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Wrestler sets sights on national championship
By Antone Oseka
He was the smallest guy in his class in Bradenton, S.D., as a freshman, a mere 5 feet tall and 103 pounds. That was a far cry from where he is today. Coming into this season, Tobin is the No. 1 ranked 190 pounder in the country. But, he's still 30 pounds from 190. Tobin currently weighs in the 220-pound vicinity solidly, slowly cutting weight for the wrestling season. "I was 5-foot and 103 pounds. Now, I'm 6-foot-1 and 220," Tobin said. "Sure, I was the runt of the class, but in wrestling you can be and still do well." Tobin wrestled well enough in high school to land a college scholarship. He was a one-time state champion as a senior (171 pounds) and didn't decide to wrestle in college until the high school junior national tournament in April. Tobin said he wanted Nebraska and the Huskers wanted him right after his first official visit to the campus. Three years of competition and one redshirt season later, coaches expect Tobin to wrestle heavyweight for most of the 1997-98 season, weighing in and wrestling only six times at 190 before the Big 12 Championships March 7, 1998, in Norman, Okla. That won't bother Tobin, who redshirted all last season and had a 30 match undefeated streak in open competition as a heavyweight. Coach Tim Neumann said Tobin defeated some of the best heavyweights in the country during his redshirt season. This season, he'll train most of the year with three-time Nebraska All-American heavyweight Tolly Thompson. Last season, Tobin helped Thompson prepare for a run at the national title, this year, Thompson will return the favor. "Each person teaches himself, it's just having the right people around to facilitate it," Tobin said of the competition in the NU wrestling room. "You're teaching yourself through experience, through the effort." Effort is one thing Tobin has never lacked, Neumann said. Neumann knew from the initial recruiting visit that Tobin had the desire and determination to be a great college wrestler for Nebraska. Neumann said he signed him before any other schools even had a chance with him. "When you teach freshman and sophomores how to wrestle, you have to tell them things several times," Neumann said. "Tobin's the kind of guy, if he trusts you, you only have to tell him once and he does it." Tobin said he never regretted the decision to come to Nebraska and join the wrestling team. "I don't think there's been a better place than Nebraska for me," he said. "As far as training, and the overall program like with academics, I don't think I could maximize any more than I have, I've taken advantage of everything." Tobin has excelled inside and outside the classroom. He's an Academic All-American and a member of the Innocents Society. He plans on going to law school after graduation, but first, he has his sights on a national championship. The best place to do that, Tobin said, is Nebraska. "In those programs (like Iowa and Oklahoma State), national champions are a dime a dozen," Tobin said. "Iowa had five last year, Nebraska's history is five." "Winning a national title here, you're one of the five, one of the six. If you do it, it's like wow." Tobin said, however, wrestling teams like Iowa or Oklahoma State can have a mental impact on wrestlers. As a team captain and a senior, Tobin said mental attitude is one of the biggest things he would change in the Nebraska wrestling room. "Some people might have an apprehension, 'Ooooh I have an Iowa guy,'" he said. "I wrestled Iowa twice, (1997 national champion Lee) Fullhart both times. I just see him as another opponent. He's human, I don't let the black and gold scare me." The biggest thing for Tobin is teaching all the guys on the team the right mental attitude to beat all kinds of wrestlers, no matter where they come from. "You've got to have the right mental attitude, there's a lot of pressure," he said. "We've seen a lot of tragedy stories who left Nebraska because they couldn't deal with the pressure." After dealing with the other pressures associated with college, Tobin has taken on one more - that pressure of winning the national title. And, like most other wrestlers, he'll sacrifice everything to get there. "You do what it takes to win, if a guy has a weakness, you exploit it," he said. "It's wrestling, it's not a game of chess. You're not going to reach over and punch a guy in a game of chess, you just try to fluster his mind. Wrestling is rough, every time you step out there, you know it's going to be physical." | |||
