Coleman Scott heads to Guatemala for Junior World Championships

Chris Matthews Oklahoma State Sports Information
08/29/2006

Oklahoma State has paraded out NCAA wrestling champions like no other school in the country, but one Cowboy wrestler is seeking a title of a different sort.

Junior Coleman Scott has yet to win an NCAA title, but he is after a World Championship first. Scott will wrestle in the FILA Jr. World Championships in Guatemala City from Aug. 29 to Sept. 2. Scott will participate in freestyle, which takes place on Saturday.

"It is a great experience for Coleman to make the world team and represent the United States," OSU head wrestling coach John Smith said. "It is his first opportunity to travel and compete against the world¹s best. It is what we are looking for in this program. It is for guys to go on and be competitive at the international level.

"I believe he is prepared to do very well."

The World Championships are sure to offer Scott much tougher competition then he can find on the collegiate level.

"A lot of the kids, all they do is freestyle so they mature a lot sooner than we do," Scott said. "A lot of the guys on the senior level are 19 to 20 years old. There have been some guys that have lost at the Junior Worlds but won at the regular Worlds in the same year for their country.

"I am going to be wrestling some real good guys from everywhere. Some of these guys will be representing their country on the Senior World Team. It is going to be a tough tournament."

Shortly after Scott pinned Cal Poly´s Chad Mendes for fifth-place at the NCAA Championships in March, he was right back to work preparing for the FILA Jr. National Championships in Las Vegas.

The fifth-place NCAA finish was a disappointment for the Waynesburg, Pa., native, but the way he battled back after an early loss earned the respect of Cowboys fans everywhere. Scott lost his first match of the tournament, but he swept through the consolation bracket, picking up three falls and a technical fall along the way, before finishing fifth. Scott had only one fall all season before the tournament started.

Scott was in the wrestling room as soon as he got back from Oklahoma City knowing that his summer was just beginning. He kept his focus in Las Vegas and came away with the national title.

His victory in Vegas qualified him for the FILA Jr. World Team Trials in Colorado Springs, where he received a bye to the finals.

Scott met the winner of the Challenge Tournament in the form of NCAA runner-up Troy Nickerson of Cornell. In a tough best-of-three format, Scott won the decisive third match by a score of 1-0, 3-0 to make the World Team and qualify for the FILA Jr. World Championships.

It has been a grind for the 20-year old after having a successful collegiate season followed by a successful summer. The collegiate season begins again shortly after Scott returns from Guatemala.

Scott will bump up a weight class for the 2006-07 season, after two All-America finishes at 125-pounds. He should be settled in rather nicely at 133 after competing and winning all summer at 132 pounds. Still, Scott will accept nothing less than a national title.

"I have always said that it never hurts to wrestle guys that are bigger than you," Scott said. "It never hurts to wrestle a weight up. It just makes you better because you have to execute a lot of little things in order to score on them. It has helped me out a lot getting used to those guys so it has been good.

"I am just looking for a national title. That is all I want. I am going to train hard, and I trained all summer. A lot of guys took off this summer. It is an advantage to me. I know nobody else has been in this room every day like I have. It helps keep me motivated to come out on top next year."