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Clearfield wrestling program celebrates 75th anniversary
Friday, November 20, 2009
By Lucas Durant Staff Writer
Approximately 200 current and former wrestlers, coaches, and family members from around the country descended on Clearfield Area High School Saturday, but it wasn't in order to compete for any titles.
Most of the gladiators' fighting days had long since passed, but many still bore the battle scars - cauliflower ears, slightly askew noses, and perceptibly arthritic gaits - that signaled their rightful membership in the Clearfield wrestling brotherhood. They had come from as far as Phoenix to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the wrestling program, and representatives from every era between 1934 and 2009 were present.
Among the many wrestling luminaries in attendance, none were brighter than founder and legendary head coach from 1934 through 1959, Arthur J. Weiss Sr., who will celebrate his 101st birthday in January. Coach Weiss, who has held the record for the high school coach with the most state champions (31) for over 50 years, was greeted by his first state champion, Sam Harry.
Harry was also Pennsylvania's very first wrestling state champion, having won his title at 85 pounds in 1938. Harry, nearing 90 years of age, traveled from Harrisburg with his wife and joined 12 other state chmpions who, with him, hold 20 of Clearfield's 40 state titles.
Also in attendance were 11 state runners-up, eight of the nine coaches who have headed the program during its 75-year history, 10 of their assistant coaches, and 15 winners of the Art Weiss Wrestling Scholarship.
"I look at Clearfield wrestling like a family. [Art Weiss] is dad. [The other wrestling alumni] out there are my brothers," said Scott Collins, state champion at Clearfield in 1986, national champion at West Virginia University in 1991 and former head coach. His was a sentiment largely shared by those in attendance. Like a family, the alums broke bread together, took family pictures, reminisced over old photos and shared stories with one another about their shared history.
"When I came to my first wrestling practice,' Norm Palovcsik, 1968 state champion, recalled, "I saw guys throwing each other to the ground, jumping on top of each other and hitting each other. I couldn't believe it; it was... great! These guys were allowed to do what I got in trouble for doing at home with my brothers."
Palovcsik and many of the other speakers touched on the importance of harnessing and focusing the natural energy of students from an early age. The key to Clearfield's wrestling success over the last 75 years has been the recruitment and training of athletes from an early age, some as young as four-years-old.
As Jerry Maurey, a 1950 graduate who was undefeated during his high school wrestling career and a four-time state champion, put it, "Every coach in here is looking for guys who are, like I was, agile, mobile and hostile."
Former head coach, Neil Turner, was intent on continuing the tradition that is Clearfield wrestling, saying, "The student is the main focus, they deserve to have the same experiences and values instilled in them that everyone has spoken of so eloquently tonight. Each one here needs to give of their wallets, their time and their efforts to make sure that happens."
A 75th Anniversary 193 page book that was published for the event made its debut. The product of countless hours of research, the book contains information and pictures of every team and the individual match results of every dual meet bout wrestled from 1934-2009.
Copies are available by contacting the reunion chairman, Jack Ricotta at 765-3548.
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