By
ERIC BAILEY World Sports Writer
5/23/2008
Cherry will be
a senior leader for new Coweta coach Bubba Burcham next fall. Cherry was among
the state’s top tacklers last season as a junior, and is also one of Oklahoma’s
top wrestlers.What do you do to unwind after playing a hard-hitting, intense football game?
“I’ll come into the locker room, take oE my pads and wait until everyone leaves and then watch film with Coach Ricky (Bryan). We’ll sit and watch and he’ll tell me what I did wrong.”
You’re talented in both football and wrestling. Have you given any thought to which you’d like to do in college?
“Not yet. I’m really undecided. I’ve been wrestling since I was 5 and playing tackle football since the second grade. After high school, I’d like to do both. But whatever happens, I’ll have to make a decision.”
What feels better - a great quarterback sack or a 15-second pin on the wrestling mat?
“That’s a tough one. I love football and love sacks. I’d have to go with the sack because they don’t come as often as 15-second pins.”
Where’s your dream spring break destination?
“Hawaii, just because it’s so nice.”
What is your favorite meal and who makes it?
“My mom. I’d like green beans, some fried okra, some baked potatoes and steak and rib. Fried chicken. As long as it’s home-cooked.”
Tar Heels Add Eight Prep Wrestlers For 2008-09
Class brings impressive credentials to Chapel Hill.
May 12, 2008
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - North Carolina's wrestling program has signed eight prep standouts from six different states to National Letters of Intent, head coach C.D. Mock announced Monday. This group, which features seven wrestlers in the lighter weight groups, will join the Tar Heel program in the fall and will be eligible to compete for Carolina in the 2008-09 season.
"With the exception of heavyweight, we decided to focus our recruiting this year on building depth at the lighter weights," said Mock. "We are only losing one starter this year, so it is a great opportunity for us to add depth and build for the future. In addition to the impressive wrestling credentials this group brings to Chapel Hill, I am particularly excited about their character and enthusiasm about being Tar Heels. They will fit in very well with the group we have coming back. My assistants did an exceptional job bringing in this group of young men."
At 125 pounds, the Tar Heels added standouts Ian McLaughlin (Butler, Pa.) and Nick Shields (Metairie, La.). A product of The Kiski School, McLaughlin won the 2008 national prep title at 119 pounds and was named Most Outstanding Wrestler at the nationals.
Shields is a three-time Louisiana state champion and four-time qualifier at Brother Martin High School. He placed third at the 2007 Beast of the East Tournament and recently was named the Louisiana recipient of the Dave Shultz High School Excellence Award.
UNC continued its strong haul in the lower weight classes with the addition of 133-pounder Ky Corley (Stillwater, Okla.). Corley is a four-time Oklahoma placewinner at Stillwater High School and captured a state title in 2008.
The Tar Heels also added three at 141 pounds - Daniel Helena (Decatur, Ga.), Bobby Shanor (Eden, N.C.) and Jake Vonderbruegge (Hillsboro, Mo.).
Helena is a four-time Georgia placewinner and won a Dominican Republic national title in 2005 and a Venezuelan national bronze medal in 2007. Shanor won a trio of North Carolina state titles at Morehead High School, while Vonderbruegge captured a 2008 Missouri state title and was a three-time state placewinner at Hillsboro High School.
Also joining the Carolina program out of Missouri is 149-pounder Tyler St. Louis (Kansas City, Mo.), who won three state titles at Platte County High School.
Ziad Haddad (Orefield, Pa.) was the lone addition in the upper weight groups for Carolina. A projected heavyweight, he won a Pennsylvania state title in 2008 for Bethlehem Catholic High School and captured a NHSCA senior national championship.
2008 NORTH CAROLINA WRESTLING SIGNEES
Name Weight Hometown Previous School
Ky Corley 133 Stillwater, Okla. Stillwater
Ziad Haddad HWT Orefield, Pa. Bethlehem Catholic
Daniel Helena 141 Decatur, Ga. Shiloh
Ian McLaughlin 125 Butler, Pa. Kiski School
Bobby Shanor 141 Eden, N.C. Morehead
Nick Shields 125 Metairie, La. Brother Martin
Tyler St. Louis 149 Kansas City, Mo. Platte County
Jake Vonderbruegge 141 Hillsboro, Mo. Hillsboro
No obstacle sits too high for Cichon
As Dusty Cichon climbed the podium to accept his third gold medal of the 2007 Special Olympics International Games, a chorus of cheers arose from spectators crammed into a Shanghai, China coliseum.Cichon soaked it in — smiling like he always does — while the crowd alternated chants in unison.
Those who could speak English screamed "Little Big Man.” All others simply yelled "Din Din.”
The 4-foot-3, 103-pound sparkplug was a long way from his home in Wann, a tiny town about 20 miles south of Coffeyville, Kan.
And yet there he stood, receiving unconditional acceptance as though he were surrounded by thousands of friends and family.
"It was pretty cool to hear them cheering,” said Cichon, 20, who will compete at the Special Olympics Oklahoma Games today through Friday in Stillwater. "They called me Little Big Man and Din Din. (That) means happiness and good fortune.”
Cichon's nicknames haven't always been bestowed in admiration.
Not too long ago, he was tagged with a much crueler epithet.
Midget.
As a youngster, Cichon was diagnosed with Achondroplasia, an autosomal dominant genetic disorder which causes dwarfism — he also suffers a slight intellectual disability, but is considered high-functioning.
Victims of Achondroplasia typically have normal-sized heads and torsos but small legs and arms. Amy Roloff of TLC's "Little People, Big World” has the same disorder.
"The doctor told us that it's one of those deals where God just says, ‘OK, it's going to happen here,'” said Dusty's adopted mother Vera Cichon. "It's not inherited, just random.”
Dusty always wanted to compete in sports, but it took him a while to find his niche.
He started playing little league baseball in elementary school.
It wasn't the right fit.
"He just made it a couple of years and it didn't work out real good,” Vera said. "But Dusty had to play sports of some kind. He loves to compete.”
Vera and her husband Ronnie learned of a private wrestling club in Bartlesville. They enrolled Dusty and his normal-sized biological brother Evert, despite apprehension from the club coaches.
"They didn't think he'd have a lot of success because of the shortness of his limbs,” Ronnie Cichon said. "The very first year he wrestled at the novice level and won state.”
Dusty met similar skepticism when he attempted to try out for his eighth-grade wrestling team.
He told the coach he wanted to wrestle on the first team and would do so at any cost. The coach told him he'd have to beat the boy wrestling at his weight to earn a spot.
So Dusty did just that.
"He is not shy,” said Sandy Bliss, Cichon's teacher at Bartlesville Mid-High School. "He is determined. He's always been that way.”
Where Dusty at times faced skepticism from his coaches, he faced sheer intolerance from some teammates and opponents.
Vera remembers one match during mid-high school when an opposing grappler taunted Dusty relentlessly, cursing him and calling him a midget.
After Dusty won the match, he extended his hand to the opponent, who slapped it away.
"That stuff hurts, but I've been getting over it since I was 13,” Dusty said. "It doesn't really bother me anymore.”
Said Bliss: "Dusty has a special charm about him. He will tell you, ‘Hi' even if he doesn't know your name and he will ask you how you're doing today. He's always friendly, no matter how he's treated.”
It was Bliss who first encouraged Dusty to compete at the Special Olympics as a power lifter.
After Dusty suffered a knee injury during his third season on the Bartlesville High School varsity wrestling team, he turned his full attention toward the weights.
Today, he can bench press 343 pounds, squat 402 and dead lift 255.
He shows up to competitions wearing homemade T-shirts which bear taglines like: Attitude not Altitude and It isn't height, it is heart that makes an athlete great.
Last year, he met George W. Bush at the Rose Garden in Washington D.C.
"It was pretty exciting. It kind of shocked me,” Dusty said of his presidential encounter. "I told him my name and where I'm from and what I do and he said, ‘That's fantastic. I'm glad to meet you.'”
Most folks are.
Dusty's competitive drive and good-natured spirit has helped him make friends the world over. In Shanghai, he approached the coach of Iraq's Special Olympics team just to tell him he was offering prayers on the country's behalf.
"There aren't a lot of people from this part of the world that would just go up and talk to someone from (the Middle East),” said Vera Cichon. "All (Dusty) wants is to be your friend. He doesn't care where you're from or what you do or what you think of him.”
Little Big Man, indeed.