THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 12, 1995 TAG: 9501120509
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
It's easy to spot Carolyn Hall at an Old Dominion wrestling dual. She's the one down front, with one eye on her 8-week-old son in a stroller and another on daughter, Tori, who is 21 months old and not eager to sit still.
``Tori,'' pleads Carolyn, who grabs hold of the bottle of red Gatorade her daughter just dropped. ``Look for Daddy. See Daddy? Look at Daddy fighting.''
Daddy's easy to spot, too. At 244 pounds, Nick Hall is the biggest guy on the Monarchs' wrestling team. Hall, ranked No. 9 nationally by Amateur Wrestling News, will be one of several top heavyweights in this weekend's Virginia Duals at the Hampton Coliseum.
``Tori calls it fighting,'' said Carolyn Hall, who has known her husband since they grew up together on Long Island, N.Y. ``When she sees Nick watching his wrestling tapes at home, she says, `Daddy's fighting.' ''
Nick Hall, a 21-year-old junior, has tapes going back to the days when he was a state champion at New York's Longwood High School. Hall has wrestled since he was 4, following the path of his older brother, who never wrestled at more than 132 pounds.
``Yeah, he worked a lot harder than me, but I had a little more natural ability,'' Hall said. ``I was fortunate enough to go to a good high school. Actually the high school, when I started out, was the worst team in the whole county, but we had this coach come in. . . . It took about seven years, but we won the state championship.''
Carolyn Hall blushes when she admits she didn't know anything about wrestling then.
``I had never seen it, didn't know it existed,'' she said. ``He told me what he did, and I said, `You do what?' ''
But times changed, and pins, reversals and takedowns have become part of her vocabulary. Carolyn and Nick married three years ago, and Carolyn sits through every one of Nick's matches.
``I don't cheer,'' she explains to a friend at ODU's recent dual against Drexel. ``He says he doesn't hear me anyway.''
Home meets are a given for her and the kids. ``Sometimes I leave the matches more exhausted than he is,'' she jokes. She's followed Nick on road trips and last year she watched as he lost in the second-round consolation at the NCAA championships in Chapel Hill, N.C.
But Nick is used to winning - he was 127-7 in high school and is 59-14-3 at ODU - so he doesn't recall the NCAA meet with fondness.
``I learned I have a lot to learn,'' he said. Grimacing, he adds, ``You can't win on your back.''
ODU wrestling coach Gray Simons, who Hall calls ``a walking dictionary of wrestling,'' said his heavyweight has progressed considerably.
``His technique has really improved,'' he said. ``For him, a lot of it has been the physical and mental maturity you get when you're older.''
As a dad of two, Hall says he had no choice but to grow up fast. Carolyn says her husband is tireless, up at 6 a.m. to give newborn Nick Jr. a bath, followed by a full slate of classes and practice.
``Everyone says, `How do you do that?' '' Nick said. ``Sometimes it's hard. I'd be a liar if I said it wasn't. But when you sit back and look at it, I have two beautiful kids, and a lot of people don't have that. That keeps me going.''
Hall admits he hasn't thought too much about how to use the degree he's working toward in psychology. As a wrestler, he wants to be an All-American this year and next.
``Hopefully I'll keep wrestling till I can't wrestle any more,'' he said. ``Plus I'm going to try to push my son into it. He's only weighing in at about 16 right now - with a Pampers on.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by BETH BERGMAN, Staff
Old Dominion heavyweight wrestler Nick Hall holds his son,
8-week-old Nick Jr., and daughter, 21-month-old Tori, in Nick Jr.'s
bedroom. Hall is 59-14-3 at ODU.
by CNB