The Real Deal: Mac Friddell'02
3/1/2002In his senior season, Mac Friddell compiled a 45- 4 record. He won the
Prep League title at 140-pound, placed third in the state, and qualified
for the nationals where last weekend he won four of six matches and came
within a victory of the championship round. He was the champion in tournaments
at Hopewell, Clover Hill, Manassas Park, and Christchurch. At season’s end,
he was ranked No. 2 in Central Virginia in his weight class in the Richmond
Times-Dispatch Coaches’ Poll.
"Mac has been successful as a wrestler because he’s extremely intelligent,
analytical, and honest," said Coach Frank Kiefer. "He knows his strengths and
weaknesses and will take the most logical approach to solving a problem. He
analyzes, synthesizes, and devises a cogent plan of action."
He’s also just plain tough.
"Mac’s always the guy who seems to work the hardest in practice," said
teammate Johnny Clore. "For example, we do a lot of timed drills. When he
hits a takedown, he’s always up immediately to get another one in the
allotted time. He just goes at a very hard pace."
Friddell, who also plays baseball and runs cross country, took up wrestling
team as an 8th grader, competed in five varsity matches that year, and
progressed rapidly through the program. As a sophomore, he was Prep League
runner-up and sixth in the state at 125. Last year, he won the league title and
placed second in the state at 130 and compiled a 38-7 record.
"Wrestling is the purest form of competition," he says. "There’s something
about it that’s different from any other sport. It’s you against another guy,
and during the match, you’re the only one that can control what happens. My
whole view of competition is really different from when I started. No matter how
hard you try, there’s always somebody out there that’s better than you. It’s
still worth the effort."
Friddell, who’s a wiry 5-11, is deceptively strong and technically
proficient. To the casual observer, he appears businesslike, even unemotional
when he competes, but he brings much more intensity to the mat than his
controlled demeanor might convey.
"You can’t pick up on the passion unless you know him," said Wortie Ferrell,
the Cougars’ coach from 1995 through 2000. "He doesn’t show a lot of emotion,
but when he competes, he bubbles, boils, and seethes. He definitely wants to
win."
Like so many of Collegiate’s athletes, Friddell is hardly one-dimensional. In
fact, at a time when the term "scholar-athlete" is tossed around quite liberally
and often without much substance, Friddell is the real deal.
A top-of-the-line student, he was accepted early-decision at Princeton, where
he hopes to continue wrestling. He’s a co-chairman of the Judicial Council and
one of three managing editors of the Match. He also sings in the Penningtones
and was part of the chorus in the fall musical, "Hello, Dolly!."
Somehow, he gets it all done.
"I’m lucky that Collegiate presents a lot of opportunities for me to do a lot
of things I like," he says. "When you like everything you do, it’s not a
struggle at all to balance all the demands on my time."
--Weldon Bradshaw wbradsha@collegiate-va.org
(This article was duplicated from collegiate-va.org with permission).