Learning wrestling moves

I played basketball at Marathon High School because it was my only option in the 1990s, therefore I’m still learning about the various moves wrestlers perform on the mat. Marathon didn’t reinstate its wrestling program until 2008.

Stratford senior grappler Elijah Lucio performed what’s called the “ratchet” against Edgar on Thursday to earn he and his teammates McChickens from a bet they made with their head coach, Adam Davison.

Lucio told me the ratchet is similar to the chest crusher, but I still was unsure about these wrestling moves. I figured my friend Jeremy Schoenherr, who is Stratford’s only fourtime individual state champion, could tell me the difference between the ratchet and chest crusher.

It turns out even Jeremy didn’t know what these particular wrestling moves were, because he was good at five moves that didn’t consist of the ratchet and chest crusher.

Coach Davison explained to me today (Wednesday) the difference between the ratchet and chest crusher.

“The biggest difference in what we call the ‘ratchet’ is you have both arms hooked, compared to a normal ‘chest crusher’ when you have one arm that you lock up with both of yours,” Davison said.

“You have less control with the ‘ratchet’ but it’s one of those moves that’s in your toolbox in case you need to use it. Elijah spend probably 15 seconds trying to capture the second car so he could do the ‘ratchet.’ The things they won’t do for a McChicken.”

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My mother, Edgar native and Marathon resident Pauline (Berg) Krautkramer, told me I am longtime Edgar varsity boys basketball coach Jim Heidmann’s third cousin. My grandmother, the late Olive (Braun) Berg of Edgar, was sisters with Jim’s late grandmother, Clara Schueller, of Edgar.

Edgar middle/high school athletic director Jim Steinke told me recently that he figured Jim Heidmann has served as an Edgar varsity boys basketball coach for the past 30 years. Jim has mainly been a Wildcats varsity boys assistant coach but he also had a short stint as the head varsity coach.

My mother also informed me my late uncle, Charlie Berg, is not my only connection to Poniatowski. I discovered my grandmother, Olive (Braun) Berg, was raised on a farm in Poniatowski. My great grandparents, Joseph and Susan Braun, had 14 children including my grandmother.

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