My pup...

No trespassing...

Local wrestlers, coaches react to IOC giving wrestling the ax in 2020

NORTH JERSEY - It's well past 9 p.m. on a blustery Thursday night in February, but the little Cannonball Gym in Pompton Lakes is broiling with energy. The windows fog as the soggy air rises past 85 degrees, and the sounds of heavy breathing and sweaty bodies sliding on mats is heard as dozens of lean, hungry kids work under an oversized American flag hanging from the rafters.

In the world of combat sports, it's furnaces like this that serve as the heart of the sport and separate, through grueling practice, the participants from the hardened contenders who will be pumped into every vein of competition across the country. They are the "sine que non," that upon which everything else is built.

But unfortunately for those practicing at gyms like this the world over, the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) governing body, citing cost concerns, stripped them of their Super Bowl when it decided to drop wrestling - the first sport to be included in the ancient games that wasn't a footrace - from its roster for the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Cast by secret ballot, the February vote was taken after the governing body conducted a study of the 26 "core sports" from the London Games that looked at 39 factors such as TV ratings, worldwide audience, and ticket sales. Wrestling did not make the cut, and the world's oldest sport has now been lumped in with seven other "non-core" sports like squash, wakeboarding, and "roller sports" (like roller derby) to reapply for one open spot for 2020.

Ironically, the decision has done what the Games themselves were meant to do: draw together nations. Strange bedfellows have been made as traditional foes like Iran, the United States, and Russia have united to fight against what many say is an absolutely shocking decision.

The IOC leadership is slated to vote in September which sport to admit.

A fiery reaction

The IOC decision was an earthquake for the wrestling community, and "shock" and "confusion" were the first words on everyone's lips at Cannonball.

33-year-old West Milford resident Dave Maver stood just past the mats watching his 14-year-old son Damian go through the paces, and said his son's passion for the sport stems from his preference of relying on himself instead of a team. When he heard wrestling was getting the axe, Maver, a former wrestler himself, said he couldn't fathom it; wrestlers get little enough attention as is, he said.

Damian echoed his father's sentiments, and said that the news was devastating to young competitors.

"You don't get no money for (this), it's just guys that are willing to do it because they love the sport. It's guys who care," he said. "It's like you work so hard and you could think that you're on the top level but there's no Olympics...no one would even know you're good."

Don Bosco Prep senior Razohnn Gross, a nationally ranked state champion in the 195-pound weight class, agreed, and said that the dismissal was a "huge blow" because of the already-slim opportunities for those looking wrestle after college.

"Wrestling in the Olympics is really all you can do," he said. "Everybody wants to be an Olympic champ or an Olympic finalist...people are just really disappointed."

Jason Silverstein, 34, stood in Cannonball's weight room after training another youth wrestler and waited for the class to end. He wrestled at the prestigious Blair Academy in Blairstown, and went on to make All-American at Purdue University as a 125-pounder. He lives in Oakland, and expounded upon the benefits of taking up the sport. He learned his hardest lessons on the mat, he said.

"What you learn in wrestling you use every day in your life: persistence, tough-mindedness, dedication, and a never-give-up attitude," he said.

It could never be dropped from the Olympics, he'd thought - it was a mainstay if there ever was one.

"I was shocked. When I think about the Olympics, I think of wrestling and running. It didn't make any sense to me. It's one of those sports that transcends countries and cultures - every country, every African tribe in the jungle, has some form of wrestling," he said. "It embodies the Olympic spirit."

Worries about the future

Beyond the initial shock, though, many area coaches are worried that the razing of the sport's championship could lead to shrinking youth programs in the future.

Len Smith has coached wrestling in Pequannock for 34 years, 26 of them as the head coach of the Pequannock Township High School (PTHS) team. He called the IOC's decision "rash," but believes it came down to money and TV ratings. In the end, he said, it's a "slap in the face" to a sport that already requires sacrifice not only from its participants, but from the parents who pay for camps and clubs and drive their kids around to practices and competitions.

"It's a pure sport, a great sport, but it still doesn't get any type of respect because it's not a television sport. Nobody gives (wrestling) any type of recognition, and sometimes that alone will turn kids off," he said. "And some parents will say, 'Why am I going to make that sacrifice if the world doesn't?"

Pompton Lakes Coach Scott Mahoney agreed, and said that although the immediate affect might not be felt immediately in a state like New Jersey, it could be a "disaster" long-term - no Olympics might mean fewer college programs, and fewer college programs might mean fewer high school programs.

Mahoney agreed that money is likely driving the IOC's decisions.

"I don't think at that level they're getting the same (advertising monies) from wrestling as they are from track or swimming," he said. "You put wrestling on TV and you're not getting the same endorsements; you don't hear about guys like Jordan Burroughs, but he's just as great as Michael Phelps."

However, Mahoney said, there's been a swift, strong backlash, and the support for it to be reinstated has gathered.

"There's a big outcry. Everybody supports everyone in wrestling, and there's been a big push," he said.

Down, but not out

Others in the sport are not as concerned. Wayne Oakley, 31, was a two-time PTHS district champ from 1996-2000 and now coaches the town's respected rec team. He was surprised at the public's vocal outrage, especially among those who he doesn't count as "wrestling people." But whether or not it's in the Olympics, he said, kids will come.

"The young kids doing it...for the most part, they aren't thinking Olympics. I don't think the younger kids understand what's going on, they're just out there because they have fun wrestling," he said. "Wrestling is always going to be around."

Austin Wall, Cannonball's 31-year-old owner/operator, happens to agree.

It would take too many column inches to list all of the Wanaque resident's accomplishments, but suffice it to say that he was nationally ranked and undefeated at 189 pounds in his 2000 senior year at Indian Hills and was inducted into the NJ Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2007.

He's perhaps the embodiment of what sport -every sport - should be: wrestling since the age of six, he spent the first portion of his life learning and competing, and will likely spend the rest of it teaching. His first reaction to the IOC decision was anger.

"There's not a lot for this sport, and (the Olympics) are traditionally the highest accolade. It's a really big part of what this is, and it's a really big part of what the Olympics are. So none of it really makes sense," he said.

Wall splits the blame between the internal politics of the IOC and wrestling's own leadership, which he said had become "too comfortable" with what it perceived was an untouchable spot on the world stage.

"They took it for granted," he said. "The biggest fault that people in general have is that they get too comfortable. You don't live with edge anymore. Now you got a problem, because you think you're entitled to something...and that's so uncharacteristic of people who are a part of this sport...because the only people who get successful in this sport are people who work."

The move might even have been a necessary evil, he said, and has forced a shakeup of sport's international governing body, the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles.

But regardless of whether the decision is reversed or not, American wrestling will continue, he said; between rec leagues and high school/college programs, there's simply too much infrastructure built up around it.

Overseas, however, the outlook might not be so rosy - with no college scholarship programs in the small Eastern European republics where wrestling thrives, the Olympics is the only incentive, and it lights a fire under every competitor.

Few understand that better than Wall, who experienced it firsthand during a 1998 trip to the Olympic Training Center in Belarus as a part of the "Wrestling Bridge to Peace" program.

"You don't understand what the Olympics means until you've experienced international competition, and what it means to other people," he said. "There's a very small percentage of people in America that wrestle with a sense of urgency that is necessary to win at the ultimate level - like your skin's on fire. You don't get that same bite (here.) But when I was there...everybody's got the bite. Everybody."

He related one story about a match with the third-ranked wrestler in the world who, just as the match started, punched him squarely in the face and gave up a penalty point just to assert his dominance.

"My coach told me, 'He's ranked third in the world. He wanted to make sure you knew who he was,'" said Wall. "Then he whooped me 13 - 1. That was my only point."

It's that kind of almost insane passion that would be lost worldwide.

"It would hurt a lot.... you're definitely walking on thin ice," he said.

But Wall has faith that his persistent brethren in the wrestling community will be able to change the IOC's mind. And if they can't....that's ok too. After all, he said, wrestlers have always been about the "love of the game" - nothing more.

"We're not getting any money. There is no glory here," he said, pointing to the mats. "Our glory lies in the character this builds, and the strength it builds, and the person it builds, and the families that it affects. I can teach my son humility, but not like wrestling can. I can teach him respect, but not like wrestling can. I can teach him dedication, but not like wrestling can."

If someone can enunciate that to the IOC, wrestling just might beat out roller derby for the 2020 games. But their work is certainly cut out for them.

Email: janoski@northjersey.com

http://www.northjersey.com/sports/194736831_Local_wrestlers__coaches_react_to_IOC_giving_wrestling_the_axe_in_2020.html

NASA cuts: a danger for everyone

I was still awake at 2 in the morning when the first reports of the Russian meteor began filtering in via Twitter, and by morning, full videos of the thing passing through the atmosphere, shattering windows and creating general panic as it went, were all over the Web.

One, which shows a blip streaking across the sky before flashing brighter than a half-dozen suns, is particularly captivating and looks like a scene out of a movie – just not the movie that I ever, ever wanted to see in real life. Had that happened in New Jersey I would have been hiding behind the couch, chain-smoking cigarettes and ranting about how the world was ending.

Thankfully, it was in Russia, and because the 10,000-ton meteor wasn't all that large (in cosmic terms), the video remains a fascinating bit of science instead of an impromptu documentary on how the world ended.

But even knowing how bad it could have been, the event has had one huge benefit: in one fell swoop, that chunk of rock reinforced the faltering notion that space science is, well, kind of important, and it illustrated that in a way that hundreds of broke, frustrated columnists like me couldn't do in a century.

Make no mistake: nothing was stopping that meteor from being three miles wide, and it is a total roll of the dice as to how close these things come to Earth. If it had been that big we likely would have detected it, of course, but that doesn't mean that we could do anything to stop it aside from launching some "Hail Mary" nukes and praying — a pretty poor game plan for saving humanity and ensuring the survival of the human race.

Sound like a movie script? Of course it does. But it’s wholly possible, and it has happened, over and over and over again. One need only look up at the massive craters on our own moon to realize that the biography of the Earth is rife with apocalyptic, world-ending impacts.

But we, in what seems like a permanent mission to swallow the barrel of our own shotgun, refuse to adequately fund our one line of defense against all this (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and in this "GOVERNMENT IS SOOO EVIL!" era, you can pretty much type "NASA budget cuts" into Google on any given day and find something new that’s on the chopping block.

Every year the pool of money devoted to scientific exploration shrinks — down to $17.7 billion from $18.4 billion two years ago — and programs are cut and ideas abandoned because politicians (including President Obama) refuse to devote money to it. That is not how it should be.

I will never understand the zeal with which we’ve abandoned our space program, and the lack of progress we’ve made since the leaps and bounds of the mid-20th century is especially frustrating. But hopefully, the Russian meteor will renew both interest in and concern about our space program and let us move forward again on the grand plans we’ve walked away from.

After all, as the famous Bill Nye succinctly said in a CNN interview last summer: "If the Earth gets hit by an asteroid, it’s game over. It’s control-alt-delete for civilization."

Being as we are the only species to walk the Earth that has both the technology and the ability to avoid this fate, I suggest we take this responsibility more seriously.

Butler's saltwater brine keeping streets clearer during snowstorms

There’s a reason the streets have seemed clearer after this winter’s snowstorms, said Borough Administrator Jim Lampmann, and it comes in the form of the gallons upon gallons of brine that Butler is now spreading along its streets.

The saltwater solution is created in-house by a system built for under $4,000 out of an old pool filter and five 275-gallon totes bought from a company that used them for dyeing landscape mulch, Lampmann said.

The process is relatively simple: Over the course of an hour, water is shuttled back and forth between the units and eventually reaches the 23 to 25 percent salt content that has proved so effective at keeping the streets from freezing. From there, it’s loaded into a tank and spread on the town thoroughfares.

The brine has been particularly helpful during the recent spate of light snowstorms that last for several hours but end with little accumulation. Fewer salting crews are called in, he said, and the total amount of salt used has been cut by as much as 20 tons (the borough typically uses 50 to 80 tons during a typical weather event.)

"The big key we find is that it prevents the snow from hard-packing to the surface, so when you’re coming around and plowing, (the snow) breaks loose and you can push it," he said. "It really works out well."

The program, which has been used in other local towns like Pequannock for several years, is in its first year in the borough and has been considered a success.

Email: janoski@northjersey.com

Mayor says switching power utilites beyond Pequannock's reach

Nearly three months after township residents spent a long two weeks without electricity due to Hurricane Sandy, it’s becoming more and more apparent to local officials that for better or worse — and despite their best efforts — they are going to be stuck with Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L).

It wasn’t just the extended outages from the scores of felled trees that frustrated officials, said Pequannock Mayor Rich Phelan, it was the lack of communication about where restoration efforts were that led to the town’s disgust with its electrical provider.

As a result, a number of local towns, including Pequannock, made informal inquiries as to what it would take to switch utilities, but it appears the game of musical chairs will end before it begins because of what Phelan called the "mind-boggling" difficulties associated with it.

It was during a Jan. 3 meeting with state Board of Public Utilities (BPU) President Bob Hanna, Phelan said, that he was told that the town itself would have to buy all of the electrical infrastructure — including the poles, substations, and wires — the cost for which could run into the tens of millions of dollars.

Following that, the town would have to petition the BPU to release it from the franchise agreement that JCP&L has on this piece of the state, and BPU spokesman Greg Reinert said that the onus would be on Pequannock to prove that JCP&L "failed to provide safe, adequate, and proper service" as required under the law.

Even if the board agreed, the town would have to find another utility —such as Public Service Energy & Gas (PSE&G) or Butler Electric — to take over the maintenance of the grid and provide power. However, because not all utilities use the same hardware, a successful transition could require millions of dollars in changes to electrical wires, transformers, and the like.

All in all, the mayor said, the idea has proven an "unrealistic" answer for a town that is still more habitually concerned with the Pompton River’s rising waters than the failings of an aging electrical grid.

"To put the time and money…into trying to do that…might be a big mistake in my eyes," he said. "We’re a small town. We watch our nickels and dimes, and it’s not something that we feel justified chasing. We’ve got a bigger problem, and it’s called flooding."

However, residents still truly spiteful toward JCP&L could always purchase power from one of the plethora of third-party sellers who routinely call their homes during dinnertime, and the town itself could even organize a mass departure from JCP&L by signing up residents and businesses through a process known as "municipal aggregation," Reinert said.

But when the grid goes down, it would still be JCP&L working on the lines, and the switch wouldn't put a dent in the company’s pocket because, according to Reinert, utilities don’t make money off of selling electricity, but off the rate of return on the infrastructure they've built. In other words, the charge to recoup the cost of building the grid is paid regardless of who provides the power.

"You get a bill from (the utility) and it breaks it down: Here’s the cost of the electricity, and here’s the cost of bringing it to you," he said. "And you pay the bill, and the (utility) reimburses the third-party supplier."

Customers’ complaints have been heard ‘loud and clear’

JCP&L has heard the complaints about what many say was an inadequate response to Sandy "loud and clear," said spokesman Ron Morano, especially in regards to the lack of communication between the utility and the municipalities it serves.

In response, the company has developed a series of "new operational practices" designed to provide information to municipal officials about restoration efforts. This, he said, will include things like locating JCP&L liaisons in field offices, hosting teleconference briefings about localized restoration work, deploying "additional company personnel" to work with municipal representatives, and training county and municipal first responders on electrical safety.

The utility would also provide municipalities with maps showing electrical circuit routes in their communities, and is said to be developing mobile apps to help customers report outages and access their account information.

"We communicated very well throughout the storm, but a lack of specific levels of information was the biggest (complaint)," he said. "That’s the area that we’re going to focus on going forward."

The BPU appears to be nudging all electric distribution companies down a similar path, and at its Jan. 23 meeting, mandated that all utilities enact 103 specific actions to "improve their preparedness and responses" to major storms.

According to a press release from the BPU, many of the actions must be done by June 1 (the official start of the 2013 hurricane season) and nearly all must be completed by September. 

The list, among other things, includes demands that the companies make a "global estimated time of restoration" available within 24 hours of a major outage, and requires daily updates for municipal officials concerning both the number of customers that remain without power and how many will be restored each day.

The utilities will have to maintain separate Web pages for each municipality giving a "detailed description" of the electrical grid (including explanations of circuits and substations), and links to information about the restoration process and procedures.

The implementation of the measures, said Reinert, as well as the development of more proactive policies regarding things like vegetation management, represents "another step in the process" toward remedying what went wrong after Sandy.

In Pequannock, though, the proposals were met with sighs and eye rolls; Phelan said it’s deeds, not words, that will make the difference. Saying he doesn’t believe anything will come of this may be an understatement.

"It’s the same story over and over again, and personally I don’t see how it’s going to change much unless they put people on the ground prior to these storms," he said. "I hate to say this, but talk is cheap. (JCP&L) needs to do something, and I don’t think they’re going to."

He was less than enthused about more Web page diagrams that often break down outages by substations instead of political boundaries — leading to inaccuracies in estimating the number of affected residents in a given town — and said that making one field representative beholden to only one town might be a way to fix the communication breakdowns.

"I don’t think that having a Web page that tells me Pequannock has 5,000 residents out is really doing any good because I know it’s inaccurate," he said. "I want a guy in my town that I can talk to… Information is key, because when residents are asking us, we need to be able to tell them something."

Township Manager Dave Hollberg agreed, and said that the daily phone calls about outage numbers and restoration plans were "useless" because the utility didn’t restore people when it said it was going to. As a result, municipal officials often disregarded the reports as soon as they came in.

A local supervisor, though, would have value, especially if that person was given the power to fix small issues if possible, he said.

"It seems like there was a lot of down-time, and a lot of wasted time, in how they made their determinations about how things were to be repaired," he said. "If they gave a little bit of that authority to do the stupid little stuff (to a local contact), I think they’d accomplish a lot more."

But in the end, municipalities — especially small ones like Pequannock — don’t hold the cards, and can do almost nothing if the utility were to fail to perform once again.

"There’s certain things that are within our control, and there’s things that are not within our control," said Phelan. "And if JCP&L does not work with the Township of Pequannock, it’s not like Pequannock can say, ‘Straighten up your act or we’re going to fire you.’"

Instead, officials are left hoping, as Phelan does, that an event like Sandy simply never happens again. Because in the end, it’s all they can do.

Email: janoski@northjersey.com

http://www.northjersey.com/news/188626341_Mayor_says_switching_power_utilites_beyond_Pequannock_s_reach.html

Renewal