Donahoe focused on becoming a national champion
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By KARL VOGEL / Lincoln Journal Star
The last time Paul Donahoe left the mat at the NU Coliseum, he stripped off his headgear and flung it at the nearest trash can.
Nebraska’s nationally ranked 125-pound wrestler was frustrated, exasperated and angry.
He had just given a match away.
Becoming NU's first two-time champion won't be an easy feat for Donahoe to accomplish. The 125-pound weight class is loaded with talent. Counting Donahoe, 10 of the top 12 finishers at the NCAA Championships are back this season, including six of the top eight. Donahoe has a 10-2 career record against those NCAA vets, but both of those losses were last season to Minnesota's Jayson Ness — Donahoe's opponent in Monday’s All-Star Classic in Portland, Ore.
2. Other than Donahoe, who are the Huskers most likely to make a splash at nationals in St. Louis?
The two heaviest weight classes might be the best chances Nebraska has for All-Americans, with sophomore Craig Brester ranked fourth at 197 pounds and senior Jon May fifth at 285. If May can get back to full speed after a series of knee injuries and Vince Jones can stay healthy at 184, that trio at the upper end of the lineup might be the best NU has had since the Scherr brothers and Gary Albright nearly swept NCAA's top three weight classes in 1984. Juniors Robert Sanders (141), Patrick Aleksanyan (141) and Chris Oliver (157) also have NCAA experience, as do true sophomores Jordan Burroughs (149) and Stephen Dwyer (165).
3. Which Husker is most likely to be a breakout star this season?
Kenny Jordan transferred away from NU a year ago after redshirting in 2005-06. He won a 133-pound national junior college championship last year for Lincoln (Ill.) Community College and could be a factor.
But the Husker to watch is probably junior Brandon Browne at 174. The Plattsmouth native redshirted last year, but brings a 14-6 career record into this season, good enough to earn a No. 10 national ranking from the NWCA. Browne's path to the NCAA meet is wide open, with only one other Big 12 wrestler at his weight mentioned among the top 20.
4. What is the biggest question the Huskers are trying to answer right now?
That would have to be settling the logjam at 141 pounds. Two-time NCAA qualifier Dominic Moyer has graduated and is now a volunteer assistant with the Huskers, leaving a big void. Sanders gets the nod tonight against Lehigh, but he's being pushed by Aleksanyan and redshirt freshman Curtis Salazar. Coach Mark Manning said he's hoping the Kaufman-Brand Open in Omaha on Saturday will help settle things. If not, it could be back to weekly practice room battles for starting nods, but it should be noted that each of the three went 1-1 in head-to-head matches at the team's annual preseason wrestle-offs.
5. Considering how competitive the Big 12 is, what is NU's chances of winning a league title?
If experience means anything, the Huskers have to be considered a contender because of the ability to field a deep and talented lineup that features eight ranked wrestlers, another who is a national juco champion and another with NCAA experience. Iowa State and Oklahoma State are ranked second and third, with Missouri seventh, NU 14th and Oklahoma 21st. That means no conference dual is a gimme, but the Huskers have the highest-ranked wrestler in three weight classes, and that's a good start.
With 44 seconds left in a dual against eventual national team champion Minnesota, Donahoe led the Gophers’ Jayson Ness 6-3 and appeared to be on his way to an impressive victory last February.
But in the blink of an eye, Ness earned an escape, then scored a takedown with seven seconds left in the match to tie the score at 6-6. Ness scored a takedown just 25 seconds into the sudden-victory period to claim the win.
It’s a match that the Husker junior replays over and over in his head. Just one of many he can’t forget.
That photographic memory is what spurred Donahoe to write his name in the NU history books as a rarity — a Husker national champion with a chance to repeat.
At nationals at the Palace in Auburn Hills, Mich., Donahoe used as motivation the stinging memories of that loss to Ness and of losing a 12-3 major-decision to Oklahoma’s top-ranked Sam Hazewinkel in the final of the Big 12 Championships.
NU coach Mark Manning and former world champion Sammie Henson, who was a volunteer assistant for NU last season, stressed to Donahoe that he change his approach to the matches, especially when it came to wrestling Hazewinkel. Donahoe had to tame his go-for-broke nature, unleashing it when it is advantageous.
“Paul’s a real aggressive wrestler, and we tried to just have him contain himself the best he can in a national finals match and not go out and shoot himself out of a match or beat himself,” Manning said.
Donahoe, who grew up 30 miles from the Palace in Davison, Mich., followed the game plan to a T and added a national title to the two state titles he won in the same building.
Through the seven minutes of regulation, each wrestler had surrendered a one-point escape, leading to a sudden-victory period for the national title. Just 21 seconds in, Donahoe shot quickly, grabbed one of Hazewinkel’s legs and drove the Sooner to the mat for a 3-1 victory and just the ninth national title in Husker history.
“Against a great wrestler like Sam, you can’t afford to take bad shots and still hope to win because he’ll turn it into a score,” Donahoe said. “I knew that if I was going to take a shot — and I only took two or three in that match, only got to the leg once — it has to count.
“I know I have a real aggressive style, but I’ve learned there’s a time and place for it.”
Nearly eight months since winning the national title just a stone’s throw from his boyhood home, Donahoe is in new territory — the hunter has become the hunted.
It’s a feeling that only two other Huskers — heavyweight Tolly Thompson in 1995 and 197-pounder Brad Vering in 2000 — have ever experienced.
Like Donahoe, Thompson was a sophomore when he won his NCAA title, but Thompson finished third in each of his last two seasons.
Vering won as a junior and took seventh at nationals the following year. The Howells native, who won a silver medal this year at the World Championships, said the pressure to repeat is greatest when it comes from within.
“More than being the target is that the pressure you put on yourself,” Vering said. “You work your butt off every day in that room. You want to win so bad because you want that feeling back again because it’s the greatest feeling in the world.
“But you’re dealing with pressure you put on yourself, dealing with demons inside because you want to get back to the top of the podium.”
Vering had only one piece of advice for Donahoe as he works to repeat as national champion — enjoy the little moments.
“Enjoy every second of it, the sprints, the weight lifting, everything you think you don’t enjoy. You look back and think ‘Holy cow, that’s what made it all worth it.’”
Living in the moment may not be Donahoe’s style, though. It certainly doesn’t jibe with his single-minded focus on his passion for championships.
Senior heavyweight Jon May has seen that focus for three years as Donahoe’s teammate and says it’s what makes Donahoe a success.
“He’s one of the most confident kids I’ve ever met,” May said. “He definitely believes in himself more than anyone else does.
“You tell him you can’t do it, but he’ll go out and do it. He doesn’t like to hear the word ‘no.’”
Manning wouldn’t want it any other way.
“That’s the beauty of coaching him. He’s got a mind of his own, and all the great ones have a little edge to them and I see the potential for him to become a great wrestler,” Manning said.
“He lives in the moment, sometimes, but his mind is always going. He’s always thinking, ‘What do I have to do to be the national champion?’”
Donahoe admits that is his only goal.
“Everything in my life is wrestling,” he said. “To me, school is a distraction, in a way. Realistically, though, wrestling is on my mind 24/7. When I’m sitting in class, I’m thinking about wrestling. When I’m walking to class, I’m thinking about wrestling.
“I still have two years left, and I want to go out and work harder, focus on doing the right things so that I’m ready for March again.”
For now, Donahoe is focused on this weekend, and that means a rematch with Ness on Monday night at the National Wrestling Coaches Association All-Star Classic in Portland, Ore.
You can be certain that gut-wrenching loss in February is vividly being replayed in Donahoe’s mind.
“I think about my matches all the time, things I could have done differently,” he said. “I mean, you can think about it day in and day out, but the only thing that matters is that you go back into the room and practice harder, work harder.
“There’s still a lot of work I have to do.”
Reach Karl Vogel at 473-7432 or kvogel@journalstar.com.
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