DON McDERMOTT MORE COLUMNS Advertisement

Al Smith, a long-time politician, used to preach, "Let's look at the record."

So, that's what we did, in researching the 1986 and 1987 Pahrump Valley High School wrestling teams that won Nevada Class A State championships.

Pahrump Valley's 2007-2008 team won the state 3-A championship last weekend in Overton, prompting the inquiry into what happened more than 20 years ago.

The 1985-86 team, coached by Steve Lohmeyer, scored 163 points in the state tournament at Battle Mountain, which was then -- and has continued to be -- a state power in wrestling (witness their 2-A victory at Laughlin last weekend). The Longhorns had 162 1/2 points, with Indian Springs at 112, Virgin Valley 104, Independence 102 1/2, Faith Lutheran 89, Lincoln County 45 and Spring Mountain 29.

Tim Finkelstein, a senior, won the 122-pound championship and finished with a record of 27-8.

Also on the team were freshmen Alan Ford (105 pounds) and Kelly Strong (185), sophomores Kep Faloon (112), Darius Koklas (126), Jeff Cratty (heavyweight), Dale Miller (132) and Robert Bledsoe (167), junior Charlie Ford (98) and seniors John Zerkle (155) and Dennis Kieren (138).

The 1986-1987 team, again coached by Lohmeyer, hosted the state tournament -- and won again in a tense fight with Battle Mountain. The Trojans amassed 166 1/2 points, and won the tournament when Mike Elliott won the state 145-pound title by pinning John Kolrath of Indian Springs with 0:01 left in the match.

Battle Mountain finished with 165 points, while Indian Springs had 148, Virgin Valley 101 1/2, Independence 73, Faith Lutheran 61, Lincoln County 31 and Spring Mountain 28 1/2. The Trojans were 12-0 in the Southern 1-A League and 16-2 in all duals that season.

The Fords, Faloon, Koklas, Bledsoe and Cratty and Miller were on the 1987 team, along with Jason Sandoval (126 junior), Jimmy Johnson (138 junior) and Rich Hammerich. Steve Foster was on the team, but because he was injured, did not wrestle in the state tournament.

The 1988 team, incidentally, finished sixth in the state tournament, but Elliott repeated as champion, beating White Pine's Tom Baker 16-1 in the finals.

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Pahrump Valley won the team title and two of its wrestlers -- James Chapman and Zach Weldon -- won individual championships.

So, it be unseemly to criticize officials at that tournament, given the Trojans' level of success, especially in the semifinals when coach Craig Rieger's team won nine matches.

Too often, however, a couple of the officials appeared to be part of the show, instead of being wise, impartial arbiters. A couple PVHS wrestlers were adversely affected by stall warnings, when they were clearly the aggressors in the matches.

At least two other wrestlers, including Al Haines of Boulder City, had "phantom" calls go against them, leaving fans, coaches and other wrestlers wondering "What gives?"

Officials are infinitely better when they work without being noticed, making the right call at the right time and for the right reason -- to do the job by the rules, not their misguided concept of what the sport of wrestling should be.

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Coming Wednesday: A profile of James Chapman, Pahrump Valley's two-time state champion wrestler.