WRESTLING

Roster  |  Coaches  |  Schedule / Results  |  News

Jeff Parker

BUFFALO, NY - Sophomore Jeff Parker (Foxboro, MA/Foxboro) was lucky when he was offered the chance to wrestle at Binghamton University. However, when Parker arrived at Binghamton in the fall of 2003, head coach Mike Fusilli was forced to deliver a shocking blow to him and the rest of the Bearcats.

"I moved in and coach called me and my roommate down to his office," Parker said. "He told us that there was a recommendation made to drop the program. He said, 'You can leave now.' I was already there, so I said, 'We'll see what happens.'"

The season unfolded as a worst-case scenario, with the University announcing that the program was folding in October. (Binghamton has since reinstated wrestling for the 2005-06 season.) As the year moved on, many wrestlers quit. At the beginning of the season, Parker had three teammates to wrestle with who were 197 pounds. At the end of the year, only one remained. No one wrestled at 184 pounds.

"Myself and (redshirt sophomore) Mike Shannon (Albany, NY/Colonie Central), who also transferred to UB, it seemed like we were the only ones in the wrestling room that really cared," Parker said. "It was kind of tough to get through the rest of the year."

After a 9-18 season in 2003-04, Parker said he was ready to move on from Binghamton, even though his mother said that if he wanted to stay, he could. Parker wanted to wrestle.

Though his year at Binghamton was filled with adversity off the wrestling mat, Parker said he never lost his love for wrestling. In a sense, Parker owes that to freshman Mike Ragusa (Foxboro, MA/Foxboro). The two used to ride the same school bus every day and one day in sixth grade, Parker went along with Ragusa to the Foxboro High School wrestling team's practice.

Parker, who has a little brother, said that the practice reminded him of roughhousing with Shawn. He immediately enjoyed the sport and in eighth grade, he joined the team.

By his senior year, also Ragusa's, Parker was on the best team in the state, as both Ragusa and Parker won state titles wrestling for Ragusa's uncle, Jim Fraser.

"He was one of our best friends," Parker said of Fraser. "He still is. We talk to him all the time. He led us in the right direction. We had the best year in school history that year, just from hard work. We're the only two kids from our school to ever go Division I."

Parker finished his career by earning an escape against Dan Cotrone, who is now a freshman with Oklahoma's wrestling team, to win the New England Championship. He also beat Cotrone in the state finals, two weeks earlier.

Jeff Parker

Parker noticed things about his opponents during his year at Binghamton. While schools like Pittsburgh and North Carolina-Greensboro courted the heavyweight, he noticed two very important things about the University at Buffalo wrestling team.

First, the team had his best friend on it, Ragusa. Second, the Bulls had only one heavyweight wrestler, senior Greg Thomas (Baldwin, NY/Uniondale/Nassau CC).

"I knew that Buffalo only had Greg who had one more year left and I still had a redshirt year," Parker said.

He came to Buffalo on a visit and made the decision to enroll at the University, coming with Shannon from Binghamton and reuniting him with Ragusa.

"It's huge that I have a friend from home who knows me better than anyone else (in Ragusa)," Parker said. "It was good coming in because I wrestled with him for five years in high school. I knew that I could do the work because he did it. Mike Shannon, it's really good to have someone who went through that same thing. It would have been tough to come here by myself and try to fit in."

Parker was an immediate fit in Buffalo, because he has a great work ethic, head coach Jim Beichner said.

"He's an extremely hard worker," Beichner said. "He's got a tremendous attitude. He almost doubled his wins from last year and you don't just double your wins by accident. He worked hard. He lost some matches that he shouldn't have, but that's the result of growing pains. He's maturing and he's getting better."

In his first dual meet at Alumni Arena, Parker capped off a dual meet with Bloomsburg with a 7-5 overtime win. He knocked opponent Mike Spaid to the ground and then climbed on top to score the two-point takedown, garnering a large ovation from his new teammates.

"I felt great that match," Parker said. "It was a whole different setting for me. The work here was incredibly tough. It was hard to get used to, but once my body got used to it, I just felt like I was unstoppable. I wasn't tired during matches. My technique was much better."

The win helped spark a string of big wins for the heavyweight in 2004-05, as he placed second at the Slippery Rock Open and fifth at both the New York State Collegiate Championships and the UB Open. He also posted his first Mid-American Conference win with an escape in overtime against Ohio's Jeremiah Beltran, the reigning MAC Champion. As the Bulls head into the MAC Championships on March 4, Parker has a 17-22 record, almost doubling his total from his first season in college.

"When the team looks around at somebody who is always there on time and is doing well academically, he leads in a lot of those categories," Beichner said. "I think he adds a lot to our team. I think he has a long ways to go and I think he knows that as well, but after a good year of summer training and maybe a redshirt year, I think Jeff Parker has a couple good years left after this year."

Whatever the outcome at the MAC Championships, Parker said he is nothing but happy with how his first year in Amherst has gone. He credits academic advisor Meghann Wraight for helping him get settled into classes, and sports performance coach Matt Taylor for helping him get both stronger and fitter. He also said that Beichner, who is one of his many sparring partners in the wrestling room, has helped him become a much better wrestler.

"He's so knowledgable about every position you could ever get into," Parker said of Beichner. "He knows what you need. If you're feeling down and he needs to bring you up, he'll do that. If you need to be pushed and yelled at, he'll do that."

Parker also spars with senior redshirt 197-pound All-American Kyle Cerminara (Lewiston, NY/Lewiston-Porter), junior Harold Sherrell (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) and Thomas, who will probably step into the starting role at heavyweight next year while Parker redshirts.

"There's so many people that I wrestle with here that I didn't have at Binghamton," Parker said. "It's made a huge difference."

Part of that difference is the amount of confidence Parker now has going into the wrestling postseason.

"My finishing is to a point where if I need a takedown in the last 30 seconds, I feel I can get against most people," he said. He added about going into the MAC Championships: "I feel that I can beat almost any of them. I felt I wrestled pretty good against (Kent State's Tomas) Rodriguez. I beat Beltran, who beat them all last year. I feel like, if I have a great day, I could be going to the NCAA Tournament."
- Written By Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant Joe Guistina