US National Team soccer "destroyer" credits toughness/mentality to wrestling experience

[maligned 529]

Kyle Beckerman, who plays what is known as the "destroyer" position (defensive midfielder) for the US soccer team, is know internationally as a grinder who cleans up potential disasters before they happen.  He credits his toughness to his wrestling background in a story just posted on espnfc.com:

 

http://www.espnfc.com/club/united-states/660/blog/post/2655461/kyle-beckerman-is-klinsmann-united-states-midfield-destroyer

[DuckFor2 216]

state champ as a freshman, impressive, though not sure where he hails from. Anyone know how the rest of his career panned out?

 

U-S-A!

[KTG119 820]

state champ as a freshman, impressive, though not sure where he hails from. Anyone know how the rest of his career panned out?

 

U-S-A!

Duck, he's from Maryland. He is brother of current Brown coach and Nebraska AA Todd Beckerman.

[Tony_Rotundo 31]

Cool! Here are the 1997 Maryland State Champ results. Looks like several divisions and Beckerman's school kicked ass in independent school div A:

 

http://mdhighschoolwrestling.com/page3/page27/page27.html

 

1997 Maryland High School Championships
Maryland Independent Schools Wrestling Championships
at The Bullis High School
February 1-2, 1997

Team Scores
A Division
1. Dematha 259.5
2. Mount St. Joe 198
3. Curley 164
4. Bullis 157
5. Calvert Hall 147.5
6. Boys’ Latin 135
7. McDonogh 119.5
8. Gilman 99.5
9. Landon 68
10. St. Mary’s 62
11. John Carroll 46
12. Annapolis Christian 33
13. Loyola 32

B Division
1. Spalding 93.5
2. St. Paul’s 57
3. Bishop McNamara 46
4. Good Council 43
5. Bowling Brook 26
6. Georgetown Prep 24.5
7. Maryland School for the Deaf 20
8. Friends 13.5
9. West Nottingham 11
10 Pallotti 4
11. St. Andrews 0


Championship Finals
103 Will Filbert, McDonogh d. Delonga, 8-4
112 Kyle Beckerman, Dematha d. Chris Hanlon, Calvert Hall 10-4
119 Willie Harris, Dematha d. Tony Russo, Calvert Hall 3-2
125 Tony Rodriguez, Dematha d. Kyle Chiaverini, MSJ 4-3
130 Drew Robertson, Dematha mj. Rob Johns, Calvert Hall 15-1
135 Mike Boettcher, Curley d. Joe Smith, McDonogh 12-7
140 Wes Cummings, Dematha d. Gary Colbert, Boys Latin 1-0
145 Dan Mattson, MSJ p. Mike Light, Calvert Hall 5:16
152 John Pallotti, Bullis, d. Mike Kernan, St. Paul’s 5-3
160 Sal Aquia, Curley, mj. Jason Leneau, Boys’ Latin 15-4
171 Josh White, St. Mary’s d. Damian Davis, Gilman 10-5
189 Kris Edwards, Dematha d. Zain Marfani, Spalding 9-8
275 Ben Dyer, MSJ d. William Lewis, Dematha 1-1 (OT criteria)