PREPPED FOR SUCCESS
National powerhouse Blair has impact on college, too
In his free time, it’s not uncommon for Jeff Buxton to pick up the phone and call one of his former Blair Academy wrestlers, creating a thought that’s more daunting than the long distance bill: The best high school program is incessantly trying to get better.
Buxton — who has lost track of how many consecutive dual meets the Buccaneers have won during their five-year stay as the top-ranked high school team in the country — runs a program that has put more than 40 wrestlers on Division I rosters since 1998.
“We talk pretty regularly,” he said of his former wrestlers. “Part of it is that those guys know I like to try to keep on top of the game and find out what they’re doing training-wise and what techniques they’re using and what I could’ve done better to prepare them for college.”
Based on the performance of the Blair alums at this year’s NCAA Div. I meet, Buxton will have to be diligent to find areas in which to improve.
Mocco and Zack Esposito won national titles for Oklahoma State. Iowa’s Mark Perry Jr. reached the finals. Lehigh’s Cory Cooperman placed third. Columbia’s Matt Palmer finished eighth. Iowa State’s Kurt Backes and Harvard’s Robbie Preston finished one victory short of the medal stand.
All came through the Blair program. All came through Blairstown, N.J., at the same time.
“T
aking nothing away from any college,” Perry said, “but if all the Blair kids would’ve went to the same school, Blair would probably run the table every year at Nationals. But that would almost be impossible.”“We all wanted to go where we figured the best school for us was and it divided us,” Cooperman said. “But we still see each other and we’re all like brothers. I love those guys to death.”
Perry drummed up one scenario that could’ve kept the collection of Blair talent intact. He thought back to the beginning of his sophomore year in 2000 when Cooperman and Mocco were seniors and wondered what might have happened had Buxton landed a Division I coaching job at the time.
“All those kids who are successful and who are going to be successful in the future,” Perry said, “I would imagine 90 percent of them would’ve went to where (Buxton) was.”
It’s not that Buxton hasn’t considered making the jump to the collegiate level.
“I’ve thought about it quite a bit,” he said. “When I was younger, that’s all I wanted to do.”
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