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Hey, look what I found
By JAMAL THALJI, Times Staff Writer
NEW PORT RICHEY -- Bryan Ryder was just looking for something fun to do after school. Joey Pospisil was a self-described "band geek." Humble origins, to be sure. But it is from such material that Gulf coach Travis DeWalt has rebuilt the Buccaneers' program, a team is now riding high atop Pasco County after years on a downward slope. Both juniors are among the best Gulf has to offer. Ryder is 24-4 in the 135-pound weight class and won a title at the Kiwanis tournament. Pospisil is 25-3 at 103 and won a title at the Masada Springstead Invitational. Both were instrumental in helping Gulf win the Sunshine Athletic Conference dual-meet trophy this month. DeWalt first met both three years ago just as he was taking on the job of rebuilding a program that had gone years without a dual-meet victory. Or rather, he found them. "I found one of them just walking around school one day and he just looked like a wrestler," DeWalt said of Ryder. "Two weeks into his freshman year when I needed a 103-pounder, I found the other one running around the track." To both, wrestling was just a welcome distraction. "I guess I liked it because I was always too small for everything else," said the 5-foot-3 Pospisil. Said Ryder: "I didn't know what to expect. I was a freshman and I didn't know Coach that much. I thought it was something fun to do until I graduated." Three years later, DeWalt has helped mold both into top wrestlers, and they in turn have helped remake the Bucs. "Bryan is very aggressive," DeWalt said. "He's neutral on his feet and aggressive to the back. He's pretty fun to watch, he's more of a scrapper from start to finish." Contrasting Ryder's nonstop aggression on the mat is Pospisil's technical mastery. "He's a sponge on the team," DeWalt said. "If you show him any new little quirk. he will pick it up, add a "Pospisil' variation and showcase it in the next event. "I mean, he's fun to watch because he can throw you and he can leg-attack you." Pospisil is so dedicated to the sport that the drummer hardly practices with the band during wrestling season. "It's more fun," he said, "and I think it will help me in college more." Both are part of the core of wrestlers who have brought Gulf back from the brink. "These kids started with me three years ago," DeWalt said. "They've gone to two camps now, they've gone to Russia with me and they're going to Iowa (this weekend.) They keep building on the little things we've taught them." Actually, neither believed the Bucs would ever be this good, or that winning would become so important to them and their teammates. It wasn't until last season, when Gulf went 22-4 and finished second in the conference, that wrestling became more than a hobby. "Now it's definitely serious," Ryder said. "My sophomore year, we started winning and that was a first for us. We just thought, "Something must be happening here.' " Something is, and now everybody knows it, Pospisil said. "Even the new kids now, they understand we want to win," he said, "and that we're a winning team now."
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From today's Pasco Times |
