Menwith Hill senior Cole McClain, right, controls British champion Gurdet Badesha during his 7-4 victory over Badesha at the Aspull International tournament in Wigan, England, last November. McClain has been training with the British National Freestyle team. (Courtesy of John Mortimer)
Losing doesn’t sit well with Menwith Hill’s Cole McClain.
McClain, who wrestles at 152 pounds for the Mustangs, lost last year’s 142-pound European championship match, 6-4, to Ramstein’s Karl Saucier.
Since then, McClain has embarked on a self-improvement plan that has him training three times a week with the British National Freestyle team, with whom he’s wrestling — and winning — international tournaments.
He has one goal in mind.
“I plan to see Saucier again,” McClain, 17, said by telephone on Monday.
“I got into this training just to beat him.”
Now, he’s beating just about everyone.
After taking his lumps at the outset against more experienced freestylers, McClain won international championships at Tryst, Scotland, in June; Dublin, Ireland, in October and Wigan, England, in November.
“I was very intimidated at first,” the lanky McClain said of his early days after he took up freestyle in June at a club in Bradford, England.
“I was getting beaten up going against adults who were heavier then I was and knew the techniques. I knew I had to improve.”
He quickly did, mastering the freestyle techniques with a single-minded devotion to his chosen sport. After beating the British national team’s 69-kilogram champion, Gurdit Badesha, McClain was invited to join the national team’s workouts and take part in its tournament schedule.
Impressive as they are, McClain’s international titles are just the tangible evidence of his personal growth as a wrestler, he said.
“I’ve become more self-aware of body momentum and strength,” McClain said of his mat presence after his rarefied training and competition.
“I’m much quicker on the mat, and I’ve learned some techniques that are new to DODDS. I’ve had coaches come up to me after a match and ask what the moves I used were.”
Ramstein coach Dave Izzo, for one, is impressed.
“The first thing that strikes me about him is his height,” Izzo said by telephone on Tuesday. “He has really good leverage on almost everyone he wrestles.”
Izzo added that McClain applies his mind as well as his tall frame to his sport.
“He’s a very good technician,” Izzo said of McClain, who is just a shade under 6 feet 3. “He has lots of confidence. He’s very aggressive.”
While Saucier is the immediate goal, McClain has a few other objectives in mind.
“My coach [Jimmy Hawthorne] has been talking to the Navy coach, Bruce Burnett,” McClain said. “I’d like to stick with wrestling as long as I can.”
Up to and including, perhaps, the Olympics.
“If London gets the bid [in 2012], Jimmy wants me to take dual citizenship and wrestle there,” said McClain, who’s been at Menwith Hill for eight years. “I’d be pleased to have a chance to be in the Olympics.”
