Published: 08:18 AM, Thu Mar 04, 2010
Pine Forest's Radford tops rival when it matters most
By Earl Vaughan Jr.
Scholastic sports editor
All three losses Pine Forest's Kevin Radford suffered this year - and most of the defeats he was handed in his career - came from the same opponent, South View's Timmy McCall.
This time last year, it was McCall who beat Radford in the state finals to win the 4-A championship at 189 pounds.
But Radford learned from every loss, never quit trying, and finally last Saturday ended his frustration as he beat McCall for this year's 4-A 189-pound title.
Radford said throughout the season, Pine Forest wrestling coach Ray Bruno kept telling him he could beat McCall. "Coach told me it was my time,'' Radford said. "I went in there with that mindset.''
Even as the losses to McCall mounted, Bruno said he could see the confidence in Radford building. "After the conference match, he felt it was so close, he turned to me and said, 'Now I'm even with him, it's a matter of time,' '' Bruno said.
"Before the regional, he was right there. He needed to do a few things tactically that would put him in a position to score. He was so focused the next two weeks in practice.''
But there was one other concern going into the state tournament, and it had nothing to do with McCall. The field for the state finals features the 16 best wrestlers in each weight class in any North Carolina. On a good day, any one of them had the ability to destroy Radford's dream and knock him out of the championship bracket before he ever got a chance to face McCall in the finals.
"The coaches told me if I wanted to meet Timmy in the finals I had to take one match at a time,'' he said. "You don't look too far ahead. That's how you end up getting caught.''
So he treated each match leading up to the finals as a championship match in itself. "This was my last match,'' he said. "I was not looking past anything else.''
The turning point in the match with McCall came when Radford made a move that finally put McCall on his back, allowing Radford to score near-fall points and giving him a slight cushion in the waning seconds of the match.
"That might have been the first time he had been back-pointed,'' Bruno said. "I had confidence, and looking at Timmy, he had lost a little confidence.''
The win over McCall did more than make Radford a state champion. It enhanced his already good chances for a college wrestling scholarship. Bruno said he's been talking with schools such as Chattanooga, Purdue and N.C. State.
"We're going to see exactly where the interest lies when these schools start calling back,'' Bruno said.
Radford said he'd like to make his choice by the end of the month, but for now, he's keeping his college options open.
"At the end of the month, they'll have the high school nationals in Virginia Beach, Va.,'' he said. "I'll base my decision on how I do.''
Radford said he doesn't mind going anywhere in the country to college. "I'm a military child,'' he said. "I've been all around the world. I can go anywhere in America.''
Whatever happens, wherever he goes, Radford knows what he wants to accomplish from here. "I just want to keep getting better and better,'' he said. "I've watched college wrestling. I want to reach the level they've reached.
"I want to maybe get a national championship, wrestle for America in the Olympics and keep wrestling more and more people.''
And with a little patience, he'll probably wind up beating all of them, too.
Scholastic sports editor Earl Vaughan Jr. can be reached at vaughane@fayobserver.com or 486-3519.