Junior Mike Combs is in his third year of football at Hernando and will soon begin his third season of varsity wrestling. That's a lot of time spent with coach Matt Smith. After practice Wednesday, Combs went one-on-one with staff writer John Schwarb, ruminating about wrestlers playing football and wrestling with foreign policy.
Are you a full-time starter at linebacker?
I'm going back and forth with (sophomore) Brandon White.
You mean platooning, going in and out every play?
I stand by Coach Smith, if (White) messes up or doesn't do good, he puts me in.
Can you root against a teammate so you can get in and play?
(Laughs).
It's kind of like that.
Any wrestling skills translate to what you're doing out here?
A lot of them. When I tackle, I lock to the person much better. With (Citrus running back R.J.) Cobb, I threw him straight back, like a suplex. Everybody was excited about that, laughing and cheering on.
So a guy knows when he's being tackled by a wrestler?
Yes sir. Yes sir.
What are you interests outside all these sports?
That's a hard question ... running, weightlifting.
Have you been following the presidential race?
No, I don't keep track of that. My mom does. We talk about the Iraq thing, and Afghanistan. That's basically about it.
Any thoughts?
We should have gone to Afghanistan, but not Iraq. We should pull our guys out from there and let Iraqis do what they do.
Ever have thoughts about going into the military?
Oh, no. Only thing I'm worried about is wrestling. My brother (Billy) is up at Northern Michigan University, doing Greco-Roman (wrestling), that's where I want to go when I graduate from high school.
What would you rather do, play in a state title football game or wrestle for a state championship?
