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 Saturday, May 10, Midwood High School will be the scene of this year's edition of what has now become an annual tradition, MidwoodMania V: May Madness on the Mat.

The event runs from 11 AM to 3 PM, at the Campus Road Gymnasium of Midwood High School, 2839 Bedford Ave., Brooklyn, New York 11210, right across the street from Brooklyn College.

This year there will be ten matches involving Midwood alumni, wrestlers, and coaches, as well as alumni from other schools. Matches will be held under NCAA, freestyle, and Greco-Roman wrestling rules, as well as a folkstyle tag team match.

In the main event, the 56-year-old Coach Hero will be returning to the mat in a heavyweight tag team match. He will team with Jon Guarino of NYU and face the pair who were Coach Hero's opponents at last year's MidwoodMania, Brian Anderson and Anthony Chu, both of NYU.

The tag team match will be held under folkstyle rules, but with some important modifications. It is scheduled for three, four-minute periods. A wrestler can only tag out when there is a break or a lull in the action, and must indicate this to the referee. Each team is allowed only one tag per period. Also, a pin ends the period, but not the match.

We spoke with Coach George Hero by phone last Monday.

"Oh yeah, I'll be on again," said Coach Hero.

"I can't believe it's been five years already. It's MidwoodMania V. The event has really grown. We're getting more and more wrestlers now who are not Midwood alumni. And hopefully, as I said, this can be a model for something city-wide eventually, maybe even the creation of some kind of a league just for former high school and college wrestlers who may not necessarily want to go and get involved in international competition or national competition per se, but just wrestle for their own pleasure or just to be able to stay in shape."

Besides discussing the idea of establishing an organization for recreational wrestlers who are out of school to compete, we also talked about his continuing to wrestle at age 56, the need for other schools to hold similar events, some of the other matches planned for MidwoodMania V, and much more.

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Labels: Brooklyn, Coach George Hero, Eddie Goldman, Midwood High School, MidwoodMania, No Holds Barred, tag teams, wrestling