KENT -Our time as sportswriters to glimpse through the portal of an athlete's career is microscopic.
That's the lesson I learned on Saturday when I watched four-time Mid-American Conference champion Jake Percival become only the third MAC wrestler in history to accomplish that feat. He did it with a smooth 6-0 victory in the 157-pound weight class.
You make it look so easy
Eastern Michigan wrestler J.J. Holmes said following Percival's triumph.
I began covering Percival during his redshirt freshman season four quick years ago. His demeanor hasn't changed a bit, not with his MAC titles, not with his three All-American honors, not when he broke Dwight Gardener's Ohio wins record. Not one bit.
His teammates used to call him All-American Jake at restaurants, calling the name out loud so that other patrons could here it. The nickname always made him blush because his humility superceded everything else, even his sinews, even his records.
Last Saturday was odd because I knew it would almost certainly be the final time I could watch him dominate an opponent in person. Percival still has the trip to the NCAA Tournament where he will try to become a four-time All-American, not exactly the easiest accomplishment. But I will not be there to see it.
I'm still a young sportswriter, only 23 years of age. But Percival is the greatest athlete that I have had the privilege of getting to know and watch in person over an extended period of time, and so it's weird to know that his reign through the wrestling world might end soon.
That's because Percival is all but certain that this is it -his final wrestling rendezvous. Percival might become a graduate assistant somewhere while he works to earn a master's degree. But it's not the wrestling that consists of riding time, scoreboards and fans.
So Percival's mastery of the MAC will become a sports information director's note, a memory. For this journalist, it will be a fine one at that.
-Pfahler, a former Post sports editor, covered Ohio sports for the newspaper from September 2000 through his March 2004 graduation. At present, he is a staff writer at The Medina Gazette. 17
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Eric Pfahler
