[NU Sports] Report from the SE end zone

[Alan Abrahamson]

Go Cats!

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 5, 2011, at 10:28 PM, Tom Maycock <tkmaycock at yahoo.com> wrote:

> It's gotten awfully quiet in here.
>
> Tom
> Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alan Abrahamson <alan.abrahamson at gmail.com>
> Sender: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com
> Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2011 10:53:24
> To: Northwestern Wildcats<nwu-sports at tssi.com>
> Subject: [NU Sports] Confidence guy: Jake Herbert
>
> Just in time for the game. I wrote this for the USOC's website...
>
> Go Cats!
>
>
>
> --
>
>
> http://www.teamusa.org/news/2011/11/05/confidence-guy-jake-herbert/45358?ngb_id=3
>
> Confidence guy: Jake
> Herbert<http://www.teamusa.org/news/2011/11/05/confidence-guy-jake-herbert/45358>
> *Alan Abrahamson* November 05, 2011
>
> [image: Herbertmedal]
>
> Photo: Robbert Wijtman
>
> Jake Herbert with his Pan Am Games gold medal
>
> Northwestern plays Nebraska on Saturday in college football, the Wildcats'
> first foray to Lincoln since the Cornhuskers were admitted to the Big Ten.
> The oddsmakers in Vegas have made Northwestern a decided underdog.
> "Northwestern by 50. Feeling confident," said Jake Herbert, who graduated
> from Northwestern two years ago after winning two NCAA wrestling
> championships and the 2009 Hodge Trophy, given to the nation's outstanding
> collegiate wrestler.
>
> In the NFL, the Baltimore Ravens travel Sunday to Pittsburgh to play the
> Steelers. Herbert grew up in North Allegheny, Pa. "You ask me how bad the
> Steelers are going to beat the Ravens? By 110."
>
> "I ooze confidence," Herbert said, and this a couple days after winning
> gold in the 84 kilogram, or 185-pound, freestyle weight class at the Pan
> American Games.
>
> All athletes have to be confident. Jake has to be super-confident. He is,
> without being ugly about it.
>
> "Anything less than Olympic gold in my mind is failure," he said. "I'm not
> training for bronze. I'm not training just to be in the Olympics. I'm not
> training for anything less.
>
> "If there's a little bit of doubt in your mind, that can be exploited. I'm
> there 100 percent to be getting the gold medal. I'm there to take it."
>
> Here's why Jake has to have unshakeable belief in himself and what he's
> doing:
>
> Among others, Cael Sanderson is in his weight class.
>
> Sanderson is the 2004 Olympic gold medalist. He is now coach at Penn
> State. He is the only undefeated four-time NCAA champion, compiling a
> record of 159-0 at Iowa State, so good he made the cover of a Wheaties box.
> He won the Hodge Trophy not just once but three times.
>
> There are all kinds of hints that Sanderson is making a 2012 comeback.
>
> It can't be certain that Sanderson is, in fact, coming back.
>
> But Herbert, like everyone, has to gear up as it if that's the case. "I'm
> preparing like he's going to be there," Jake said.
>
> American Olympic wrestling history is marked by a succession of dramatic
> episodes in which challengers have had to beat the best to be the best.
>
> Going all the way back to the 1984 U.S. Trials, Dave Schultz had to beat
> three-time world champion Lee Kemp just to make the American team. He did,
> and went on to win Olympic gold.
>
> In 1988, the tables were turned: Kenny Monday had to beat Schultz to make
> the U.S. team. Monday won, and then won Olympic gold in Seoul.
>
> Also in 1988, John Smith had to beat 1984 Olympic champ Randy Lewis to
> make the team. Smith did, and won Olympic gold.
>
> More recently, at the 2008 Trials, Henry Cejudo had to defeat Stephen
> Abas, the 2004 silver medalist, to make the team. Cejudo did, and won
> Olympic gold.
>
> Jake knows all these stories, rattling them off in a phone call. "Why
> should it be any different for me?" he asked rhetorically, adding, "If I
> can beat Sanderson, I can beat anybody in the world, and I can win the
> Olympics."
>
> Since graduating from Northwestern, Jake has bulked up to about 200
> pounds. He makes weight pretty easily -- wrestlers drop a lot of water
> weight in a remarkably quick amount of time without losing strength -- and
> said, "I'm a 200-pound man wrestling 185. That strength showed off in the
> Pan Ams. It's great to feel stronger, tougher, better than your opponents."
>
> Perhaps just as important, "Mentally, I'm right there."
>
> Jake has recent wins over, among others, Sharif Sharifov of Azerbaijan and
> Mihail Ganev of Bulgaria.
>
> Sharifov won the 2011 world gold medal. At those 2011 worlds, Sharifov
> defeated Sanderson.
>
> Ganev is the 2010 world champ.
>
> With his coach, Sean Bormet, Jake is now training in Ann Arbor. "This is
> the real stuff," he said. "It's physical chess. Position is always going to
> beat strength."
>
> There's only one downside, for a Northwestern guy, to being in Ann Arbor:
> "It's not just the college kids. It's 60-year-old men and 3-year-old kids.
> They're all wearing maize-and-blue."
>
> There's only one antidote, he said: "I wear my Wildcat gear."
>
> Jake added, "My job now is -- I have to put together the two best
> tournaments of my life. The Trials -- go out there and make the team. Then
> -- go out there and make the Olympics."
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