SILENT H: With Andy Hrovat, expect the unexpected from one of wrestling's most colorful characters

When you're a security guard at a Las Vegas hotel, you see a little bit of everything.

But the security guards at the Las Vegas Hilton couldn't help but bust out laughing at what they witnessed late last week.

That's when a stocky, 200-pound man came rolling past them in a pair of white and brown tennis shoes with wheels on the bottom.

"They had probably never seen a 27-year-old man wheeling around in those kind of shoes," the man on wheels says proudly.

Welcome to the unique, and often times bizarre world of Silent H, aka Andy Hrovat.

He's the guy who owns a black suit with pink pinstripes, a full-length, jet black fur coat and a gaudy three-piece green leisure suit with a mint green shirt.

He tried talking as many teammates as possible into growing moustaches for a photo shoot at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. Among his hobbies listed in USA Wrestling's media guide is "thrift store shopping."

Hrovat is one of the sport's most colorful, charismatic and fun-loving characters. He's a kid trapped in a 27-year-old man's body.

"Andy's a rare bird - he's a riot," said Overtime Wrestling Club's Sean Bormet, who coaches Hrovat. "He has a great sense of humor. He has a creative side to him where the wheels are always turning. He's not afraid to put himself out there and he's pretty comfortable in his own skin. You never know what he's going to do next."

When he's not goofing around off the mat, Hrovat is dominating opponents on it. The past All-American for Michigan has established himself as one of the best freestyle wrestlers in the United States. He's a top Olympic hopeful at 84 kg/185 lbs.

Hrovat's breakthrough performance on the mat came when he turned in a stunning performance to win the 2006 U.S. World Team Trials in Sioux City, Iowa. Seeded fifth, Hrovat pinned No. 1 seed and heavily favored 2005 World Team member Mo Lawal in the semifinals en route to the title.

Hrovat followed this past season by placing second at the 2007 World Team Trials.

He is known almost as much for his behavior off the mat as for what he's accomplished on it.

"Wrestling is a really hard sport - if you sit around thinking about that stuff all the time it would make you miserable," Hrovat said. "You have to loosen up and enjoy yourself when you're not on the mat. I've always tried to have fun and not take everything so seriously."

Believe it or not, some of Hrovat's closest friends are guys who actually compete against him in the same weight class.

Among them is another one of the sport's colorful characters, Jake Herbert. A 2007 NCAA champion as a junior for Northwestern, Herbert is taking an Olympic redshirt this season. They both compete for the New York Athletic Club. Herbert outlasted Hrovat in the semifinals of the Sunkist Kids International Open in October.

One of their first meetings came when Hrovat hosted Herbert on his recruiting trip to Michigan.

Hrovat took Herbert to a Halloween party in Ann Arbor and Herbert quickly learned that Hrovat not only has a great sense of humor but that he is a good person as well.

"I didn't have a costume so Andy hooked me up," Herbert said. "I went as the Half-Naked Man in Spandex, and he gave me a mask to wear. It was pretty funny.

"Then I ended up leaving my jacket at the party and he drove me the whole way back to get that jacket. I still have the jacket. That shows what a good Samaritan he is."

About a year and a half later, Hrovat battled Herbert on the mat at the U.S. Nationals in Las Vegas. Herbert had just finished completing his redshirt season at Northwestern.

"Andy had a front headlock on me and stepped over my leg, and I tore my ACL," Herbert said. "I spent eight months rehabbing. He would text me all the time and check on how I was doing. He really helped me make it back and gave me a lot of encouragement."

Following his upset over Lawal in the 2006 Trials, Hrovat went out to eat between sessions. Among the people he was joined by at lunch was Clint Wattenberg, the guy he defeated that evening to make his first World Team.

Shortly after Hrovat and Herbert faced off recently at Sunkist, they were spotted talking with each other.

"We are going to be battling it out tooth and nail this year, trying to make the Olympic Team," Herbert said. "We're the best of friends, but we're going to try and tear each other completely apart when we step on the mat. Five minutes after the match, after we cool off, then we're friends again. It takes a great person to be able to do that."

The Zoro-type moustache Hrovat sported at the 2007 U.S. National Team photo session has generated plenty of discussion in the wrestling world after it appeared on TheMat.com.

Anyone who follows Hrovat knows he's constantly changing his appearance. At one tournament he might have long hair and a full beard. Then the next event he may show up with his head shaved and his face clean-shaven.

"I like to have fun with it - I change up my appearance more than my wrestling," he said. "Plus I get bored a lot, so that gives me something to do."

He didn't have much luck convincing his teammates to go with moustaches at the photo shoot. One teammate who did was Wattenberg.

"I tried talking (Henry) Cejudo into getting a fake moustache, because he can't really grow one," Hrovat said. "Herbert says he can't grow one, but I know he really can."

Herbert said some of the abuse Hrovat has taken on wrestling message boards for his moustache is justified.

"You've got to give him a hard time for looking like that," Herbert said with a laugh. "He needs to grow it out and get the curls going now. That's probably what he will do next."

Hrovat, Herbert, Wattenberg and 2006 World bronze medalist Donny Pritzlaff, who competes in the weight class below them at 74 kg/163 lbs., all spend time training together under Bormet at the Overtime Wrestling Club in suburban Chicago.

Bormet coached both Hrovat and Pritzlaff in college, and is regarded as one of the top freestyle coaches in the country. They are all affiliated with the New York Athletic Club.

"Sean has helped me a lot and brought a lot of guidance to me," Hrovat said. "I have so much respect for everything he tells me. I will do anything he tells me. I see the fire in his eyes and I want to win for him. I don't want to walk back to the corner after a loss because I don't want to let him down. He really knows how to train us, break down video, everything. He's taken coaching to a whole new level."

The guys who train with Bormet also know how to mix in a little fun on occasion. After Bormet set up a simulated tournament to prepare for a big event, Herbert decided to spice things up by bringing in a WWE belt that would go to the winner.

Hrovat won the belt.

"I think they're going to put my name on the belt since I won," Hrovat said. "That would be really cool."

Bormet received an early taste of Hrovat's unique personality when he coached him at Michigan.

"Spring break is always right before Big Tens," Bormet said. "Everyone leaves campus and is going off to South Padre Island and Florida, and the wrestling team is stuck on campus training. The team went bowling and Andy showed up with 'Ann Arbor Spring Break 2000' T-shirts and gave one to everybody."

Bormet said Hrovat also made quite a splash at a Michigan golf outing.

"He showed up wearing knickers with the Argyle socks pulled up to his knees," Bormet said. "And he was wearing a Cardigan sweater and the hat that goes with the outfit. He goes all-out with his attire. He always seems to enjoy whatever he's doing. He's not afraid to laugh at himself."

Bormet said when Hrovat travels he usually brings one of his favorite games with him.

"He carries these Bocce Balls with him," Bormet said with a laugh. "He rolls these balls and you try to score points. He will challenge people to a game of Bocce Balls at any time."

Bormet said Hrovat "has no ego at all" and that a lot of his antics are just an expression of his personality. Herbert has a similar view.

"You need to have fun off the mat to make it in this sport," Herbert said. "You can't be serious all the time. Andy loves wrestling and he can't get enough of it. Off the mat, he's always smiling and laughing and having fun. He gets along with everybody. He's one of the greatest guys out there."

Hrovat loves the reaction he receives when he wears his shoes with wheels. He wore them during September's World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, when he served as a training partner for the U.S. team.

"The people in Azerbaijan had no clue what was going on when I had those shoes on," Hrovat said. "I didn't wear them too much in Baku because the roads had too many cracks in them."

He broke out his shoes with wheels again late last week as he rolled through the lobby of the Las Vegas Hilton. Hrovat was in Vegas helping coach the Michigan team at the Cliff Keen Invitational.

"It always seems to lighten the mood when I do things like that," he said.

Hrovat was easy to spot in Baku as he sported a red, white and blue headband.

"I started wearing it at NCAAs last year," he said. "I had really long hair at the World Cup and I looked like I was straight out of the 1970s with the headband."

When U.S. National Team member Pat Cummins arrived in Baku as a training partner for the Worlds, Hrovat was waiting.

"The first night I was in Baku we went to this crappy amusement park that was right across the street from the hotel," Cummins said with a laugh. "Andy had already scouted it all out and couldn't wait to take me. We went over there and we were getting on all these rusty old amusement park rides. He insisted we go on every ride - he was on a mission to do it. He wanted to make sure he had fun, no matter where he was."

Hrovat and Cummins have become known as "half-brothers."

"We were wrestling in Canada and we went out after the tournament," Cummins said. "We were trying to convince these girls that we were hockey players. I was missing a tooth so the whole story went along perfectly. We told them we were half-brothers and had the same mom. It was so funny."

Cummins, also a member of the New York Athletic Club, said he and Hrovat hit it off right away when they met around three years ago.

"Andy is so hilarious - there is just something about him that is so funny," Cummins said. "He always lightens things up. If I'm ever in a bad mood, I just go hang out with him. He's always making us laugh."

Part of Hrovat's unique appearance includes a huge tattoo on his upper left arm.

"The outside of the tattoo is Polynesian body armor," he said. "The Polynesians always tattoo their left side to protect it when they go to war."

Hrovat lives in Ann Arbor, but spends his share of time coming to Colorado Springs to train at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. During his free time, Hrovat often is out looking for something unique to purchase.

"Colorado Springs has more thrift stores than any other place I've seen in my life," Hrovat said. "After the Schultz tournament, (Greco-Roman wrestler) Jake Clark and I went to the thrift store and got some suits for the banquet. I bought a three-piece suit that was a funny looking green. Unfortunately, I split the pants later on at a holiday party."

Wrestling has taken Hrovat all over the planet. Among the places he's been are Russia, China, Brazil and Iran.

Two trips to Iran were among the most memorable.

"One of the weirdest, and coolest, gifts that I've received came when this guy came up to me on the street in Iran," Hrovat said. "He knew me from the tournament and he was so happy to meet me. He gave me dice that were made out of ivory. Then when I was in the airport in Iran, a lady and her husband gave me this heart made out of red pistachios. They said they enjoyed watching me wrestle on TV and they just wanted to show their appreciation for what they saw.

"The people in Iran love their wrestling. Anytime they have a wrestling event it is packed as could be. Wrestling to them is like soccer is to the English - they are fanatics."

Hrovat's nickname of Silent H - derived from the pronunciation of his last name where the H is silent - was given to him after he arrived at Michigan. He even has his own Silent H T-shirts.

"Some of my friends in Ann Arbor started calling me that," he said. "They were always asking me how to say my name. I just ran with the name Silent H after that. Now I have little kids telling me they want to change their names to Silent H. I had a kid named Mark Hall tell me he wants to change his name to Mark All."

Even though he doesn't take himself very seriously off the mat, Hrovat is very serious on it.

He's already wrestled 17 matches in the 2007-08 season, compiling a 14-3 record with six pins. He's known for wrestling an aggressive, attacking and unorthodox style. He's also known for wild matches that are high-scoring.

"I have no doubt that Andy is going to score points," Bormet said. "He will give up points as well, and he needs to cut those in half. If he fine-tunes a couple of areas, he's really got a chance to be the guy on the Olympic Team."

Hrovat is a dangerous wrestler who is a threat to pin an opponent at any point during a match.

"Sometimes it's not good to go all-out," Hrovat said. "I love to open up and score points. Under the old rules, I had matches that were like 15-12. I was just like a gunslinger out there. I love all the different ways you can score in freestyle. I can't imagine standing around for two minutes and not doing anything.

"You can't wrestle not to lose, you have to wrestle to win."

Hrovat, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, spent this past summer stuck in a position of uncertainty. Two-time World bronze medalist Joe Williams beat Hrovat in June's finals of the U.S. World Team Trials, but Williams suffered an injury and underwent surgery shortly after that win.

Hrovat replaced Williams on the U.S. team at the Pan American Games in late July, capturing a silver medal. Williams returned to the mat in August and late that month it was determined he would be ready to go for September's World Championships. Williams placed fifth at the 2007 Worlds.

"I trained really hard all summer because I didn't know if I was going to wrestle in the Worlds or not," Hrovat said. "I had worked really hard and it was a blow to me when I wasn't able to wrestle and Joe was able to go. I've moved on and I'm trying to wrestle as much as I can and gain as much experience as I can."

Hrovat spent Thanksgiving in France as he prepared for the Henri Deglane International, an event that he won. Hrovat defeated Soslan Kosoev of Russia 5-2, 6-0 in the freestyle finals.

"I don't just want to make the U.S. team - I want to win a gold medal at the Olympics," he said. "I have the experience now and I know what to expect. I expect to win every single tournament."

If Hrovat does qualify for the Olympics, you can bet Silent H will turn a few heads with something unique he does during his visit to Beijing, China.

"At this point, no one takes me seriously anymore," Hrovat said with a laugh. "They never know what to expect.