Up Side the Head

2003-2004 Southern Rams

Memorable Moments in SG Wrestling History

      Our second "Memorable Moments" post could also be called the most infamous moment in Southern Garrett Wrestling history.
 

      In early February 2004, Southern Garrett had qualified for our second straight Regional Dual Meet Tournament.  The top four teams in the region qualify and it was the second straight year we made it in.   In all, we would run that streak to 9, qualifying for the event every year through 2011.  We are not sure if that is a state record, but it is an accomplishment of which we are very proud.
 

      On that cold winter night in 2004, we made the long trip to Carroll County for regional duals.  As luck would have it, we drove the whole way to wrestle Beall High School from Frostburg in the first round.  The winner would advance to the finals, the loser would get on the bus for the long, cold, snowy ride home.

 

       Beall was a strong team who had won the regional duals the previous year and hosted the event the year before that.  We had wrestled in a dual meet during the regular 2003/2004 season and the up-and-coming Rams pulled off a big upset.  At that time, they had been on a 24 match win streak dating back to 2002.  No one expected us to win that match and it shocked most state wrestling fans that we were also in the duals.  After our heated regular season dual meet, Beall was out for blood but we were ready to beat them again.

 

      We had a good team, but we really didn't know how good we were.  We were just having fun winning for a change.  Not only had we beaten Beall a few weeks earlier, we crushed Northern Garrett twice.  These wins against the Huskies were the first wins for Southern vs. our county rivals in 18 years.  It was shaping up to be a great season.

 

      The "Up Side the Head" incident had it's roots in our first meeting of the season with Beall.  Freshman Daniel Carr, who couldn't even make the line-up at his own weight class, bumped up a class to defeat the undefeated Travis Dixon from Beall.  It was a close heated match, but Carr prevailed.  Dixon continued winning for the remainder of the regular season and entered the duals with only the one loss.  The rematch at regional duals was epic.  It was high scoring with wild scrambles and in the end, Carr pulled off a 10-9 victory.  When the final whistle blew, Carr thought he lost and Dixon thought he won but a review of the scorebook confirmed Daniel's victory. 

 

      The Rams went on to dominate the remainder of the match, winning 43-20 to earn a spot in the regional finals against Walkersville.  We were thrilled with our performance and were ready to win it all.  After the final bout vs. Beall, we started the traditional hand-shake line up across the mat.  "Good match, good job, good match, good job" while shaking hands with the Beall wrestlers and their coaches.  Everything was going smoothly until Travis Dixon reached Daniel Carr in the center of the mat.

 

      Obviously, Travis Dixon was not very happy being knocked from the ranks of the undefeated, and then beat again, by our little, skinny, under-sized freshman.  His looping swing caught us all off guard and caught Daniel Carr "Up Side the Head" and the place went crazy.  Our fans and our administrators rushed in to pull people apart and we quickly gathered our composure and gathered our wrestlers and headed out of the gym to the locker room.

 

      We had the regional finals ahead of us and we tried very hard to settle our kids down and get them ready for Walkersville.  In the end we fell just short and will forever blame Travis Dixon for screwing up our Mo-Jo and costing us the regional title.

 

      In the end, Dixon never wrestled another match while Carr went on the qualify for states all four years and advance to the state finals twice, proving once and for all - crime doesn't pay.  This was the beginning of our rise to the pinnacle of wrestling in the state of Maryland and the Southern Rams would dominate Beall for the final years of the school's existence.

 

Southern Garrett State Place-Winners  and Qualifiers on the 2004 Roster

• Scott Wildesen - 04 - 1st
• Justin Ratliff - 06 - 1st
• Justin Ratliff - 07 2nd
• Daniel Carr - 06 - 2nd
• Daniel Carr - 07 - 2nd
• Scott Wildesen - 05 - 3rd
• Josh Armstrong - 07 - 3rd
• Nathan Sines - 04 - 4th
• Daniel Goulart - 04 - 6th
• Jason Weeks - Q
• Jeremy Gregory - Q
• Justin Fitzwater - Q
• Chris Bennett - Q

Southern Garrett 43 - Beall 20
103 - Josh Armstron (SG) dec Alex Tenaglio (B) 15-14 ot
112 - Brent Walker (B) pinned Greg Graham (SG) 1:54
119 - Justin Ratliff (SG) dec Nathan Jackson (B) 11-9
125 - Daniel Carr (SG) dec Travis Dixon (B) 10-9
130 - Chris Lewis (B) pinned Andrew Pritts (SG) 1:05
135 - Nathan Sines (SG) dec Jeff Brant (B) 13-2
140 - Jeffrey Gregory (SG) pinned Ryan Lewis (B) 1:15
145 - Jeremy Gregory (SG) dec Dave Winner (B) 9-2
152 - Scott Wildesen (SG) pinned Kyle Parry (B) 1:43
160 - Christopher Tepper (SG) dec Paul Sagal (B) 7-6
171 - Cody Miller (B) dec Jason Weeks (SG) 11-6
189 - Chris Bennett (SG) pinned Elliot Simmons (B) :34
215 - Chris Lindeman (B) pinned Justin Fitzwater (SG) 5:49
285 - Dan Goulart (SG) pinned Jason Laber (B) :15

     

5 in the Finals!

Memorable Moments in SG Wrestling History

2009 State Qualifiers.  Front L to R: Lex Ozias, Brutus Scheffel, Davey Stewart, Jordan Skipper, Bubba Scheffel.
Back L to R: Kody Lewis, Ryan Fitzwater, Ryan Bennett, Josh Arnold

On Saturday, March 7, 2009, Southern Garrett Wrestling made history by going 5 for 5 in the semi-final round to send a state record 5 wrestlers to the MPSSAA tournament finals that evening.  By the end of the evening, the Rams were back in the record book, crowning individual 4 state champions and winning the school's first ever state tournament championship.

The tournament started with 9 Southern wrestlers earning a trip to Cole Fieldhouse for the MPSSAA championships.  The Rams needed all nine to contribute as we were in a dog-fight for the title with River Hill High School, coached by All-American Brandon Lauer.  All nine Southern wrestlers were able to win matches, scoring valuable team points and the four champions put us over the top, finishing the tournament 10 points ahead of River Hill.

Junior Davey Stewart (112) and senior Ryan Fitzwater (215) each went 1-2 in the tournament, and senior Kody Lewis (171) was 2-2.  Senior Josh Arnold (125) went 4-2 at Cole to earn 5th place, earning valuable team points along the way.

Our five finalists that afternoon were Lex Ozias (130), Brutus Scheffel (140), Bubba Scheffel (145), Jordan Skipper (152) and Ryan Bennett (189).  Brutus was a junior, going for his third straight title, Lex was a sophomore making his second trip to the finals after placing 2nd as a freshman.  Jordan, Bubba and Ryan were all in the finals for the first time.

2009 Parade of Champions, state record 5 wrestlers!

The traditional "parade of champions" is always an exciting event for the wrestlers, their families, the fans and the coaches.  I can't describe the pure joy I felt leading five of our wrestlers into the stadium that evening.  At the time, the pure magnitude of the situation had not sunk in.  We were simply headed out to wrestle and were trying somehow to win the tournament along the way.  Entering the finals, River Hill lead Southern by 9 points and had two finalists of their own.  We knew it was possible, but we had to win matches.

The championship finals started at 285 that evening and worked it's way down in weight classes.  The boys were fired up and were on the floor getting ready.  First up for Southern was Ryan Bennett at 189.  Ryan was up against Lance Lepard from Harford Tech.  They had wrestled before and it was a close match.  On this night, Lepard was better.  He was big and strong and dominated Bennett on his way to a 14-2 victory.  We were still down by 9 points and River Hill had a finalist in the next match.

At 171, Middletown's Brandon Johnson helped out the Rams by cruising to a major decision over the River Hill wrestler to keep the team score the same.  Garrett County had wrestlers in the finals in the next six weight classes which is a pretty amazing feat for a small county with only two schools.  Northern's Dustin Stough and Adam Moranduzzo joined Jordan, Bubba, Brutus and Lex in this Garrett County streak.

Jordan Skipper, Maryland State Champion!!

After Northern's Dustin Stough lost a tough match to Pat Downey at 160, it was time to take the mat for three straight matches.  At 152, Jordan Skipper faced Zach White from Walkersville.  They had met the previous week in the regional finals where Skipper pulled out a close win.  On this night, it

looked to be just as close and exciting.  White controlled the first period and took a slight lead into the second.  After the flip of the coin, White was given the choice of position and for some crazy reason we will never understand, he chose bottom.  Choosing bottom against Jordan Skipper is like choosing the Titanic over a Carnival cruise.  It's a death sentence and it proved to be just that.  In the second period, Jordan turned Zach three times with his cradle for nine points and cruised to a 10-3 victory.  Jordan's win scored 4 team points, shrinking River Hill's lead to 5.

Bubba Scheffel on top of the podium

We stayed on the mat for Bubba Scheffel at 145 against Zach White's twin brother Tyler.  Again, they met the previous week at regionals and Bubba prevailed.  In the state finals, Bubba was dominate and controlled the entire match before winning by pin late in the third period to capture his first (of 3) state championships.  The pin scored 6 team point and put Southern in the lead by 1 over River Hill.  We had two finalists remaining and River Hill had one.  We felt we were in pretty good shape, but there was still work to do.

Brutus Scheffel in the semis vs. Nathan White from River Hill

At 140, two-time state champion Brutus Scheffel was looking for his third straight individual title and had the opportunity to lock up the team championship for the Rams.  Like the two previous final bouts, this was a rematch of the regional finals as he faced Gus Mohlhenich from Winters Mill.  Brutus scored early and often and scored a huge 10-1 victory for his third state championship.  It also gave the Rams 5 big team points to extend our lead to 6 over River Hill. This guaranteed the Southern Rams at least a tie for the team title with each team having one finalist still to compete.

Lex Ozias controls Josh Duckworth from Northern in the
semis to earn his second straight trip to the finals.

We had to give up the corner briefly as Adam Moranduzzo from Northern wrestled at 135 and won his first state championship,  It was then time to get back to work and wrap up the team title with Lex
Ozias taking the mat at 130.  A win of any kind would secure the first ever team championship for Southern.  Lex was only a sophomore and was facing Rion Reiter, a senior from South Carroll.  This was also a regional final rematch.  Reiter fought hard and kept the match close, but Ozias was too strong and too technical.  Lex pulled away and earned a 7-3 victory, his first of three individual titles and secured the team championship for the Rams.  There was nothing River Hill could do in their final match (they lost) but accept the second place trophy and watch us hoist the championship plaque.

2009 State Champions!  Jordan Skipper (1st), Josh Arnold (5th), Bubba Scheffel (1st), Lex Ozias (1st),
Brutus Scheffel (1st), Ryan Bennett (2nd) with Coach Taylor and the championship plaque.

Memorable Moments

Beating Mt Ridge in 2013, very memorable!

Memorable Moments in SG Wrestling History

Justyce Fulmer gets the pin vs. Winters Mill

As we head into another season, we thought it would be interesting and fun to post stories about some of the most memorable moments in Southern Garrett Wrestling history.  These stories will be in no particular order and will not all be about great successes.  We hope this series of posts will be fun and informative and we encourage our followers to share their thoughts and share these stories with their friends.

 

Ten different SG wrestlers have won 18 individual state championships and the team has won three state titles.  We have earned some great wins and have taken some tough losses.  There have been individual success and failures and each has left powerful memories. 

 

Scott Cooper bumps up just so he can lift the monsters.

Even though we have had some of the state's greatest all-time wrestlers in our program and our team has reached the pinnacle of success, some of the most memorable moments involve the regular, everyday team members, coaches and their families.  We hope you enjoy our journey down memory lane.