WINNING AT ANY LEVEL
NAIA's Willson competing and beating bigger boys
Emmett Willson does not know where he will be March 20, 2004, when the NCAA Division I champion at 197 pounds is crowned in St. Louis.
But he does know that he will not be bitter.
"I'll be done," said Willson, who will be shooting for his third NAIA championship at 197 pounds and is a contender for this year's Dan Hodge Trophy. "My season will be over the first of March. But I'll feel good about then and the fact that (the Division I winner has) done so well. I need to finish my degree and move on."
But there will be some who may look at the Division I championships as if something … or some is missing: Willson.
"In my heart, I will say you know Emmett beat that guy at Vegas or Midlands," said Montana State-Northern coach David Ray, who has developed many championship-level wrestlers — at any level — like Willson in this small school in Havre, Montana.
And Willson is the latest of his wrestlers to succeed against Division I competition — winning both this year's Las Vegas and Midlands championships — but will not be allowed to compete at the Division I meet; something that was allowed up until 1990 when the NCAA stopped allowing non-Division I wrestlers to compete in the Division I championship.
"Absolutely, he should be able to compete at the Div. I tournament," said former Iowa coach Dan Gable. "The NCAA does things across the board. It's standard. They have to realize what's best for individual sports. And what's best for our sport is to have Division II and III and NAIA kids participate in our Division I championship.
"If they want to help us, that's a simple thing they can do. They should have never taken it away."
Cal-State Bakersfield's Matt Monteiro, the man who defeated No. 1-ranked Damion Hahn at the Vegas tournament in early December, became the latest Division I opponent to lose to the undefeated Willson in the finals of the Midlands.
(You can read the rest of this article by subscribing to W.I.N. Magazine. Either contact our office at 1-888-305-0606 or subscribe through this website by selecting the "Subscribe" section on our front page.)