NCAA SESSION ONE NOTES: Bono seeks success as coach and athlete; Patrovich beats former teammate Vondruska in round one

Rookie D-I coach Chris Bono seeks to remain an international freestyle star

Last spring, Chris Bono became the new head coach at the Univ. of Tennessee-Chattanooga, shortly after he has won the title at 66 kg/145.5 lbs. at the U.S. National Freestyle Championships in Las Vegas, Nev. Bono had served as an assistant coach at UTC, under Joe Seay and was a long-time assistant at Iowa State.

After starting the new job, Bono, a past World Team member, could not hold his No. 1 spot in freestyle when he did not win the World Team Trials, a position that went to eventual World champion Bill Zadick.

Since, Bono has been focusing on his coaching duties, and it has gone very well, thank you. UTC qualified a school-record nine wrestlers to compete in the NCAA Championships and are ranked 14th nationally in one of the polls heading in. Two Mocs entered the tournament with seeds: Matt Keller at No. 5 at 133 pounds and Aaron Martin at No. 8 at 149 pounds. Bono inherited an experierenced team in his first year at the helm, and the athletes have made the most of it."It has been a good year," said Bono.

He hopes to be able to achieve something that has proven very difficult for other great wrestlers. He will try to excel at an NCAA Div. I coaching job at the same time as he pursues international success as an athlete.

The wrestler/coach who did the best with this challenge was two-time Olympic champion and three-time World champion Bruce Baumgartner, who did both tasks with major success. Another who tried for a few years was Rob Koll, then a young head coach at Cornell, who wrestled freestyle. Koll was able to remain nationally ranked in freestyle, but did not make a U.S. World Team while juggling both activities.

The first day of action at the NCAA Tournament showed that the Mocs have earned the right to compete at this level. UT-Chattanoonga went 5-5 for the session. The losses at 125 pounds and 174 pounds were to No. 1 seeds Sam Hazewinkel of Oklahoma and Ben Askren of Missouri.

Seeded Martin won his opening match of the tournament, defeating Joe Caramanica of NC State. Martin also beat Caramanica at last year's NCAA meet, but this year the victory was more dominant. Martin is very excited about what is going on with the Chattanooga program, which has a very competitive room.

"Below me are Keller and Keefe. Above me is Yost, who is not respected enough for how tough he is," said Martin.

However, Martin also trains with Bono, who when he is in competition shape is about Martin's weight. Bono sets an example as an athlete for the wrestlers he coaches.

"He is tough. He shows us the level we need to be at. He shows me what I need to do to be able to compete at this level. He has been a big help in what I should be doing to win," said Martin.

Bono has also given his athletes encouragement to pursue Olympic goals, just like he is doing right now.

"He encourages us to stay around, work out with the team and compete internationally," said Martin. "Everybody is doing that on the national level. When it is a tough match, late in the period, Bono says that we deserve to win, because we have done the work. He has been with a top program. He knows what it takes."

This winter, did compete in freestyle. Many of his top 66 kg opponents were busy, traveling overseas or wrestling at major international events here in the USA. Bono feels that the time away from competition may actually help him, as he had a chance to heal up and get refreshed.

"All that travel around the world takes a lot out of you. You go over there and it takes a few weeks to recover when you come back," said Bono.

He had planned to compete at the Dave Schultz Memorial International, and would have if the tournament was held during the first week of February, as in past years. However, this year, the tournament was a week later, and Bono's team had competition that was a conflict. Bono says he will be in Las Vegas in a few weeks at the U.S. Freestyle Nationals, looking to defend his national title.

One of Bono's big choices this weekend is whether or not to get in a workout with the Freestyle National Team, which is training under Coaches Terry Brands and Dave Bennett over at the Detroit Piston's practice facility.

Coach or Compete? How about both? Can Bono pull off both the coach and athlete trick?

"I haven't done it yet," said Bono.

Past teammates meet in first round when Hofstra's Patrovich beats Ohio State's Vondruska

First-round matches are tough enough for every wrestler at the NCAA Championships, when all the hard work for a full season is put to the test in the biggest event of the year. But consider what it is like when a wrestler draws in his opening round a former teammate who is coached by your former coach.

This is what happened at 165 pounds when Hofstra's No. 6 seed Mike Patrovich drew Ohio State's Chris Vondruska.

Last year, Hofstra's coach Tom Ryan took the head coaching job at Ohio State, and Vondruska chose to transfer to Ohio State with Ryan. Patrovich, a senior from Islip, N.Y., remained with Hofstra to complete his career. Patrovich, who was fourth at 174 pounds last year, made the drop in weight at Hofstra, into the division where Vondruska is now competing.

"The funny thing is I was sitting in the locker room with my teammates, and I took a guess. I said I would draw Vondruska. And then it happened," said Patrovich.

For years, Patrovich and Vondruska worked out on a daily basis, helping each other become nationally-respected stars in college wrestling. There were no secrets in this match.

"It was tough for me," said Patrovich. "It was tough enough with Tom Ryan being my coach. But then I drew my teammate. That is even tougher. I had to treat him like he was any other opponent."

Patrovich has his new coach Tom Shifflet in his corner, but Ryan was not in the other corner. The Ohio State corner featured assistant coaches Lou Rosselli and Joe Heskett.

The match was very close and hotly contested. Neither wrestler got a takedown in the first. Vondruska followed up with a second period escape. In the third, Patrovich got his escape to tie it at 1-1. Midway through the third period, the officials hit Vondruska with a penalty for stalling, putting Patrovich up 2-1. Quickly thereafter, Patrovich scored a takedown for a 4-1 lead, and he ended up winning the match 5-3.

"I knew him well from being his teammate. I knew I had to stay on him and make him tired," said Patrovich.

When Vondruska and Patrovich were teammates, they chose to compete at different weight classes, even though they were about the same size. Now that they are on different teams, they ended up at 165 pounds. Who would have guessed they would meet each other in the first match at the NCAAs?

"He always went the opposite weight class, or I did," said Patrovich. "We were always workout partners. We both knew each other's wrestling completely. We knew each other's strengths and weaknesses. The toughest thing about this tournament is putting those things out of your mind."

Now through the first round, Patrovich can take a sigh of relief and focus on the following match. He will wrestle Mike Miller of Central Michigan in the second round on Thursday night.

"I took a sixth year for one reason, to win a national title. I didn't drop to 165 pounds to place second. I could have done that staying up at 174 pounds. I did this to win the NCAAs," said Patrovich.