Today's Prep Talk feature story takes a look at outstanding Cheektowaga wrestler Renaldo Rodriguez-Spencer and the move known as the "Flying Squirrel" that he pulled off to win a National High School Coaches Association wrestling championship last month at Virginia Beach.
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Below, watch Rodriguez-Spencer's match-winning move against Alfred Bannister of Maryland, who entered the match the country's fifth-ranked junior at 138 pounds. Rodriguez-Spencer, who moved up from his state championship weight of 132, was trailing before the forward-flip move with 10 seconds left helped him to a 4-3 victory.
The move earned him a national Junior Class (11th graders) title as well as the Most Outstanding Wrestler award for the juniors' meet.
Check it out here in video uploaded by allsportswny:
I ran out of room way too quickly in Wednesday's PrepTalk -- I was only able to mention what happened: Renaldo Rodriguez-Spencer of Cheektowaga won a national title at the National High School Coaches Association wrestling championships at Virginia Beach. That is major enough, but it was how he did it.
Watch Rodriguez-Spencer's "flying squirrel" move to beat Alfred Bannister of Maryland, the country's fifth-ranked junior at 138 pounds, by a 4-3 score. Rodriguez-Spencer, who moved up from his state championship weight of 132, was trailing before the forward-flip move with 10 seconds left.
The move earned him a national Junior Class (11th graders) title as well as the Most Outstanding Wrestler award for the juniors' meet.
Check it out here in video uploaded by allsportswny:
We put together some highlights from the Section VI Wrestling Championships that were held at the University at Buffalo Sunday. Every Section VI Champ (large and small schools) is represented in video:
Tuesday was a sad day for a lot of people in the sports world. My Twitter feed was jammed with emotional tweets
from wrestlers and wrestling fans fired up over the International Olympic
Committee’s decision to drop wrestling from the 2020 Olympic Games.
My first
reaction was not concern for the Olympics, or Olympic wrestlers. It was for
kids. It was for high school wrestlers like the ones Keith McShea and I covered
this weekend during the state qualifier meet at the University at Buffalo.
That is because
in wrestling, it is not adults who drive the sport. It is the kids
-- kids with dreams. Young wrestlers can’t dream like young football or
basketball players can. There are no “professional wrestlers,” unless you’re
talking about the fake stuff. When it comes to real competition on a mat, there
are very few bright lights and big money contracts. So what do these kids dream
of if not being a pro athlete?
Olympic medals.
Penn State
senior wrestler David Taylor tweeted his reaction Tuesday:
I have envisioned myself winning an Olympic gold medal since I was 8 years old #SaveOlympicWrestling
In wrestling,
there is no bigger dream. The only thing better than an Olympic gold medal is
two Olympic gold medals, but no Olympic medals? That is a hard concept to grasp
for the wrestling community.
Hello from the University at Buffalo and the Section VI Wrestling Championships -- great to have both Division I and II in one spot so we can bring you all of the action. Our head might be spinning a little, but we'll do our best with the live blog.
I'll have match-by-match updates in the live blog below and I'll also be providing #preptalkscores updates on Twitter (those will also appear in the blog).
Your tweets with the hashtag #preptalkscores are welcome -- they will appear in the live blog as well. Every night, scoring update tweets (in any sport) are welcome to those on Twitter -- just use the #preptalkscores hashtag.
Check our scoreboard page for a complete schedule of tonight's action; the scoreboard will be updated as we receive game reports throughout the evening.
For this week's PrepTalkTV Weekly -- which you can see right here tonight at 9 -- we'll welcome a team fresh off one of the biggest wins in school history (and that's any sport). We'll have the Cardinal O'Hara girls team on one night after beating Sacred Heart in a battle of Western New York's No. 1s.
And yes, we said the team. Part of the reason that O'Hara is a great story -- besides its undefeated record -- is that there are just eight players on the team, so they'll all be on hand along with coach Dan McDermott.
We'll have another loaded show of highlights from boys and girls hoops as well as hockey, wrestling and swimming -- including a couple of "[BN] The Locker Room" videos of coaches' pregame speeches. We'll also have more highlights in PrepTalkTV Rewind as well our weekly look at the boys basketball polls and a look ahead to this weekend and beyond.
As usual after PrepTalkTV Weekly, I'll have a live chat following the show.
Here's a rundown of the show:
0:00 -- Opening, discussion of McShea's Prep Talk column on Depew Boys & Girls Club
3:10 -- Interview with Cardinal O'Hara girls basketball team, including coach Dan McDermott, senior Leah McDonell and junior Keyonte Edwards
13:40 -- Clarence hockey's win over Frontier, featuring [BN] The Locker Room footage of coach Rick Brooks
18:30 -- Canisius boys swimming dominates St. Joe's to start strong weekend
21:45 -- Canisius boys basketball moves to No. 1 in The News poll and the state Class A poll; featuring [BN] The Locker Room with coach Kyle Husband from Friday's win at Timon
25:50 -- Look at this week's boys basketball polls
28:10 -- PrepTalkTV Rewind (St. Francis wrestling, Iroquois girls basketball, a special guest star on the Bucky & Sully show), followed by discussion of concussions in football and a mention of locals on National Signing Day
35:55 -- Discussion of this weekend's big championship wrestling meets
38:05 -- A look ahead to upcoming action from Thursday to Tuesday; closing.
Keith & Lauren welcome guests from Niagara Falls boys basketball and look back at the week in high school sports.
0:00 -- Opening, discussion of McShea's Prep Talk column on Oracle Charter.
3:40 -- Interview with Niagara Falls coach Sal Constantino and seniors J.J. Wilkins and Jermaine Crumpton
16:25 -- Wrestling (Clarence, Wednesday's matches, Mariacher's blog on the 'Pit' at Iroquois
27:20 -- Sacred Heart girls basketball (including coach Sister Maria Pares' pregame speech & a flashback to the Sharks' PTTV visit last week)
33:25 -- Amherst boys basketball (including coach Chris Kensy's postgame speech after the Tigers first win in Maryvale in 10 years, one that came over Maryvale coach Mark Kensy, Chris' dad)
37:45 -- Look at this week's boys basketball polls
39:10 -- PrepTalkTV Rewind (St. Joe's basketball, Lockport girls basketball coach Bill Shaw's halftime speech, Tonawanda girls basketball, Mount Mercy's "Mercy's Heroes")
43:15 -- A look ahead at ton of action from Thursday to Tuesday; closing.
For this week's PrepTalkTV Weekly -- which you can see right here tonight at 9 -- we'll welcome in Western New York's No. 1 large school boys basketball team has they head into a super weekend of matchups.
Niagara Falls coach Sal Constantino and seniors Jermaine Crumpton (who has signed with Canisius College) and Jaleo Wilkins will be our in-studio guests for what will be another loaded show of highlights from boys and girls hoops as well as wrestling. We'll also have more highlights in PrepTalkTV Rewind, our weekly look at the boys basketball polls and a look ahead to this weekend and beyond.
At first glance, it's a dungeon, a poorly-lit basement, a
storage area for the school's old junk.
While the “Pit" at Iroquois High School is a place for
rusted school desks and athletic equipment from as far back as 1968, it is
also a place that has soaked up more than 40 years of wrestling tradition.
I can't even begin to count the hours I spent in that wrestling
room underneath the gymnasium, while I waited after my basketball practices
for my father, the coach then, and my three brothers to wrap up their
practice.
It's not an exactly comfortable place for a young girl; it's
dark and smells like sweat. But when you spend
that much time down there you would begin to notice less the smell and more
the spirit of such a place.
Keith McShea has covered high school sports at The News since his hiring in 1999. The 1995 University at Buffalo graduate and Long Island native (North Babylon Bulldogs) covers — and live blogs — everything from scrimmages to state championships & helps head The News' All-Western New York selections.
Lauren Nicole Mariacher joined The News in 2009 after graduating from the Columbia University School of Journalism. The Elma native and Iroquois graduate can usually be found on a sideline, capturing highlights for PrepTalkTV. She also hosts Prep Talk's weekly live show, with Keith McShea, as well as The News' live postgame Bills show — [BN]TheHuddle.
