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Kevin Michaels Assaults NCAA Championships

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By FLETCHER THOMPSON

For four years, there has
been an athlete here at the
University, who has steadily
climbed to the top of his field.
Now, at the close of his career
he is preparing an all-out
assault on an NCAA
championship, something he
feels he has a good chance of
winning.

Yet, not many people know
who he is, and even fewer
come out to see him perform.
His name is Kevin Michaels and
his sport is wrestling.

Perhaps better known as
the Cavaliers' outside
linebacker, Michaels claims his
first love has always been
wrestling. Frequently, during
the fall, he would slip into the
wrestling room to work out
after football practice, and this
year he manned his linebacker
position at only 180 pounds,

Michaels found his low
weight to be no disadvantage,
however. "I feel I was still the
best linebacker on the team,"
he says.

The reason for his
self-discipline was his desire to
get down to 167, the weight he
wrestled in his first-year when
he finished third in the ACC.
Since then, he has added
conference championships at
190 in his second year and 177
last year, when he earned the
league tourney's Outstanding
Wrestler award.

After returning to 167 at
mid-season, he has compiled an
8-0 record and is convinced he
can win not only his third
straight ACC title but the
NCAAs as well.

"I won't slip up," he says as
he approaches the conference
tournament, which he must
win to qualify for a shot at
national glory. "When I go into
a match now, I feel nobody is
as good."

Athletic success is nothing
new to the Michaels family,
whose most prominent
member is Lou Michaels,
former Baltimore Colts star. In
his Sparta, N.J. high school
where his father was his coach
in both football and wrestling,
Michaels says he was pushed
hard to do well in his athletic
endeavors.

"My father wanted me to
go to a good school," he
explains. "When I graduated
from high school, he told me
my scholarship was my
graduation present."

Recruited by several
schools primarily for his
football ability, Michaels says
it was Virginia wrestling Coach
George Edwards who
persuaded him to sign up for a
four-year stint in
Charlottesville. "I was all set to
go to Kentucky," he recalls,
"then Coach Edwards talked to
me at the last moment and sold
me on the University."

Despite carrying the burden
of two varsity sports, Michaels
does not feel he has been
tremendously pressed during
his career. His only complaint
concerned spring football
practice, which he found to be
"a pain." "I feel I need a rest
after wrestling season," he
says understandably.

A possible explanation for
his ability to endure grueling
work-outs eight months of the
year without collapsing can be
found in his admission, "I
don't study that much. I have a
2.7 average in the Education
School, but I don't knock
myself out."

Those who think that
Michaels is a "dumb jock,"
should beware. "I don't like
the jock mentality," he asserts.
Some people don't understand
this, though, and tend "to
bunch football players
together. They think you
should associate only with
certain people. I used to go
wild during my first semester,"
he recounts, "but I don't much
any more. I've done a lot on
growing up since then."

After he takes his degree,
Michaels plans on a job as an
assistant football and wrestling
coach in Fairfax County. "I'd
love to coach wrestling," he
says.

Right now, the most
important thing to him is
wrestling and one gets the
impression it has been for the
last four years. After his first
year, when four classmates
dropped off what looked like
the most promising mat team
in Virginia history, Michaels
stuck with the sport, and says
he never entertained any
thoughts of quitting.

"How will you feel about it
in three weeks when it's all
over," I asked.

"Then I have to worry
about finishing school," was
the reply.

CD/Bob Humphrey

Grappler Kevin Michaels Is A Two Sport Star For 'Hoos