LIFE'S A BLAST!
Minnesota prep wrestler also excels as cannonballer
Sometimes Owatonna (Minn.) High coach Scot Davis can’t believe his good fortune.
He’s one of the top coaches in high school wrestling, with over 500 career wins. But Davis, as profiled in this magazine last year, is the unquestioned Crown Prince of Promotion. It’s one of the reasons Owatonna’s home wrestling meets are packed: The powerhouse Huskies also are virtually the best show in town.
But, as I can tell you from my own experience, even the most creative and imaginative in our midst experience “writer’s block” every now and then. And as many creative marketing campaigns as Davis and his staff have hatched, even he can struggle to come up with new ideas.
Then, three years ago, a record leap was made at the nearby Steele County Fair. Not long after that, Russell Smith, now Owatonna’s 171-pound senior standout, dropped into Davis’ lap.
That record leap was turned in by Smith’s father, David “Cannonball” Smith. For the past 30 or so years, David Smith has made his living — yes, you guessed it — by being shot out of a cannon. On that fateful day in 2001, he leaped over the county fair’s Ferris wheel en route to a successful world-record jump of 201 feet.
“I guess we’ve become celebrities there,” said David Smith, who plans to jump over two Ferris wheels at next year’s fair.
“The fair chairman was talking to him, and found out his son was a wrestler,” Davis said. “So we eventually met each other, they came to look at our faci
lities, and I think they liked what they saw. We have a great facility here — our wrestling room is really outstanding.”A year later, Russell Smith made the move from his family’s home in rural Halfway, Mo., to Owatonna, where he is home schooled by his mother, Jeannie (Minnesota law states that a home-schooled student living within a school district’s boundaries during a sport’s season is eligible to compete in that sport at that school).
The rest has been history — and not just on the wrestling mat.
This past summer it was Russell Smith who was flying through the air with the greatest of ease. Now the youngest and the newest member of “The First Family of Cannon-balling,” Russell made not one, but two jumps as friends and family watched —at the very same Steele County Fair.
“Every year you try to think of (promotional) ideas, and then you just have (Smith) land right there for you,” Davis said. “What an excellent way to bring some recognition to the program.”
Smith made his jumps wearing an Owatonna wrestling warmup. And Davis cashed in on Smith’s unique talent with his theme for this year’s Huskies: “Shooting for the Top.”
Smith has come close. He’s reached the Minnesota state finals both his years in an Owatonna uniform. The Class 3A state runner-up at 171 both times — both finals losses were to nationally-ranked opponents — Smith has posted back-to-back 39-win seasons and put together a sparkling 78-15 record over that span.
Using conversion measures for home-schooled students, his academic performance translates to the equivalent of a 3.7 GPA, and several Division I schools have shown interest. Along with junior Alex Meger, the unbeaten 103-pound state champion a year ago, Smith leads an Owatonna team that could challenge for state and national top 25 honors again before the year is through.
Surprisingly, there are a lot of parallels between being a successful cannon-baller and a successful wrestler. In both activities, the weigh-in is a crucial element. In wrestling, the weigh-in determines what size opponent an athlete will face; in cannon-balling, the jumper’s weight determines the angle at which to set the cannon and how far away the net must be to allow the cannon-baller to land safely.
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