NO HOLDS BARRED

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with Coach George Hero, the legendary coach and founder of the Midwood High School wrestling team in Brooklyn, New York.

On Friday, October 11, Midwood High School will be the scene of the Midwood Wrestling Exhibition 2013.

The event runs from 3:30 PM to 6:30 PM, at the Campus Road Gymnasium of Midwood High School, 2839 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11210, right across the street from Brooklyn College.

As in previous years, the Midwood Wrestling Exhibition 2013 both kicks off and promotes the upcoming 2013-14 wrestling season, and features a number of alumni matches, all under American folkstyle rules.

The current Midwood wrestlers have been divided into a blue team against a red team. Coach Hero, now 55 years old, will be wrestling in a folkstyle tag team match, otherwise under NCAA rules, teaming with Dan Brereton against the team of Brian Anderson and Jon Guarino. This match will have three four-minute periods, with only one tag allowed per period, and only when there is a lull or stop in the action. There will also be three individual alumni matches under folkstyle rules.

We spoke with Coach George Hero by phone Monday about the Midwood Wrestling Exhibition 2013 and the state of wrestling.

Besides what is going on at Midwood wrestling, the historical and abject failure of the people running wrestling to publicize and promote the sport was one of our main topics.

"Again, part of the problem is we really don't advertise the sport enough. People aren't familiar enough with it," said Coach Hero. "And as a result, most people tend to associate wrestling with WWE and the sideshows. And they really don't understand what wrestling is.

"For me, I think wrestling is probably the purest sport in the sense that it's physical chess. It really requires not only conditioning and strength, and drilling and technique, it also requires a lot of strategy. It's a thinking person's sport. It really is."

He continued, "It's the purest form, because you're not beating someone bloody or knocking them out. You're not putting them in holds to punish them, to make them submit. You're actually using skill, technique, endurance, and strategy to beat the person, to pin their shoulders, or to be able to scores point. And I think that there's something about that that makes it even more challenging."

We also discussed the need for wrestling to be aggressively promoted, why his favorite wrestling style is American folkstyle, why champion wrestlers like Jordan Burroughs and Kyle Dake should be major sports stars, and much more.

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Labels: Brooklyn, Coach George Hero, Eddie Goldman, folkstyle, Midwood Wrestling Exhibition 2013, No Holds Barred, purest sport, tag teams, wrestling