From the Sunbury (PA) Daily Item
December 25, 2004
Mifflinburg’s Troup makes most of opportunity with Penn State wrestling team
By Andy Elder
For The Daily Item
STATE COLLEGE ” If you’d pass Steve Troup on the street, you might mistake him for a swimmer rather than a wrestler.
Standing 6 feet tall, Troup possesses the long, lean muscles sports fans are more used to seeing splashing through a pool instead of scoring takedowns on a mat.
Despite his deceiving body type, the redshirt freshman from Mifflinburg is the Penn State wrestling team’s starting 165-pounder.
“He has a weird kind of strength, “Penn State coach Troy Sunderland said. “He’s certainly not imposing.”
And Troup uses that to his advantage.
It started in the preseason when reports out of the Nittany Lion wrestling room said that Troup was starting to show signs he might displace returning starter Jeremy Hart at 165. Then, when Hart reinjured a shoulder on which he had surgery a year ago, Troup claimed the spot outright.
“I don’t want to sound cocky and say, ‘No, I’m not surprised; I expected to start.’ I wasn’t planning on starting my true freshman year, but I was planning on working hard and hopefully making the lineup, “he said. “I had a feeling I could start.”
He hasn’t only started, he’s found success, building an 8-5 record so far.
“He has some very good go-to moves he likes to use, “Sunderland said. “The more he gets varsity competition in dual meets and really makes his technique more precise, the better he’ll become.”
And now that he’s earned the starting spot and the experience that comes with it, he doesn’t plan on letting it go, even when Hart is healthy enough to return.
“I thought I’d have to beat Jeremy; I thought I could, “Troup said. “I still think I can. I still probably will have to after he comes back.”
Until that impending wrestle-off takes place, Troup said he plans to continue banking experiences on the mat. His next opportunity will come in the ultra-competitive Midlands Championships on Dec. 29-30 at Northwestern University’s Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Ill.
“Any match I get, the experience just helps me. Going to Midlands in a couple weeks will be a huge experience, “he said.
Troup’s results against the type of top-flight opponents he will see at Midlands have been mixed so far. In a loss to top-ranked and defending national champion Troy Letters of Lehigh on Nov. 14, Troup scored a takedown before finally getting caught and pinned in the third period.
And, last Sunday against Edinboro’s No. 6 Nate Yetzer, Troup twice earned easy takedowns and had the match tied at 6-6. But Yetzer’s strength and the flu bug that sapped Troup’s strength eventually led to a 26-11 final in the Fighting Scot’s favor.
“I know I can stick with the top guys in the country. I didn’t prove that yet. I think by the end of the year I’ll be where I want to be. I know I can take down anyone in the country. I took down Letters. I just have to keep practicing and adding on a couple extra moves so if my main two or three moves don’t work, I have other moves to go to. Just working with the coaches individually helps a lot, “he said.
“I’ve been training hard. I don’t want to make excuses, but I did come home Sunday night and I was sick. I was throwing up all night. That’s not an excuse. I have to keep training hard to stick with him. He didn’t tire out at all. He just kept going after me. It’s a transition between seeing the top guys and the average guys.”
But even through that transition, Troup’s desire to improve, his hunger to test his mettle against the nation’s best hasn’t been dulled.
“I was never really afraid to wrestle anyone, to be honest with you. I like challenges. I’d rather wrestle the top guys in the country than to go out there and wrestle some nobody, “he said. “You don’t prove anything by beating some nobody. What do I have to lose by going out and there wrestling Troy Letters or Nate Yetzer? I have nothing to lose. I’m always up for the challenge. I’m not going to give up.”
It’s that never-day-die attitude and willingness to refine strengths and improve weaknesses that seems to have Sunderland looking forward to Troup’s future.
“He’s improved quite a bit. He’s got a different style guys aren’t quite used to. It freezes up a lot of his competition, “he said. “Once you can wrestle with somebody it’s just a matter of being a little bit more consistent. He’s just a redshirt freshman. He has a lot of work to do on the mat.”
Some of that work will involve wrestling on the mat. Already an accomplished takedown artist, Troup admits he needs work on improving his riding techniques.
“I have a hard time holding guys down. I think I can hold down average guys. But I have to get past that and hold down the better guys in the country, “he said.
“In high school, I would take ’em down and let ’em up and hope to catch someone on their back. I think that’s part of my problem; I never really had to work on it. I really need to work on it because I can’t take down the best guys in the country four or five times during a match. And it’s harder to catch those guys because they’re more careful about their position.”
What will benefit him in reaching those goals will be to add the muscle it takes to control the bigger, heavily muscled foes he sees at 165.
“I just talked to (assistant) coach (John) Hughes about my match Sunday. He said I definitely have the quickness. I just have to hit the weights harder. I lift hard. It doesn’t show very much. I think I’m stronger than I look, but I have to keep hitting the weights harder and harder all season, “he said.
“Coach (Eric) Childs (Penn State’s strength and conditioning coach) is a great training coach. Basically, we do a lot of athletic stuff, not too much strength stuff. Our training is just crazy. You get a full body workout. It’s not just going into the weight room, doing a couple sets and taking a five-minute break and then doing another set. When you go in there, you go from one thing to another. You’re busy the entire time. By the time you’re done lifting, you’re completely sweaty and you’re beat. You can’t do anything else.”
For the rest of the season, Troup said he plans to ratchet up his workouts, concentrating on adding more takedowns to his repertoire and increasing his strength, all with an eye toward his ultimate goal “winning a national championship. As for this season, the redshirt freshman has more modest goals.
“This year? I definitely want to make it to nationals, place in Big Tens and make it to nationals. I’d definitely like to win a couple matches at nationals, “he said. “Once I make it to nationals, anything can happen
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