Light weight, heavy competition at IU
By Andrew Petersen Indiana Daily Student
Bloomington, IN (U-WIRE) — It’s almost match time, and junior Joe Dubuque is pacing around like a caged tiger awaiting a meal.
Back and forth he strides, rolling his head from side to side. Suddenly the horn sounds, and like a factory worker punching the clock, Dubuque squats and slaps the mat. He becomes a nervous blur of energy, constantly in motion as he shakes hands with the referee and his opponent.
Less than three minutes later, Dubuque rises triumphantly from the mat, pumping his fists as the crowd roars its approval. He jogs off the mat to change his clothes and cheers the rest of the team on, his night’s work is complete.
“I feel that we want to start at 125, “redshirt freshman Max Dean said after the match, referring to Dubuque’s 125-pound weight class. “It definitely got our morale up because we started winning right off the bat and set the tone. “
Dubuque doesn’t look like a wrestler, particularly if your only exposure to wrestling involves cage matches and storylines. He has competed his whole career at 125 pounds, the lightest weight class in college wrestling. Yet if it weren’t for that lack of size he would probably be playing a different sport right now. “Football has always been my love, “he said. “I just wrestled to fill in the time between football and baseball season.”
Dubuque started wrestling as a sixth-grader in New Jersey after his older brother took up the sport. By the time he was a freshman, he was good enough to place at the state high school championships.
“It dawned on me that I could be a multiple state champ, “he said. “I started doing the extra stuff.”
By the time he had graduated high school, Dubuque was the two-time defending state champion, the senior national champion and was sporting a glittering 134-7 career record. He was recruited by several schools and almost committed to North Carolina. When that fell through, he made a last-second venture to Bloomington. By the end of the trip, he was a Hoosier.
Indiana University fans couldn’t be happier. As a junior this year Dubuque is 16-1 and ranked fifth in the country at 125 pounds. For his career, he is an outstanding 73-15. He is also the only All-American on the team, thanks to his eighth-place finish at the NCAA tournament last year.
“Being an All-American is just awesome, “he said. “There’s a lot more fan recognition, a lot of guys know my name now. People are starting to follow the team.”
At a basketball-crazy school like Indiana, that recognition is no small feat. On the rare weekend that the wrestlers have a home match, they often find themselves competing against their basketball brethren for fans. The team has accepted this, but that doesn’t mean that their work ethic changes.
“Wrestling is a five-month total commitment, “Dubuque said. “If you half-ass it, you’re not going to win anything.”
“An average day for me starts at 5:30 (a.m.). We work out at 6 for an hour and a half, then eat, go to class, then we have a 20-minute drill session, then more class, practice for a couple hours until 5 or 5:30, eat and then another workout, five to six times a week.
“It’s like the sign says, “as he pointed to a slogan painted on the wall of the practice room in large letters. “‘Unless you have prepared yourself and deserve to emerge victorious, do not expect to win or be disappointed when you lose,’ “Dubuque said.
As IU enters the Big Ten schedule and tries to navigate through the toughest conference in the country, Dubuque will become a larger factor, not only as the team’s spark plug but also as a leader to a squad that starts several freshmen.
“It’s not so much the fact that he’s an All-American, “coach Duane said. “He’s an important part of our team because he’s a winner and a competitor. He puts forth a great effort in preparation to win.”
Wrestling Gear
