Ray Brinzer

Jon Kolb is an old friend; his oldest son, Eric, was on my junior high school team. Mr. Kolb (as I called, and in fact still call him) used to take a few of the harder-working wrestlers on the team different places to work out. As he was the strength coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers at the time, we’d often wind up at Three Rivers Stadium, bunny-hopping up the steps, or lifting in the weight room. When the Steelers were lifting at the same time, we’d wait for the weights to come open so we could get sets in. Jon took us out to stay at his ranch, as well, where we did a lot of running. Overall, he took pretty good care of us.

One Sunday afternoon several years ago, Jon showed up with his youngest son, Caleb at an open-room workout the Angry Fish were running. We hadn’t spoken in many years, so it was a pleasant surprise. Caleb was interested in wrestling; Jon was wondering whether it might be too late to start. Caleb was 12, he said, and a pretty good athlete, but had never wrestled before.

“Good,” I said. “No bad habits.” Jon looked surprised, and said, “That’s what I say about kids who have never played Pop Warner football!” He told me how much he liked finding good athletes who were new to football, because the youth coaches generally made a mess out of the ones in their programs.

Now, there is a general perception that sports have become so competitive that to reach the highest levels, one must start kids off at a very young age, and that they must specialize early. The odd thing is, in my experience the people least likely to believe that are elite athletes. And it’s not just wrestling; here’s a fellow with four Super Bowl rings who has the same outlook on football.

Last night Caleb won the Pennsylvania AA state championships at 171 pounds; he went undefeated this year. He’ll be wrestling at Nebraska in the fall.