June 20, 1998:
Following a couple weekends without tournaments (Scott missed the Potomac Valley Challenge Cup due to his taking SATs), Scott wrestled in the East Coast Club Championships as a representative of the Southern Maryland Wrestling Club. This was a Freestyle only tournament (which, again, Scott refereed) and he went 4-0 for the day. He also won the trophy for most falls in the high school division by scoring falls in his first three matches. His final match of the day was against Ivan Hardnett, a 1998 Maryland high school state runner-up. It was a tough match with Scott giving up a point in the last five seconds for fleeing the mat which allowed Hardnett to tie it up. The overtime didn't last more than 10 seconds as the agressive Hardnett shot almost immediately and Scott flipped him for a two point back exposure and the win.
June 25-27, 1998:
Scott traveled to Orlando, Florida for the AAU Grand Nationals Greco-Roman and Freestyle Championships. He had a great three days finishing 2nd in Greco and 4th in Freestyle. This was one time where there is no doubt in my mind that Scott's performance was affected by the fact that he was once again officiating. Although, it was a great experience for him to officiate at such a prestigious national event if was also quite tiring. While other wrestlers came in around 9:00 AM and left as early as 6:00 PM each day (and got to lounge inbetween matches), Scott was on his feet for most of the day. He had to arrive at 6:45 AM each day for the 7:00 AM referee's meeting and then worked until around 11:00 PM each night. It didn't really affect his Greco but by the 2nd day of Freestyle you could tell it was getting to him.
Scott's Greco tournament was fantastic. In his first match he defeated Eric Wince, a North Carolina high school state championship 4th place winner by the score of 8-3. In his second match he wrestled a young man, Michael Fico, who had taken 6th in the New Mexico high school state championships. Scott was ahead 5-1 when he hit a beautiful belly to back suplex following a failed arm spin in which he popped out behind. Fico made the mistake of trying to come to his feet and Scott sent him flying straight to his back for the instant touch fall at 0:59 into the match. It was gorgeous and I hope to get a picture of it off the video to place on the web page photos section.
In his third match, Scott wrestled a fine young man by the name of Steve Forrest from Vermont. Forrest was a Vermont state champion in his freshman year and a runner-up (having lost in the finals in overtime following a hand injury) his sophomore year. He is the #3 ranked sophomore in the country. Scott lost a tough one here by the score of 9-3.
This put Scott into the round robin portion of the tournament as the #2 man from pool A. He wrestled the #3 wrestler from pool B, another New Mexico wrestler. Patrick Garcia had been the 1998 New Mexico high school state championship 3rd place winner at the 171 pound weight class. He came down to 165 for this tournament and Scott had his hands full as he said the guy was as strong as an ox. (Note: Scott weighed in at 159 pounds for the tournament and was giving away probably 10 pounds to Garcia who could not make 165 for the Freestyle portion and ended up going up a weight class.) Scott was on a roll however, and pinned Garcia at 4:49 after building a 9-1 lead.
This put Scott into the semi-finals against the #1 man from pool B, Todd Paszek from South Dakota. Paszek was a 1998 South Dakota high school state champion with a 45-0 record. This match was a war with Scott winning 12-11. Scott won this one mostly as a result of a beautiful 5 pointer by way of a high dive and belly to back suplex (again, look for this in the photos section). Paszek was a little upset that Scott took a couple of injury time outs but he had to as his entire left ear was turning black (not black and blue but black) thanks to Steve Forrest's head locks. (Note: Scott was now wearing his head gear but he was still in pain.)
Scott went into the finals for a rematch with Forrest. Although Scott lost, this time it was different. Scott wrestled with the strategy of avoiding Steve's devastating head locks and they went to overtime with Forrest ahead 1-0. I kept yelling to Scott that he was one move away from his first national championship but he just couldn't get it done (much to Steve Forrest's credit). Forrest ended up winning, technically, by fall at about the 7:50 mark. But it was really 3-0 as once Scott gave up that third point he relaxed and rolled to his back, exhausted from such a long, tough match. Needless to say, he was disappointed that he did not win but, in the end, he is very pleased with his national runner-up status.
The Freestyle portion had more contestants and was conducted over two days: Friday and Saturday. Scott started out really bad with a rematch with Paszek from South Dakota. Scott went out flat and tired while Paszek had revenge in his eyes from the previous days semi-final Greco loss to Scott. He shot right of the whistle and scooped Scott up on his shoulder. He cradled Scott on the way down and set him right on his shoulders for a 7 second fall. Hello, wake-up! Scott had wrestled 7 seconds and was already one loss away from elimination. Scott came back strong however by winning his next four in a row. This included a 13-2 tech-fall over the New Mexico high school 6th place finisher mentioned before and a tough 10-7 win over a Michigan wrestler, Judd Sybesma, who had placed 4th in the Michigan high school state championship. He then tech-falled a tough Ohio wrestler by the name of Brad Statzer to end up the #2 man in pool A.
Scott's first match in the round robin was against Eric Wince of North Carolina who was the #3 man from pool B. Although Scott had beaten him 8-3 two days earlier in Greco, Wince was tougher at Freestyle. Scott fell behind when he got five pointed by Wince. It wasn't one of those great throws... just a double leg takedown that lifted Scott off the mat. Once Scott was on his shoulder, he lifted and turned Scott to the mat and Scott made the mistake of allowing himself to fall to his back instead of twisting to land on his knees. Nevertheless, it was five points for Wince and Scott was behind 8-1 at one point. Then we all saw the heart of champion in action. Scott made an amazing comeback in what many observers said was the most exciting match of the tournament.
This one is worth detailing: Scott had the good fortune of having David Boger and Bruce Gabrielson both coaching him from his corner and I really think it is what gave him the strength and heart to come back. He fought back to a 11-7 deficit with 30 seconds left in the match. Scott then scored a two point back exposure off a double leg takedown with about 20 seconds left making the score 11-9. He immediately went to a gut wrench but couldn't turn Wince one way but with everything he had he took him the other. Unfortunately, Wince went hand to hand and Scott scored only one point. There were now about 7 seconds left and Scott could have easily given up and lost 11-10. But something inside him said no and he kept working. Of course, he couldn't gut wrench again (the rules permit only one gut wrench in a row) so he was looking for something else. Amazingly, he forced a cross face cradle onto Wince and turned him with 3 seconds left in the match for a two point exposure and a thrilling 12-11 victory. (Note: He had that cradle on tight and I'm certain there would have been a fall if time had not run out.) I was so proud. He really showed the heart of a champion in this match. Dozens of people came over to congratulate both of them for a great match. People were talking about it for hours.
Scott's next match was against the B pool #1 man, Emmett Wilson, a Montana high school state champion who had defeated Steve Forrest 9-7. Wilson, being the # 1 man from pool B, had a bye in the first round of the round robin and was fresh. Scott, having just wrestled Wince only 25 minutes earlier and having been refereeing until 11:30 PM the night before followed by getting up at 6:00 AM to make the referees meeting that morning, was spent. Nevertheless, Scott did a good job but lost by the score of 8-4. This put Scott into the consolation finals against Paszek, the number one man from pool A who had just lost a tough one to Steve Forrest in their semi-final match. Again, Paszek was too much for Scott. There was no 7 second pin this time but Scott fell behind 8-2 when he ran out of gas and was turned for a fall. And so, Scott ended up with a 4th place medal at Freestyle. Again, I was very proud of him.
June 6-10, 1998:
Scott attended the Maryland National Team Training Camp this week. It was a tough camp for him as he came home each day and it was a 3 hour round trip. His work out partner was Wes Cummings, the top ranked junior 171 pounder in the country. They hit it off well and I'm certain that it was a good experience for Scott.
July 19-25, 1998:
Well a year had gone by and it was time to make the long trip to Fargo, ND again for the USA Junior Nationals. I know it's a long trip for many of the participants but that doesn't make the 26 hour bus ride any more comfortable. Scott did not have a good tournament. He was sick from almost the moment he arrived. High fever, sore throat... he probably should not have wrestled at all but he knew that there was so much time, effort and money invested that he just couldn't sit out. He only won one match in Freestyle and none in Greco. He did have a good Freestyle match against the eventual 5th place winner from Florida. Scott was ahead of him when he got caught underneath while executing a gut wrench and the side judge called a quick touch fall. No one else called it but the judge held up the match, had a conference and managed to convince the other officials that the match was over. Too bad, Scott feels he was on his way to beating that guy.
Well, I only have the video tape to go by as this was the first time ever that I was not with Scott when he wrestled. He said it effected him as he felt that he could not do it without me. Flattered as I am, I sure hope he grows out of that fast.
Finally, Scott went to the doctor immediately upon returning home and was diagnosed as having strep throat (no wonder he didn't wrestle well). It's too bad his tournament was ruined as he/we had high hopes for his chances. And we certainly hope he didn't get anyone else sick.
August 2-7, 1998:
Norfolk, VA was the site of the 1998 AAU Junior Olympics. Scott attended as a member of the Potomac Valley team which represented Maryland, Northern Virginia and Washington DC. The field consisted of 32 teams from various parts of the country although there was a strong contingency from Virginia along with 3 teams from Michigan, 3 from Ohio and 3 from Mid-Atlantic (representing Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware).
The Potomac Valley team placed 3rd in the tournament (it's highest placement ever) after winning their pool and losing only in the semi-finals to eventual champion Mid-Atlantic Red. The team posted an overall 9-1 record.
Scott placed 2nd in his pool and advanced to the individual tournament which followed the team competition. He lost in the semi-finals to Dereck Lipoli from Great Bridge, Virgina by the score of 8-3. Lipoli was the #1 ranked junior 160 pounder in the country (by Intermat) at the end of the 97/98 high school season. Scott then lost to Nate Wachter, a four time state champ and two time national prep champion from Germantown Academy in Pennsylvania. It was a close match but Wachter was just too much for Scott (this time anyway). So Scott finished 4th and just missed All-American honors by one. It was a solid 4th place finish as Scott's overall record was 9-5 and his losses were: two to Wachter (finished 3rd), two to Lipoli (finished 2nd) and one to David Shafer (from Mid-Atlantic Red and finished 1st).
August 20, 1998
The McAdoo's will be leaving Calvert County soon... we will be moving to Minnesota where I have an offer for a job. The problem is we aren't exactly certain when we will be moving...it may be in September or not until October. In either case, we worried about taking Scott to another state in the middle of the school year and possibly hampering his athletic eligibility. (Note: We have been told that Minnesota requires a student to be enrolled in the school from day one in order to be eligible for fall and winter sports (spring sports is not a problem but, obviously, it's wrestling that we're worried about).)
We thought about trying to find someone around here that would take Scott into their home when we moved. That way he could stay at Calvert High School and finish out his senior year with all of his friends. However, Scott may have a lot of friends around here but we don't (we are not from this area originally). Bottom line, we couldn't find anyone that met the combined requirement of being willing to take him and that met with our approval.
We consulted with our family and friends from outside the area and a blessing came through in the form of a good friend of the family. David Boger, a man we met when Scott first started wrestling and who we have since become very good friends with, volunteered to take Scott into his house and solve our problem. He happened to have a spare room in his house which he graciously offered to Scott. Scott gets along fine with David as well as the rest of his family. They live in a small town in Pennsylvania called Annville which is just outside of Hershey. This had an advantage over any other family/location that we could have considered in that it is still relatively close to Calvert. It is only 2 1/2 hours away versus our other relatives in the Pittsburgh area that are 6 hours away. This way, Scott would still be close enough to come back and visit his friends from Calvert every now and then without it being a major trip.
It was a difficult decision for Scott to leave his family and friends but it was, more or less, forced onto us by the circumstances of our move and our concern about his senior athletic eligibility. We all discussed it, over and over. We went up there to discuss it and they came down here to discuss it. Finally, the decision was made... Scott will move to Annville, live with the Bogers and attend Annville/Cleona High School.
Ironically, it turns out that Pennsylvania has the same requirements as Minnesota with regard to when a student has to be enrolled for athletic eligibility. Fortunately, school does not start there until the 1st of September so we have been able to move this process along quickly enough to get him enrolled before that all important first day of school.
Will we miss him? Are you kidding? My wife is ready to cry every time she thinks about it and I have trouble containing my emotions too. He is our pride and joy. All of his life, he has been special with so many friends and so much success. But everything he touches seems to turn out right and we have no doubt that this will, in the end, be a good experience for him. We explicitly trust the family that he is moving in with and have no doubt that this will be a positive part of Scott's life. And as far as wrestling goes, it works out quite well as Scott can now test himself against those tough PA wrestlers.
If there are any of you out there that may be inclined to send Scott some well wishes, I know he will appreciate it. You can do this easily by clicking back to the main page that precedes this one and then clicking on the guestbook option. Or, if you would like to write to Scott directly his new address will be:
Scott McAdoo
Finally, Scott, his mother and I all wish to thank the wonderful people here in Calvert County and at Calvert High School. Scott wouldn't be where he is if it were not for the influence of his friends, teachers, coaches and teammates. They have all encouraged him and helped him to be the best he can be. I know he hopes to make all of you proud as he moves on to the challenges ahead of him. And he wishes all of you well too, especially the Calvert wrestling program to whom he owes so much. (This was the hardest part of this situation for Scott... to leave behind his teammates who are on the verge of being one of the best teams in the entire state.)
Well, that's it. The spring and summer seasons of 1998 are over. Scott is now in the middle of a well deserved three week break (he has been practicing and competing steadily for 49 straight weeks). Thank you all for taking the time to read this and a special thank you to all of you that have sent Scott encouraging messages.
Scott's off-season match total thru 08/07 is 91 and his off-season tournament total is 23 (remember that 9 of these where national level events). His off-season record is as follows:
Open Greco-Roman: 2-1
449 W. Queen St.
Annville, PA 17003
Scott's Off Season Statistics:
Open Freestyle: 3-4
High School Greco-Roman: 11-8
High School Freestyle: 33-15
High School Folkstyle: 9-5
Please check Scott's Future Tournaments page to see what lies ahead.
rmcadoo@chesapeake.net
74 Terrace Drive
Prince Frederick, MD 20678
United States