By Mike Finn, W.I.N. Editor

Olympic wrestling champion Brandon Slay’s athletic dreams were typical of most boys who grew up in the Lone Star state.

            “In Texas, all these kids look at the University of Texas, Texas A&M or Texas Tech football teams and they have a vision of where they could be when they get older. With wrestling, it was hard for them to have that vision,” said Slay, a native of Amarillo, who became the first Olympic wrestling champ from the Lone Star state in 2000.               “When I grew up, my dream wasn’t to wrestle at the University of Texas. That’s not a dream in any of the kids’ minds.”

            What he — and most Texas wrestlers — didn’t have was a Brandon Slay, who earned Olympic gold at 167.5 pounds in Sydney, Australia — or any other Texan wrestler to look to who was successful at a high level.

            Wrestling in Texas was pretty irrelevant in the mid-1990s when Slay, a three-time state wrestling champion and all-state football player from Tascosa High School, left his home state for the University of Pennsylvania, where he eventually earned a pair of NCAA All-American honors in 1997 and 1998.

            Now nearly a decade later, Slay appreciates the legacy that has continued to grow the sport.

            “If you would have told someone ten years ago, where Texas wrestling is today, they would not have believed you,” said Slay, 32, who is currently in commercial real estate in Dallas. “I think Texas has overcome a lot of adversity and we’re still pressing forward.

            “A lot of states that used to be good at wrestling in the past, still are. But there are few states that had a small amount of wrestling which now have guys who are now wrestling Div. I and have become All-Americans or are going on and winning Junior Nationals like what we have today.

            “(Texas wrestlers) now have the ability to see that they can be born and raised in Texas and still become an Olympic champion. It’s an honor for me to become one brick in this house of wrestling that could be built here.”

            The University Interscholastic League, which officially governs high school athletics in Texas, started sponsoring wrestling in 1997. Prior to that, high school wrestling was organized for nearly ten years by the Texas Interscholastic Wrestling Association.

            The founder of that group was Jim Giunta, who moved to Texas in 1976, when he started coaching wrestling in Richardson High School, one of about just 30 high schools in the state to offer wrestling.

            “By the time I quit wrestling eight years later, we were probably up to 45 schools,” recalled Giunta, who added that the TIWA petition the UIL every year to take over the sport. By the time, the UIL agreed in 1997, there were over 125 wrestling programs in the state. “I think the reason why the IRL took over was because we got too big and they had to recognize us.”

            According to the UIL website, the UIL oversees 237 schools, which compete in wrestling in 32 districts and four regions en route to a one-division state tournament in late February. The top five teams from last year’s state championship was Katy Cinco Ranch, Amarillo Canyon Randall, Dallas Highland Park, Houston Cypress and Allen High School.

            The UIL total does not include the 20 schools that compete in the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS) or 18 other programs that participate in the Southwest Preparatory Conference. Together, they form a single state tournament, which sends three teams to the National Prep Championships in Bethlehem, Pa., every winter.

            The best of these private Texas schools is Dallas’ Bishop Lynch, which was ranked as high as No. 12 by W.I.N. this season and most recently won the Lone Star Duals. Bishop Lynch’s 39-36 victory over Alamosa (Colo.) High School — decided by a pin the final match — marked the first time a team from Texas won the Duals since the 11th annual tournament started drawing high schools from around the country.

            “I hope it will expose Texas wrestling on a national level,” said Bishop Lynch coach Tim Mathews, whose alma mater also competed in the Ironman in Ohio in December. “We have a lot of great kids who can compete on the national level.”           

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