By Mike Finn

Takedowns and falls are common terms to the sport of wrestling and normally used in positive phrases like, “He scored four takedowns to win” or “He has 20 falls this year.”

            But there is also the other side to those words and the wrestler who gave up a takedown or lost by fall.

            That was idea held by Todd Hickey and Kirk Ledger when they named their documentary film about the Central Dauphin High School team in Harrisburg, Pa., “Takedowns and Falls.”

            “We wanted it to be a double entendre and could be analogous to life,” said Hickey, who directed the film that was released this past fall. “Are you the aggressor or are you going to be the person taken down? Are you going to be the character in your world who fails, who falls down?”

            In retrospect, one would think that everything about the Central Dauphin program is positive, considering the Rams have won the last three PIAA individual tournaments — the first documented by the film in 2007 — and the last two Duals championships and are currently ranked No. 6 nationally by WIN prior to this year’s postseason.

            But that was not the case in March of 2006 when Hickey and Ledger came up with their idea. Initially, the graduates of Temple University wanted to follow the top Pennsylvania high school wrestlers. Instead, they focused on the Central Dauphin program, which like any AAA District 3 team had never won a state team championship. In fact, prior to the 2006 PIAA state championships only 13 Ram wrestlers had placed in the state tournament and only one (Bob Harr, 1979) had won a state title.

            “Originally, we wanted to follow (former Easton High School All-American) Jordan Oliver, who was trying to get his second state title, and (Central Dauphin’s) Walter Peppelman going for his first,” said Hickey, who shot over 500 hours of film beginning in October of 2006. “We felt that with Dauphin we would be able to stretch it out a little more because (the program) was a little more of a mosaic. We learned quickly that the kids on the CD team were total characters.”

            The duo filmmakers and former wrestlers from Susquehanna Township High School in northeastern Pennsylvania also discovered a story about a team that had plenty of personal problems to overcome.

            That included the CD coach — and their former coach from Susquehanna Township — Jeff Sweigard, who was diagnosed with lymphoma in the summer of 2006, shortly after his former wrestlers approached him about their idea.

            “I told (Hickey and Ledger) I didn’t want them to focus on me,” said Sweigard, the 1977 PIAA runner-up from Central Dauphin who returned to coach his alma mater in 1993. “I also was hesitant about them doing the movie; about them following us around. I thought it might disrupt our chemistry and that the kids would be worried about that.

            “Instead, (the CD wrestlers) bought into it and my wife talked me into it. She told me that the kids would never get a chance like this. I’m really glad that I did it.”

            Sweigard’s affirmation was confirmed when the film was released this winter to different locations around the country

            “We had a playoff match (in early February) and this guy stopped me at the end of the match. He said his kids graduated from CD in the 1970s and said, ‘We’ve never been to a wrestling match. We love the movie and we came to the match tonight because of that movie and we wanted to see what you and your program was like. Now we’re hooked.’

            “Lucky for (Hickey and Ledger) and lucky for us that we ended up winning the state title,” laughed Sweigard, who is still fighting his battle with cancer.

            “We recently met a coach who told us, ‘You guys caught lightning in the bottle,’ ” said Hickey, who now lives in Los Angeles, but has spent this winter with Ledger promoting and showing their film. “I thought that was a really good way to put it.”

            The film, considered by some “The Hoop Dreams” of wrestling, follows the Central Dauphin program, beginning with the 2006 PIAAs, where Walter Peppelman — currently wrestling for Harvard — lost in the closing seconds of his 119-pound championship match.

            Soon, viewers are introduced to the 2006-07 team that included Walter (who moved to 135 pounds for his junior year) and his brother, Marshall Peppelman, who was then the only freshman on that Ram team.                         Three years later, history tells us that these brothers combined to earn seven state placements, including a championship by Walter in 2007 and two more by Marshall in 2008 and 2009. (Marshall, currently a senior at 160 pounds, will be shooting for his third title, March 11-13, in Hershey, Pa., and will attend Cornell next year.)

            “No doubt about it,” Sweigard said. “They may be the lead actors.”

            But the film shows that each brother had to overcome his own demons.

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