David N. Camaione: Wrestling with success

I wish to commend The News and Observer’s sports staff for not only covering NCSU’s remarkable wrestling season, but also the story of one the most highly successful collegiate wrestlers in the NCAA, NCSU’s Nick Gwiazdowski (“Gwiz: I can’t be mad about anything,” March 21 sports article).

His outstanding achievements will be difficult to match. A three-time All-American, an outstanding won-lost record, two national championships and three Outstanding Wrestler awards in the ACC are exemplary. It is also my understanding he is highly regarded by his peers and coaching staff, a truly remarkable young man. Clearly a future Hall of Famer.

Of special note, his final match in the NCAA championships against arguably one of the finest collegiate and international wrestlers, Kyle Snyder, was by any standard one of the greatest heavyweight matches in the history of the sport. It put the audience at the historic Madison Square Garden on its feet and kept the national viewers glued to their TVs right up until the end of the meet.

I state the above because along Tobacco Road, it is historically only about basketball, so it was a joy to see the coverage given to the sport of wrestling, both at the collegiate and high school level this past year.

As the famous coach Dan Gable of Iowa once said, “once you have wrestled, everything else is easy.”

This story was originally published March 30, 2016 at 5:54 PM with the headline "David N. Camaione: Wrestling with success."