Wrestling Feature – Joel Edwards
It’s late one afternoon earlier this week and Penn State wrestling coach Troy Sunderland is sitting in a near-empty wrestling room talking to a reporter.
In the middle of the conversation a wrestler pokes his head through the door.
“Hey, coach, I’m up to 215!” the wrestler says, smiling.
“Nice,” Sunderland says in reply.
Nice?
Nice?
Most coaches would snarl at the inclusion of up and weight in any sentence.
But, when you’re Joel Edwards and you’ve just moved to heavyweight, gaining weight is a good thing, a very good thing.
“Like I told the guys on the team, ‘I don’t even feel like I’m wrestling this weekend because I’m not worrying about my weight.’ It’s like, ‘Wow, I’m wrestling today? All I have to do is step on the scale and whatever I weigh, I weigh.’ It’s definitely a lift off my mind not having to worry about, ‘Am I on weight?’ It’s a good thing,” Edwards said.
“Wrestling is watching your weight and not eating a lot and stuff like that. When I wrestle the best is when I’m eating right and my body feels good and everything else is fueling my body to wrestle well. It is the best of both worlds.” Sunderland, who like many wrestlers struggled to make weight in his days as a Nittany Lion, understands Edwards’ point of view.
“We’re thankful that Joel’s willing to do that and has taken it in a positive way. He’s more comfortable. He’s starting to gain the weight,” Sunderland said. “It’s always a wrestler’s dream to hear that from a coach. ‘Hey, we want you to go to heavyweight. You don’t have to lose weight anymore; we want you to gain weight.'”
But one man’s dream can also be a mom’s nightmare.
“My Mom said she was kind of scared. She said, ‘They’re so much bigger than you.’ On the radio (Jeff) Byers was saying how heavy they were compared to me,” Edwards recounted. “She said, ‘At one point I started crying.’ They said you weighed in at 207 and the one guy was 240-something.’ I told her I just have to wrestle smart. After that, she said if you get up in weight I’ll feel a lot better.”
So, like the dutiful son he is, Edwards is trying to abide by his Mom’s wishes, so far, so good.
“I wake up, I feel fine. It’s not like it used to be when you wake up and your head’s light and you’re like, ‘Man, another day of this.’ I wake up, eat breakfast, work out, go to class, eat some more, come work out again, eat some more. I’m probably eating up to six or eight meals a day. Not full meals, but a meal, snack, meal, snack “¦” Edwards said.
“I’m trying to eat a lot more protein to gain weight. I still want to do it smart. I don’t want to be 6-2 and have this big potbelly. I want to put on muscle. Coach (Eric) Childs has me on a program where I lift three times a week. I feel I’m doing it right. I’ve already gained 11 pounds and it’s basically all muscle.”
A Pennsylvania high school 189-pound champion at Upper Darby High School, Edwards made the natural move to 197 pounds when he came to Penn State. And, through a red-shirt year and two-plus years of competition, the red-shirt junior had compiled a respectable 48-24 record.
But, when starting heavyweight Josh Walker was sidelined with a herniated disc in his back, Sunderland and his assistant coaches started brainstorming about how to fill the void. At first, they turned to sophomore C.J. Wonsettler. But, Wonsettler had missed the entire 2003-04 season with a back injury of his own and the coaches didn’t want to push their luck with another balky back.
Then, when Edwards struggled at the beginning of this season, red-shirt freshman Phil Davis assumed the reins at 197 and thrived. Still, Edwards was too valuable not to start somewhere.
“We felt like we were more competitive with both of those two in the lineup,” Sunderland said. “Phil’s a red-shirt freshman, a young kid. It’s his first year of competing in the varsity lineup. It made sense that way. In terms of Phil’s development, it made sense for him.”
Edwards debuted at heavyweight last weekend at the NWCA Cliff Keen National Duals in Cleveland. He went 2-0 and helped the Nittany Lions notch two wins.
“This past weekend we moved him up to heavyweight and he helped us win two matches. The more time he has to get his weight up, the more confident he’ll be in his abilities to wrestle bigger guys,” Sunderland said.
Not that confidence is a major issue for Edwards. After all, he defeated Jake Rosholt (now the No. 1 197-pounder in the country for Oklahoma State) in the 2001 Dapper Dan Classic.
And, Edwards has a secret weapon. He gets to train every day with assistant strength and conditioning coach Pat Cummins, a two-time All-American and 2004 NCAA finalist for Penn State.
“Having Pat in the room is like having (Oklahoma State’s top-ranked Steve) Mocco in the room or having Kerry McCoy (the former Nittany Lion two-time national champion and three-time All-American). He is one of the best in America and the world now. There’s so much you can learn from him. Just wrestling around with him, you just get better every single day,” Edwards said.
For Edwards, the move to heavyweight is like a new lease on his wrestling life. “I am really excited about it. I thought about it. If I had started it at the beginning of the year, I’d be even more pumped,” Edwards said. “Right now I’m really optimistic. I’m thinking about nationals and about different guys I’ll have to wrestle and different things I’ll have to do to beat them.”
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