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JAMAL THALJIThe Division I school meets the academic and athletic needs of Ridgewood grads Billy and Matt Bullwinkel.
NEW PORT RICHEY - All athletes have a laundry list of what they are looking for in a college. Billy and Matt Bullwinkel had two lists.
The brothers and Ridgewood graduates wanted to wrestle at the Division I level. But they had different academic needs - Billy in criminal justice and Matt in engineering. Both wanted to stay close to home.
Last but never least, both wanted to stay together. The Citadel will allow them to do all of that.
"It works out super," Rams coach Vinnie Lowe said. "Matt, Billy and I have talked since their second year wrestling about the possibilities of wrestling in college. They wanted to try and use wrestling to get a college education but it had to be the right fit.
"You couldn't just go to college to wrestle. You had to go to one that had what you need."
The brothers were accepted by South Carolina's prestigious 162-year-old military college May 24. The official letters came Tuesday.
"I've been waiting for this for four years," said Billy Bullwinkel. "That was our intention since our freshman year. That was our goal, to go to a Division I school and wrestle with each other with the cream of the crop."
It also came down to the wire for both brothers, who worked hard in the last weeks of school to earn qualifying SAT scores. They have not signed yet and can't sign when they make their first campus visit this weekend. But they expect their athletic and aid packages to be finalized soon.
Both will be the Bulldogs' last recruits to sign, but they already are two of the most decorated wrestlers in Rams history.
Billy Bullwinkel went 54-2 at 125 pounds this season, finishing third at the Class 2A meet and winning district, region and conference titles. The Sunshine Athletic Conference wrestler of the year set a school record with 147 career wins. Matt Bullwinkel, the Times Pasco County wrestler of the year, did all that, went 52-1 and won a state crown at 130, too.
Billy Bullwinkel is the vocal one, Matt the quiet leader. But they're better together.
"Without a doubt, they fed off of each other and they made each other better," Lowe said.
Which is why they don't want to leave each other.
"Me and my brother, we push each other," Matt Bullwinkel said. "We won't let one get up on the other one. I think that helped us out tremendously. If I run a mile, he'll just run a mile and a quarter, and I'll end up having to run a mile and a half.
"If we're doing takedowns, we both have to get takedowns or we're not leaving the room."
Bulldogs coach Rob Hjerling approached them after Matt Bullwinkel won a state championship 3-2 over Punta Gorda Charlotte's David Hoke on Feb. 28 at the Lakeland Center. Hjerling approached them again weeks later at the National High School Coaches Association senior nationals in Cleveland, Ohio.
The Bullwinkels will be the first Pasco County wrestlers to sign with a Division I school since Pasco's Tye Reedy, also a state champ, went to West Point and teammate Brad Alford went to Old Dominion in 2001. They also are the first Rams wrestlers to go D-I since Jason D'Agata, who walked on at Iowa in 2000 and wrapped up his career this year.
The Citadel is coming off one of its best seasons, going 13-3, winning the Southern Conference title for the first time since 1967 and sending five to the NCAA championships. The Bulldogs once were ranked 25th nationally.
There is one more reason the Bullwinkels picked the Bulldogs: The Citadel is the closest D-I wrestling program to Florida.
"That's a good thing too," Billy Bullwinkel said. "Because that means our parents and Coach Lowe can come and watch us.
"It's only a little ways away."