This Bo Goes

BY FRED JETER
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
February 14, 2001

There is no caution in Bo Hurst's wrestling vocabulary.

Hurst throws caution to the wind.

Then the Collegiate School senior 145-pounder generally throws his opponents on their
backs.

"There is nothing conservative about Bo's style," said Cougars coach Frank Kiefer. "He
is flamboyant, acrobatic . . . he goes for the pin every time.

"And what I really like about Bo is seeing how much fun he has doing it. Bo wrestles with
a smile on his face, and not many wrestlers do that."

Hurst will go down as one of Collegiate's best wrestlers . . . and most versatile
athletes.

In addition to being a five-year starter on the mats, Hurst lettered two years in football
- as an undersized defensive lineman - and he will be playing his sixth season of varsity
golf this spring.

As a wrestler, Hurst's "damn the torpedoes" style has resulted in a 33-6 record this
season and 126-32 career mark since joining the squad as an eighth-grader.

"Bo is a tough, little nut," said Cougars football coach Charles McFall. "He took on the
other team's biggest guys . . . in the middle of the line . . . and he more than held his
own."

"The play I remember most was against St. Chris, his junior year. Bo sacked the quarterback,
caused a fumble and we jumped on it for a touchdown. It was the play of the game."

Playing at 5-7 and 150 pounds ("I was a little tubby," he says) this past fall, Hurst won
Collegiate's top defensive lineman award.

"That's where my wrestling came in," Hurst said. "Beating people on the line and taking
down ball carriers was just like wrestling."

Hurst finished his football career with a flair with several quarterback sacks in the finale
vs. St. Christopher's.

On the mats, Hurst is a two-time Prep League champion. He will be gunning - or in his case,
running and gunning - for his first State Independent League title this weekend in Lynchburg.
Last weekend, he finished second in the Prep League tournament, falling to Woodberry
Forest's Ben Guerrina, ranked No.3 in the country.

"Fans enjoy Bo," Kiefer said, "because he doesn't hold anything back. He goes for the pin
- pin or be pinned."

Twenty one of Hurst's victories this season have been by pin.

"I enjoy myself on the mats," Hurst said. "If you can't enjoy it, why put yourself through all
that training and dieting? Why wake up at 6 to run and lift?"

"Why do it at all if you can't have fun?"

Christopher Hurst became "Bo" as a preschooler. He couldn't pronounce his three-syllable
name very well, and since people told him looked like Bo Duke, of the "Dukes of Hazzard,"
"Bo" seemed like a good alternative.

"No one calls me Christopher," he said.

Hurst is a well-known name in Collegiate athletic circles. His mother, Debbie, coaches
basketball and softball and also serves as a Spanish teacher.

His father, Brian, has helped coach the golf squad.

Hurst loves the physical nature of football and wrestling.

Good-naturedly, he spoke of Collegiate's recent dual meet with archrival St. Christopher's.

"You've got to love that kind of thing . . . that atmosphere," he said. "It's the closest thing
you can get to fighting them [St. Chris] without getting into any trouble for it."

Hurst is quick, strong and aggressive.

He also can be very precise.

He carries a 2-handicap at the Dominion Club, where his family belongs.

Golf is the sport he plans to continue in college.

He has been accepted to Coastal Carolina University (S.C.), where he plans to play and
pursue a business-related major in golf management.

He does not plan to continue football or wrestling in college.

"Football . . . I'm too small," he said. "And wrestling . . . when I go to college, I want to do
college things."

After a slight pause, he added: "Like ordering a pizza at 2 a.m., if I feel like it."