Sharp as a pin : Fayetteville High grappler Gordon undefeated in state competition
Posted on Sunday, January 27, 2008
Michael Gordon has been wrestling since he was a first grader in Hinton, Iowa. He's won numerous championships on the state and nationals levels as he's grown up in several states. It's all he and his dad, Steve, talk about at home.
But coaches haven't shown much interest in the 18-year-old Fayetteville senior, who won the 135-pound state title last year and holds a perfect 30-0 record this season in the 152-pound weight class heading into the championships of the Fayetteville Invitational on Saturday evening, his father said.
"Not a lot of coaches know about him. They see Arkansas and they go, ' Oh, '"Steve Gordon said. "But look at who he's beat."
His son, who moved to Arkansas in 2003, has done very well in national competitions. The grappler has beaten state champions in Missouri and some of the nation's best at the Mid-America Nationals Tournament - which he won last December - and in junior nationals and renowned tournaments in Reno, Nev.
He's also ranked No. 1 in the state among his weight class in the National College Wrestling Association high school rankings.
At the Mid-America Nationals Tournament, Michael Gordon defeated the third-ranked wrestler in the state of Texas, 12-4, to take the individual title. The win also propelled Fayetteville into a strong 24 th overall finish in the competition.
Steve Gordon serves as a volunteer coach for the Purple Dogs and has been in Michael's corner since his son began wrestling with friends he lived next door to in elementary school. In his chair adjacent to the wrestling mat, Steve coaches, teaches and some times cheers.
Despite all the work, wrestling in Arkansas has been an afterthought to some and the stigma hurts talented wrestlers like his son, the elder Gordon said.
Some interest has been shown, though, by the University of Missouri and Arizona State, but the curly-haired Purple Dog grappler is still uncertain whether or not to wrestle in the collegiate ranks.
"I'm thinking about it," Michael Gordon said. "It's definitely a possibility."
Gordon has pinned 22 opponents and only one has made it outside the first period against him this season.
"It's all about speed, and I try not to make mistakes out there," he said. "The quicker you can do it, the better. "
Michael Gordon was coached by several wellknown coaches inside the state of Iowa while growing up and moving through the ranks, and utilizes tournaments outside the state in tradition-rich wrestling areas like Oklahoma and Missouri to bump his name among the best in the nation.
"He's good enough to wrestle in college," his father said. "Here, there's no one able to counter him. In college, they can."
Gordon won the Black Diamond Classic championship in Sallisaw, Okla., last weekend. As usual, it wasn't much of a hassle for the Purple Dog. He went 8-0 and pinned all eight opponents in the first period. In the championship match, he won in just one minute.
His father describes wrestling as "six minutes of madness," and one of the most physically grueling sports on the high school level. Red-faced, some times unable to catch a breath and bruised, wrestlers in this state and elsewhere, Gordon said, are fairly even in toughness.
"There's not much separation. It's all about mistakes," the volunteer coach said. "A takedown here or a takedown there gets the other kid the advantage in the match. When you're down, sometimes you have to gamble."
And gambling usually costs a wrestler a match. But experience usually transforms a wrestler into a winner. Once there's experience, the champion's father said, pace is what is needed to be perfect.
"There's a lot of good wrestlers out there, but then you put them out against one another and they get taken. Why is that ? "the father asked. "It's pace. We can do it harder, faster and quicker. Michael practices that all the time."
Wrestling is in the family, too. Michael Gordon may be the only one who takes the mat, but mom and twin sister, Ashley, are usually at the matches.
"I've probably been to 75. No, 100. I don't know, maybe 1, 000," Ashley Gordon said of the number of wrestling matches she's attended.
Usually when the conversation at home switches to wrestling, mother and daughter pick up their own conversation. When the wrestling season is over, the conversation turns to golf.
Michael is good at that, too, his father said.
Gordon will be the heavy favorite to take the 152-pound state title March 14-15 at the state championships in Little Rock. Fayetteville, meanwhile, will try to improve on a secondplace finish last season on the state level. Problem is, though, the elder Gordon said, is the lack of a heavyweight competitor and injuries to several of their other grapplers.
But the former Iowan will step up and fill in as much as possible, father said.
"Wherever we need him in the lineup, that's where he'll go."
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