McCoy's work ethic leads to greatness

By DAVID COMER
Collegian Sports Writer

Kerry McCoy is not the biggest heavyweight. He's neither the strongest nor the quickest.

He's simply the best.

The defending NCAA heavyweight champion, McCoy will soon have another chance to prove he is the top collegiate wrestler. The Penn State junior will bring his 85-match win streak and No. 1 ranking to Iowa City for this weekend's NCAA championships.

Two years ago, this situation did not appear likely.

After a rocky 19-17 freshman campaign at 190 pounds, McCoy moved up one weight class to heavyweight before last season. And that has made all the difference.

"I just had no bounce," McCoy said of his inaugural season. "I was just drained after the first period. I just couldn't reach down and grab that extra because it wasn't there, because I was losing 10-15 pounds the night before."

Now, McCoy can eat whenever he wants. He is at his natural weight of 220-225 pounds and looks as if he were carved from granite.

While he was losing close matches and weight that freshman season, Lion Coach John Fritz said McCoy was also gaining discipline and mental toughness.

"Not a whole lot of people can lose 20 pounds a week," Fritz said. "You can't get a better teacher than that."

McCoy still managed to finish sixth in the Big Ten that year and advance to the NCAA tournament, where Pittsburgh's Jeff Kloiber eliminated him.

McCoy has won every match since -- all 85 of them.

"It's something we joke about," said Kloiber, now an assistant wrestling coach at Pittsburgh. "The other coaches say that I am the last person that will ever beat him. And it doesn't look like anyone is going to."

McCoy capped off a 47-0 season last year with a 7-4 defeat of Northern Iowa's Justin Greenlee in the NCAA final.

McCoy has been even better this season. He is averaging more than 10 points per match while surrendering less than three, compiling a 38-0 record. McCoy has been taken down only once this entire season, despite constantly being outweighed by 30-40 pounds.

McCoy is small by heavyweight standards. Fritz said, before last season, he thought McCoy "had to be a little bit bigger" to be a successful heavyweight.

But the Middle Island, N.Y., native has proven to be just the right size.

"He's for real," said Minnesota heavyweight Billy Pierce, who McCoy has beaten in the Big Ten title match the last two seasons. "He's got his fair share of quickness and strength and technique, and he's got a good body for it."

But McCoy has more.

"It's not just the body and it's not the technique," said Oklahoma Coach Jack Spates. "It's the Kerry McCoy heart that makes him a great wrestler."

After that freshman season, McCoy decided he didn't want to lose another match -- ever. His 85-match streak ranks him sixth on the NCAA all-time list of consecutive victories and leaves him 13 behind current Iowa Coach Dan Gable's record of 98.

McCoy, in his typically modest fashion, credits a big part of his success to his workout partners at Penn State.

He said former Lion heavyweight Greg Haladay has been "one of the biggest pluses," former NCAA champion Dan St. John "beat me up a little bit" and current Lion Volunteer Coach Dave Hart has helped with conditioning and wrestling on his feet.

"Kerry's the type of guy who helps himself," Hart said. "You could stick him with any workout partner, and he wants it bad enough that he is going to be successful."

But McCoy's success almost came at a different university. While he was wrestling his way to a 177-pound New York state title at Longwood High School, schools such as Harvard, Cornell and Lehigh came calling.

Penn State knew little about McCoy until Fritz went on a recruiting trip -- to watch Jason Kraft of Fachem North High. Coincidentally, Fachem North's opponent was McCoy's Longwood High.

"I had never seen Kerry wrestle before," Fritz said. "The other kid was a good wrestler, but Kerry stood out in my mind."

Fritz was even more excited after he learned McCoy held a 3.9 grade point average and was the senior class president.

McCoy said Michigan later showed interest and he "was really keyed" on becoming a Wolverine. Then he visited Penn State and "fell in love with it."

But the night before the signing date, McCoy still hadn't made a choice.

"I went to bed and said, 'Whatever is the first school that pops in my head tomorrow, that is where I am going,' " he said. "And it happened to be Penn State."

Another difficult choice awaits McCoy. He must decide if he will redshirt his senior campaign and concentrate on making the 1996 Olympic team, or if he will wrestle next season for Penn State and start preparing for the Olympics after the 1995-96 season ends.

"I think Kerry McCoy is on his way to becoming one of the all-time greats and will be an Olympic gold medalist," Spates said.

For now, that will have to wait. McCoy will be trying to win his second NCAA title this weekend.

Then he must decide about his plans for his senior year.

"It's up in the air right now," he said. "I won't be able to make that decision until next November."

Until then, McCoy will continue to do what he has done since he arrived at Penn State. He'll walk into the wrestling room at Rec Hall not resting on his reputation, only wanting to become a better wrestler than he was the day before.

It's been a simple philosophy and a successful one. It's the Kerry McCoy way.