Published: July 07, 2008 11:34 pm            

Eric Knopsnyder | Coach facing new challenge

Tom Smith knows all about challenges.Playing college football as a 160-pound nose tackle will teach you those lessons awfully quickly.

Now, Smith will face a challenge of a different kind as he takes over the Richland High School wrestling program.

He’s quick to admit that he doesn’t have much of a wrestling background, but he does have a desire to succeed, and that’s all he needed to become an all-conference lineman and team MVP at St. Francis in 1992.

“I was the smallest defensive lineman in the entire NCAA,” Smith said. “I look at this the same way, if you work at it hard enough, you can do anything. Sometimes you have to slap that ‘S’ on your chest and work like you’re Superman.”

Smith has done that so far.

In the week since he was hired, he’s already filled out his coaching staff at Richland, adding Tanner Huffman and Dick Mock, who helped start the junior high program at Richland three decades ago.

Former Richland standout and Pitt-Johnstown wrestler Robert Sakmar will serve as a volunteer assistant.

Mike Naglic will lead the junior high program with Tim Regan as an assistant coach.

Smith, who is succeeding Dan Sichak as coach, also scored a bit of a coup, landing two-time NCAA Division II champion Thad Benton as a volunteer assistant for the junior high.

Richland has churned out some quality wrestlers in the past few years, including Marco Pecora, who placed fifth at states last season, but the Rams have struggled to field a full team since winning the District 6 tournament title in 2006. Smith is already working to change that.

“There’s been a depletion over the past couple of years, and I think I can get those numbers back,” he said.

Smith, who is an assistant principal at Richland and serves as the defensive coordinator for the football team as well as being the strength coach, said his work is already paying dividends. UPJ coach Pat Pecora is holding a wrestling camp at Richland this week and Smith said that about 45 wrestlers are participating, nearly double the amount of entrants from previous years.

A Bishop McCort graduate, Smith didn’t wrestle in high school, but credited his brothers-in-law, Scott and Brien Warshel, with opening his eyes to the sport shortly after he got out of college. He quickly found out that some of the techniques that he used in football were the fundamental skills required of wrestlers.

“A lot of the things that I did to train for (football) were wrestling-type moves and I didn’t even realize it,” he said.

Eventually, Smith hooked up with Coach Pecora to run a wrestling camp for football players, which helped transfer grappling skills to the gridiron.

“I learned a lot from it as well,” Smith said.

After discussing it with his family, Smith decided to take those skills and try to help rebuild the wrestling program at Richland.

“There’s been a rich wrestling history at Richland,” Smith said. “The most recent coach did a great job as well. I just hope to keep things going as well.”



Eric Knopsnyder is the sports editor of The Tribune-Democrat.

        

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