Coach Shu's Last Stand -- Virginia Duals Feature

As seen in Daily Press - january 15, 2017

HAMPTON – He is known simply and respectfully as “Coach Shu.” For 44 years, Apprentice wrestling coach Bruce Shumaker has made an indelible mark on local wrestling, first as a head coach at Denbigh in 1973-74, and later through a career path which wound through stops at Natural Bridge, Mathews and Lafayette high schools, with a year squeezed in at VMI, before settling in Newport News with his current position in 2007.

On Friday night, Shumaker, who will be retiring after this season, made his last coaching trip to the Virginia Duals. His Builder team had a rocky start in the American College Division, losing to favored Kutztown State 39-6 in their opening match. They battled hard against Liberty University, a Division I team, in the first consolation match before dropping a 24-18 decision.

But the Builders gave their coach a proper Duals sendoff, defeating Central Florida 39-13 in the 7^th place match.

For most of the Central Florida match, Shumaker was in typical form. Seated in the fifth chair, Coach “Shu,” an unmistakable presence, with his bald head and bushy white handlebar moustache, stared downward toward his roster notes, which were balanced on a left leg that crossed over his right. With the team score tied at nine, and Bryson Woody deadlocked in his 157-lb. bout, he remained relatively motionless and suspended in deep thought, even as Woody, and then Chad Simmons (165) and Patrick Foxworth (174) won their bouts to open up a comfortable lead.

As a pair of Knight forfeits sealed the match for Apprentice, Shumaker finally broke his pose, rolling the roster into his hand which was quickly buried under a crossed arm. As the match ended, Shumaker reminded his wrestlers to “shake their hands,” and then went back to the corner of the mat to continue a conversation that had started before the final bout.

Former wrestler?

“No, that was Frank Lapoli (former Bethel coach). He was at Bethel when I was coaching at Denbigh. Back in the 70’s, Peninsula wrestling was something else. We had Bethel (1977, AAA), Tabb (1977, AA), Poquoson (1979-81, AA), and Menchville (1976, AAA), winning state championships.”

Lapoli was followed by a trio of grown men who wanted a picture with Shumaker. One of the men was Williamsburg attorney Tom Turbeville.

Former wrestler?

“No. I wrestled for Bethel when he was coaching at Denbigh.” Turbeville (Class of 1978) went on to describe the summer sessions which were overseen by Shumaker in the late 70’s. “He’s a great man and a great coach who has given a lot to wrestling and to a lot of young men,” a group that included Turbeville’s son at Lafayette.

Shumaker smiled while recalling the summer sessions.

“We had an open wrestling room at Denbigh during the summer. It was an All-Star group of guys – whoever showed up. They came from Menchville, Tabb, Ferguson. We’d instruct a little bit, but it was round-robin. We had a great time.”

It’s the family aspect of wrestling that Shumaker continued to reference while talking about his Duals coaching career.

“All of these people are connected. Nobody’s doing this for the big crowd. You have to be selfish to be a wrestler. That’s why people come back here. It’s where all the wrestlers go.”

As far as his own top Duals memories, the first involved his team, but took place before they had set foot on a Coliseum mat. “I have so much respect for this place. I remember the first year I brought Mathews. We had been invited (in the past), but I just wasn’t sure that we were good enough to be here.” Only Shumaker’s last four Mathews teams (of nine) competed at the Duals.

He was happy the first year that his team did compete. “I got to watch Iowa and Penn State wrestle against each other on Friday night. And then on Saturday, they had to wrestle again in a third-place match. That’s a wrestler’s dream.”

The second memory involved his current team. “My first year here (2008), we tied Millersville, which was a Division I school at the time. But we had more pins, which was the criteria (for tie-breakers), so we won.”

The season is not over for Shumaker. He is “really optimistic” about his current squad. “We have never had so much depth (27 wrestlers), or this much skill.” Upcoming events include the USCAA National Wrestling Invitational at Penn State. Shumaker hopes to recapture some past success at the USCAA tournament.

“We won it the first five years, but haven’t won since.” His final match will take place on March 9-11 at the NCWA (National Collegiate Wrestling Association) Nationals.

Shumaker promises to return to the Coliseum next year, even if it’s as a spectator.

“It’s where you want to be if you’re in wrestling – first class.”

LaPrade, Prata Suffering Growing Pains with Hokies Wrestling - However, the future still looks bright

Original version of article which appeared in the Daily Press - January 13, 2017

Joey Prata won two National Prep titles
at St. Christopher's High. He's hoping to
break into Virginia Tech's lineup, but a UCL
tear has put him on the redshirt list for
this year.

HAMPTON – B.C. LaPrade (’15) and Joey Prata (’16) were two of the Peninsula’s most successful lightweight wrestlers over their high school careers. At New Kent High, LaPrade was a two-time 3A state champion (138 and 145), while Prata, from Seaford, won two National Prep and VISAA titles at the 106 and 113-lb. weights while wrestling for St. Christopher’s in Richmond.

But as the pair of grapplers transition to the college level at fifth-ranked Virginia Tech, they are finding that the road to greatness is littered with obstacles. In a first-round matchup against Kent State, the two young Hokies were not on the mat, but hovering over Mat 2 from the third row of the mezzanine deck at Hampton Coliseum.

“It’s a big transition,” said LaPrade, emphasizing his third word, while Prata nodded and laughed in agreement. However, the pair, who competed in a combined dozen Duals competitions as middle and high school wrestlers, aim to work their way back down to the floor level at the Coliseum.

And they both know what it’s going to take to get there.

LaPrade was selected as the Daily Press All-Star Wrestler of the Year in 2015. Under coach Mike Faus, the Trojan enjoyed a stellar senior campaign, sporting a 52-1 record, while winning Conference 25, 3A East, and finally, 3A championships.

Almost two years after his final high school bout, LaPrade, competing in the 157-pound weight class, is still waiting to make his official debut in Blacksburg.

“The first year, I grey shirted,” said LaPrade, who enrolled in New River Community College, just ten minutes away from the Tech campus, for the 2015-16 academic year. The collegiate newbie studied by day, and practiced with his new coach Kevin Dresser, and the rest of the Tech squad at night.

This year, LaPrade is classified as a redshirt freshman. In his current status, he continues to work out with Dresser and the Hokies, but his wrestling is limited to events, such as last weekend’s Franklin and Marshall Invitational, where he must compete as an “unattached” athlete.

“He’s making progress,” said Dresser. “He has been a little up and down as a freshman, as to be expected.”

The Franklin and Marshall competition may have served as a watershed moment for LaPrade. “He had a good weekend,” said the Hokie coach, now in his 11^th season at the helm. LaPrade won his first three bouts over wrestlers from the host school, as well as Maryland and Old Dominion, with the final win being a 13-3 major decision. Brown’s Justin Standenmayer scored a 3-1 decision in LaPrade’s fourth match, and his day ended with a fall at 1:12, courtesy of Columbia’s Laurence Kosoy. However, the 3-2 record served as a quantifying indicator in his improvement as LaPrade aims to break into the starting lineup next year.

By comparison, Prata committed to Tech last spring and was immediately pegged by Hokie fans on social media as the heir apparent to the 125-pound slot currently occupied by undefeated (13-0) All-American Joey Dance.

Dresser doesn’t argue the point. “He’s a little undersized at 125, kind of small.” However, as 125 is the lowest weight class in college wrestling, it would, by default, become Prata’s ideal classification. With Dance graduating in the spring, the slot will be wide open this coming fall. Prata remains reserved on the opportunity. “If that’s how it ends up,” he answered when asked about his status as the next in line at 125.

Prata’s collegiate career got off to a less than auspicious start. In early November, at the Hokie Open, disaster struck as the four-time All-American tore his UCL (ulnar collateral ligament) during a bout. Reconstruction of the UCL has a more common term – Tommy John surgery, named for the famed baseball pitcher who earned the distinction by becoming the first athlete to undergo the procedure, which involves replacing the injured UCL with a tendon from another part of the body.

According to Dresser, the recovery period for Prata should take “about six months.” Looking ahead, he added, “We didn’t get to see a lot of him because he got hurt. But, he’ll be in the mix here soon. What I see of him, I like.”

Before his injury, Prata did have one opportunity to slay the beast, squaring off against Dance in the Hokie intra-squad scrimmage, a bout won by Dance 15-5.

There is more to the college transition for the two. Asked about the hardest adjustment, LaPrade noted the “hand fighting and finishing shots,” while Prata spoke of the consistency and rigor of each practice.

As the two look ahead, they remain confident that success will follow for them in Dresser’s program, which has a 64-12 record (19-2 in ACC) over the past four seasons with two ACC championships and two ACC Dual championships.

“It’s a grind, but I love it,” says LaPrade. “I trust my training. That’s what the coaches always say.”

“They wouldn’t have recruited us into the system if they didn’t think we were good enough,” added Prata. “We might not be there right now, but we have to go out and keep doing our job.”

From VaPeninsulaSports.com: Prepping for the 2017 Virginia Duals

It’s that time of year again. Early January can stand for many things. Around Hampton Roads this year, it means snow and plenty of it. However, on the first or second weekend of every year, high school and college wrestling teams from all over the country converge upon Hampton Coliseum to take part in the “granddaddy of them all,” the 37^th annual Virginia Duals.

For the sixth straight year, I am pleased to report that I will be covering the Duals, live on Twitter and for the Saturday, Sunday and Monday editions of the Daily Press. This is my favorite assignment of the year, and certainly the most time consuming. It will involve arriving at the Coliseum at 7 on Friday and Saturday morning, with the expectation that I will be within the arena until about 10 PM on both nights.

Covering the Duals is mostly a task of endurance. There are five separate tournaments taking place on ten mats – at the same time. The high schoolers are broken up into three categories – the Black and Blue, American and National divisions, while the collegiate grapplers are divided between the American College and National College divisions.

For the Daily Press, I’ll highlight the teams on the Peninsula as well as ODU, Virginia and Virginia Tech at the college level. In fact, my first feature for Saturday’s paper will have something to do with Virginia Tech and a couple of young Peninsula athletes.

Looking at the different divisions, there are a couple of noticeable differences. At the high school level, New Kent is not in this lineup. Neither is Tabb or Gloucester, and all three teams are among the most active in the 36-year Duals history.

Among Peninsula schools, Poquoson and York will be competing in the Black and Blue Division. Poquoson won this division two years ago, and were forced to move up to the American Division last year. This should be more comfortable for the Islanders, and they should fare well, and the best among three Bay Rivers schools that also includes Smithfield. Fourth seeded Poquoson will open at 5 PM against Strasburg, with York and Smithfield opening in the 7 PM round against Powhatan and Ocean Lakes, respectively.

Warwick returns to the Duals lineup and joins perennial entry Lafayette in the American High School division. The Raiders have the toughest draw, opening against top-ranked Bellefonte Area (PA), while Lafayette will draw Kellam from Virginia Beach.

No Peninsula teams will be in the National High School Division, in which Nazareth (PA) and 11-time state champion South Dade (FL) hold the top two seeds.

In the American College Division, Coach Bruce Shumaker’s Apprentice Builder team will hit the mats first against first-seeded Kutztown State (PA).

Old Dominion is the closest school to the Peninsula to be involved in the National Division, which includes six of the top-35 ranked teams in Division I, including the Monarchs, U. Virginia, and #5 ranked Virginia Tech. The Monarchs will start in the James River pool, wrestling both Chattanooga and Oklahoma before determining their next match.

Please feel free to follow me @jfmcgrath for live updates from Hampton Coliseum and in this Saturday’s and Sunday’s Daily Press. There will be a short recap in Monday’s paper which will highlight the championship round.

vapeninsulasports.com