By Mike Finn

Thomas Scotton is quick to credit his faith for his great start this year on the wrestling mat.                        

“This year I feel that ‘God has got my back’ and I can do it,” said the North Carolina wrestler who ended December with the 157-pound championship at the Southern Scuffle in Greensboro, N.C.

            But Scotton also learned to believe in himself as well and credits the North Carolina coaching staff — especially assistant Trevor Chinn — in preaching that point to him.

            “He’s really helped a lot,” Scotton said of the first-year assistant who was a three-time NCAA qualifier before coming to Chapel Hill this year. “He has to be one of the sharpest, most intellectual wrestler minds that I’ve come across. 

            “He really knows his stuff. He’s really good at picking out my mistakes. If my foot is wrong or my head is down, he’s good at picking out my mistakes in a way that no one else has ever done.”

            But Scotton also said that Chinn is good about not letting the Tar Heel junior give up on himself … and pointed to his recent overtime victory against Indiana’s Kurt Kinser at the Southern Scuffle as living proof that one has to believe in himself.

            “I think it was the second overtime period and he had his choice to go down,” Scotton said. “He rode me out the first period and I was going to let him up. Coach said, ‘No, no, no! Trust me. You need to ride him out.’ Lo and behold, I was able to ride him out and win the match.

            “My mat wrestling since I’ve been in college has been my weakness. But coach has really helped me out with things like that.”

            Scotton actually started to have faith in himself last year when he finished 23-15 and earned his first trip to the NCAA tournament.

   “Last year I was wrestling (former Edinboro national champ) Gregor Gillespie,” recalled Scotton.    “The guy before me had beaten like 20-5 before and I said, ‘Oh Lord, if I can just keep him within eight points, I’ll be happy.’ I think I ended up losing to him by three points.

            “That’s the difference this year.”

            Scotton’s father, whose first name is also Thomas, said he saw a change in his son during last year’s NCAA tournament, where the younger Scotton went 2-2 but lost just 5-2 to 2008 national champion Jordan Leen of Cornell and was eliminated in a 7-4 tiebreaker to Cal Poly’s Chase Pami. Scotton’s victories in St. Louis were over Michigan’s Aaron Hynes, 6-1, and over Northern Illinois’ Bryan Deutsch, 12-2.

            “It gave him some confidence that, ‘I can wrestle with anybody. I’m just as good as anybody out there,’” said the elder Scotton.

            The former Bucknell wrestler introduced his oldest son to the sport at the age of 7 and continued to coach him at Willingboro (N.J.) High School, where Thomas Jr. was a three-time New Jersey state place-winner and ended his prep career as the winningest (135-14) wrestler in Willingboro High School history.

            “I guess I came out of the womb wrestling,” the younger Scotton said.

            His father, who moved the family from nearby Philadelphia when Thomas was just learning the sport, said coaching his son was “easy.”

            “He loved it from day one,” said the elder Scotton.  “I was coaching at the high school when he was very young. He would come to the matches and sit on the bench because he wanted to be around the older kids. He gravitated towards the sport right away.”

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