORESTER
The Kentucky Derby is billed as the
“fastest two minutes in sports” for the
speed, anticipation, and excitement it
creates in its approximate annual life
of 120 seconds. Lesser known (except to
those who have experienced them) – or
heralded – may be two of the toughest
minutes in sports. And in wrestling, if
one survives an entire match, there are
three two-minute rounds, each requiring
the ultimate focus and physical exertion,
as Jeff King painfully recalls.
“Those two minutes in a word?” asks
King. “Ridiculous. I’ve never been as tired
in my whole life, mentally and physically.
There’s no downtime in a wrestling match.
There are no teammates to rely on. You
can’t pass the ball up the field and grab
a breather. It’s just you and another guy
and, if you take a break for even a second,
you can lose the match.”
The key to it all, according to longtime
SPS wrestling coach Scott Heitmiller ’81
is pure preparation. You can’t train for a
5K and expect to finish a marathon. Team
practices have long reflected that men-
tality. They begin each day with the Big
Red wrestlers moving continuously from
side-to-side on an SPS-insignia mat in
the Multipurpose Room of the Athletic
and Fitness Center. With music blaring,
they jog, run, skip, weave, somersault,
and jumping-jack their way back and
forth – for 20 minutes. There are push-
ups and sit-ups, and the dreaded (but
appreciated) two-minute sprint. Practice
transitions into continuous drilling with
partners to simulate match situations.
As in a match, there is little or no rest.
“It causes them to hit their wall,” explains
Heitmiller, who took over an already suc-
cessful wrestling program in 1998 from
former SPS faculty member John Buxton.
“We have to create the same atmosphere
in practice that they’ll see in a match. We
put them through a lot of hard work. We
will never, ever lose because we are out
of shape. If a team beats us, it’s because
they are better.”