By John Schiano
MaxPreps.com
There may be some observers in awe of Ian Paddock’s accomplishments in high school wrestling, but Ian Paddock isn’t one of them. The Warsaw High senior is proud of his amazing resume in the sport of wrestling but he remains humble and keeps his latest accomplishments in perspective.
Having won his 236th career match last week to set the school record and then No. 239 on Monday to break the Section V mark, Paddock has an eye on the state record but a healthy view about being atop any list.
“It’s a pretty good feeling and it’s a nice record to hold because there were a bunch of good wrestlers before me who held the mark,” Paddock said of the sectional achievement.
“I knew at the end of last year I was close and that if everything went well I’d be able to break both the Section V and state records. But it’s going to get broken in the next couple of years, I assume, because I know there are many good wrestlers out there now.”
While that may true, it’s also almost a certainty that all of them would trade their future for Paddock’s past.
Paddock is 241-6 since joining the Warsaw varsity as a seventh-grader, including 53-1 last season and 27-0 this season following his triumph in the 43rd annual Teike/Bernabi Tournament at Spencerport. He broke Webster Schroeder great Gregor Gillespie’s sectional victories mark during the Teike/Bernabi quarterfinals.
Paddock is already been a three-time New York State Public High School Athletic Association Division 2 champion: 96 pounds as an eighth-grader in 2005, 119 pounds in ’07 as a sophomore and 130 pounds last year.
According to the NYSPHSAA, Central Square's Winky Shepard holds the state record of 267 wins. Paddock has an estimated 28 to 30 matches remaining, assuming he returns to the state tournament in a bid for his fourth championship.
“That is a motivator,” he said of Shepard’s milestone, “but I also want to get back to states. If I didn’t win it again it would be a disappointment. There’s always that possibility.
“You’ve always got to be up there for every match,” he added. “There are other tough kids out there and you’ve got to prepare just like every other year knowing that this could be your toughest challenge. It’s not really a fear. It’s just realizing that there’s always somebody tough out there I might have to wrestle to achieve my goals.”
That’s part of Paddock’s ongoing maturing process that began with his first state title the same year his brother, Paul, won the first of his two championships.
“It felt like I had a target on my back,” he said “If I wasn’t ‘teching’ a kid or doing what I thought I should do I’d get upset with myself. Since 10th-grade year I’ve done a much better job of not getting mad at myself and concentrating on doing my job.”
After entertaining a bunch of college offers, including the chance to follow his brother to Edinboro (Pa.), Paddock has accepted a full athletic/academic scholarship to wrestle at Ohio State beginning next fall. The Buckeyes finished second in Division I last year with two individual champions and a third finalist.
College will require a transition from Big Man on Campus in Warsaw, 15 miles south of Batavia, to little man (he’ll probably wrestle at 135 pounds the remainder of the season but has the option to drop down to 130) on a sprawling campus in the relatively bustling city of Columbus.
That’s no small consideration for someone raised in tiny Warsaw (pop. 3,651).
“I did worry about it a little going into it,” he admitted, “but we went and walked around campus and saw what it was like. I’ll mostly be around the wrestlers and going to class instead of going off everywhere. And all the classes are close to each other. But, yeah, with 50,000 students I’m sure it’s going to take a little work to adapt to it.”
And what about the legacy in Upstate New York he’ll leave behind?
“I don’t necessarily want to be remembered as a four-time state champ,” he said. “I want to be remembered as a good wrestler but also a good kid who helped the sport.”
More Wrestling: Union-Endicott Duals Brackets Set
Spencerport and Phoenix have been awarded byes in the loaded 14-team field for the Union-Endicott Duals on Saturday. They are ranked first in Divisions 1 and 2, respectively, by the New York State Sportswriters Association.
If the seeds hold up, Spencerport will face Wantagh in the quarterfinals and fourth seed Amsterdam in the semifinals. Phoenix is in line to take on Fairport in the quarterfinals and then No. 3 Monroe-Woodbury.
Basketball: Jamesville-DeWitt and Peekskill Dazzle
Reigning state Class A player of the year Brandon Triche poured in 30 points as Jamesville-DeWitt swamped Weston (Fla.) Cypress Bay, 78-54, to win the Stop-DWI National Division championship in Binghamton on Tuesday. Triche, bound for Syracuse University next fall, scored 88 points in the three-game tournament as the Rams improved to 9-0. He hit for 35 in the semifinals against Brooklyn Bishop Ford.
Peekskill trailed late in the third quarter before putting away Yonkers Gorton, 66-47, in the Slam Dunk final in White Plains. Albany recruit Ralph Watts scored nine of his 24 points in the fourth quarter and junior guard Daquan Brickhouse finished the night with 15 points, seven assists and six rebounds to earn MVP honors for the second year in a row. Peekskill forced 10 fourth-quarter turnovers and began the period with a 13-3 run.
In other noteworthy basketball developments:
* Niagara Falls avenged its state Class AA championship loss to Bishop Maginn in March by routing the Golden Griffins, 78-58, behind Kelvin Agee’s 28 points. The Wolverines (8-0) had dropped a 69-38 verdict to Maginn in the 2008 NYSPHSAA final in Glens Falls.
* Windsor senior Matt Murray poured in 46 points on 17-for-24 shooting in an 87-50 victory over Unatego in one of the sub-bracket games of the Stop-DWI tourney. Murray, who scored his team's first 13 points, was 8-for-12 on three-point attempts in setting the tournament scoring record.
* Utica Notre Dame junior forward Pat Moore broke a 33-year-old school scoring record with 48 points to beat FDR, 90-78, in the Tournament of Kings in Brooklyn. The 6-foot-5 Moore shot 14-of-29 from the field, made 13 of 15 free throws and grabbed 11 rebounds. He’s averaging 28.3 points for the Jugglers (7-2).
* Albertus Magnus beat Our Lady of Lourdes, 65-47, to win the Slam Dunk girls basketball tournament a day after rallying from 17 points down in the semifinals against Greece Athena. Maura Power (14 points) made four three-pointers in the first half and Alaina Walker scored 21 points and made six steals.
Legendary Football Coach Bedini Dies
Americo "Ben" Bedini, who compiled a 95-7 football coaching record at Rye and Port Chester and was Iona College's first coach, died last weekend in Raleigh, N.C., at the age of 87.
In 1954, Bedini took over a Rye team that had won 18 games in a row and extended the streak to 33. He also had another 33-game win streak in 1960 and moved on to Iona, where he guided the Gaels to a 9-0 record in 1967. Bedini also was an assistant at Fordham and an NFL scout working with Sam Rutigliano's Browns and Marty Schottenheimer's Chiefs.
John Schiano, who has written about high school sports in western and central New York for more than 25 years, covers New York for MaxPreps. He may be reached at johnschianosports@gmail.com.
