FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
S-079-07-08
Wednesday, February 19, 2008

Senior RJ Mount Submits Winning Entry in Wrestling Essay Contest

ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. --- Elizabethtown College senior RJ Mount (Pine Brook, NJ/Montville Township) has been named one of two winners in an online essay contest on the topic "What I Love Most About College Wrestling" as sponsored by online wrestling fan Jim Brown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The winners will receive two all-session tickets to the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships in Cedar Rapids, as well as a three-night stay at the Cedar Rapids Marriott and two tickets for a performance at Penguin's Comedy Club.

The winning essay by Mount is reprinted below, with permission:

"To put it quite simply, I could express what I love the most about wrestling in a single solitary word: pride. Quoting Dan Gable, "Many have wrestled without great skill; none have wrestled without great pride.", this seems to sum up what wrestling means to those of us that never won a national title, or made All-American status, or even started for their respective team. To me, it sums up my career as a wrestler.

I came from an area of modest wrestling talent in Northern New Jersey and never had a break out season, never had the upsets that headline newspapers. I was consistent, and to my family, coaches, and friends that was enough to be proud of. To me, I always found myself wanting more and more, disregarding things I had accomplished and never finding the satisfaction that everyone else seemed to have with themselves. For this, I chose to end my career as a wrestler after high school and play lacrosse in college. However, wrestling wasn't done with me.

After a freshman year that left me spiritually spent with the passing of my grandparents, and disenfranchised with lacrosse to the point where I found myself coaching high school wrestling on a volunteer basis just to be apart of it again, I decided that my life was my own and I chose not only to transfer, but to wrestle again. Soon, I found myself in Elizabethtown, PA starting pretty much from square one again, but this time on terms I could accept as a person and an athlete.

At Elizabethtown, I grew into a man. No longer did I feel a lack of accomplishment in what I did; I took pride in every moment I stepped on the mat, every minute I spent fighting and breathing hard. Wrestling now wasn't about consistency, or crowds, or my family, it was personal. To be honest, it was my outlet. Every time I felt my life slipping into a place where I could not control it, I found myself thinking about wrestling; the next move, the sweet feeling of a takedown that felt effortless, or the solace that the sport was always going to be there for me, regardless of whatever turn my life took. What had been a consistency, now had become a constant in my life.

There is no gold medal at the end of this story; I am a college reserve wrestler. I compete in the practice room to make our starters better so that they can realize their goals. And despite there being no All-American certificate on my wall, I have never regretted coming back to wrestling, not for a single second. Through the double sessions, and weight cutting, and broken noses, and tough breaks, I take away the only thing worth taking away from something: pride. Wrestling has become my life's achievement and I am proud to be a wrestler. I'm proud to wear the shoes, do the pushups, and ice my shoulders after practice. Nothing has given me the sense of accomplishment that wrestling now bestows upon me. For that, I am proud." 

(RJ Mount has a 2-2 record this season and has seven career victories)