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This is painful for me to admit ... - Printable Version

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This is painful for me to admit ... - ODUwildman - 11-03-2013 01:52 AM

... for many years, I sat and watched my mighty Monarchs fall on the road at George Mason in the Patriot Center. Some years we won, some years we lost. With Mason being one of our hated rivals, I, like many of an ODU fan, loathed the Green Machine pep band.

Tonight, while working with Fox College Sports for the NWCA All-Star Classic wrestling event, I was an unbiased party when it came to the Green Machine.

Mason is one of the few former CAA all-sports rivals who field a wrestling program. Other schools have become also-rans by cutting non-revenue sports like wrestling .... Mason has kept the sport and hired a first-class guy to coach the program.

Tonight, as an ODU grad, I have to give the GMU Green Machine pep band their due ... they provided an excellent atmosphere for college wrestling. The displayed an exciting blend of up-tempo, relevant sound for a college wrestling event featuring 17 All-Americans and eight No. 1 ranked wrestlers in the country.

As an ODU grad, I loathed their band when dealing with them at the CAA tournament and at road games. Tonight, their band leader and Green Machine did the sport of wrestling a solid. While the kids might not have known much about the sport, they played for every match in a fashion that was extremely admirable.

The only negative was when talking to one pep band member how it was different seeing them play for wrestling than playing against ODU, how positive it was ... I was met with a "get over it."

Other than the douche comment from some kid who obviously didn't understand what I was trying to convey, the GMU pep band was for once, from an ODU perspective, doing great things.

Wrestling is an under appreciated sport, often cast off by administrators because they're too cowardly to be proactive when dealing with gender equity.

The Green Machine, tonight, were on my side for once. I just wanted to let some ODU (and GMU) faithful know, then when watching them from an unbiased standpoint, they're actually pretty good.