Category Archives: Immortality

For almost all freshmen wrestlers in the WPIAL, hopes of a perfect career record disappear in a matter of days.

History shows that a flawless four-year stretch is nearly impossible. But every once in a while there's an exception.

With the WPIAL individual postseason set to begin Saturday, Kittanning sophomore 120-pounder and defending Class AA state champion Jason Nolf remains unbeaten with a 75-0 career record. His success serves as a reminder of those who never lost and those who came close.

"I haven't really thought about (the streak)," said Nolf, who will wrestle in the Section 3-AA tournament next weekend. "I don't really talk to anybody about it. I just go with it."

Nolf is ranked No. 3 in the nation in his weight class by InterMat. Not surprisingly, he has a few gems on his resume.

During a 44-0 freshman season, Nolf, wrestling at 103 pounds, defeated Bethlehem Catholic sophomore Darian Cruz, 2-1, in the ultimate rideout period of their PIAA semifinal match. Cruz was ranked the top 103-pounder in the country by USA Wrestling and InterMat earlier that season.

In December, in the finals of Central Mountain High School's King of the Mountain tournament and the Southmoreland Holiday Classic, respectively, Nolf beat defending PIAA champions: Council Rock South senior Billy Rappo (103-pound title winner in Class AAA) and North Star senior Nick Roberts (112-pound winner in Class AA). Nolf defeated Rappo, 3-2, and prevailed, 11-6, in overtime against Roberts, a two-time state champion who, based on InterMat rankings, entered the match as the country's top-ranked 120-pounder.

"I really wasn't thinking about anything (long-term) because my dad was always telling me how tough it'd be," Nolf said, "so I didn't know what it was going to be like."

Between 1940 and 1961, three wrestlers went undefeated en route to four state titles -- the first was 1943 Waynesburg graduate Jim Conklin. None of the three wrestled more than 84 matches in their career, though.

The standard for high school perfection in Pennsylvania went to another level in the early 1990s, when Jefferson-Morgan graduate Cary Kolat finished his career 137-0. He had 80 pins and 36 technical falls. According to a Sports Illustrated story on the four-time Class AA state champion, Kolat allowed just five reversals and never surrendered back points.

"The fans always went crazy if somebody was within three points," he said. "You'd have thought I'd lost out there."

Kolat, who wrestled in the 119-, 125-, 130- and 135-pound weight classes, won PIAA titles in 1989 through 1992 and was named Outstanding Wrestler each time.

"I didn't just want to be a great wrestler; I wanted to be the best," said Kolat, who remains the state's most recent undefeated four-time champion. "And to be the best, you had to knock off some records along the way. If somebody won four titles, you had to win four titles in a more dominating fashion. ... I probably didn't focus on (the streak) as much as people would think. It didn't consume me."

Before Kolat, the undefeated streak buzz belonged to North Allegheny's Ty Moore.

Moore, who started as a 98-pound freshman in 1987, became the first wrestler in state history to win his first 100 matches.

The streak lasted through his sophomore season, when he claimed a PIAA title at 105 pounds. But in the 112-pound finals of the 1989 WPIAL Class AAA tournament, Moore, a junior, finally lost, as his 105th bout went to Connellsville's Jeff Stepanic, who won, 4-3, after trailing by two with 30 seconds left.

"At that moment, I wasn't thinking it would be a positive," said Moore, who considered Stepanic a friend. "It kind of got the monkey off my back, though."

Moore finished with record of 146-1 and won four state titles.

"For me, at least, (the loss) happened at the right time," he said. "I don't know if I would've won the state title if I hadn't lost in the WPIAL finals. It was a good smack in the head that made me realize that if you take care of the small details, everything else will work out."

McGuffey's Jeff Breese joined the ranks of the elite when he went 41-0 on the way to a PIAA title as a 103-pound freshman in 1999. But, during the fall of his sophomore year, he tore his right ACL while playing soccer, and the dream of a perfect record began to derail.

Breese decided to rehabilitate his knee rather than undergo surgery. He headed into the season opener against Keystone Oaks with a brace.

"I just needed to know," Breese said. "I'd gone through all of practice up to the first dual of the year fine. The doctor basically told me it was a 50-50 shot."

Breese had a comfortable lead over Keystone Oaks' Jim Regan when his knee gave out. The pain was too much to bear. Breese lost by injury default and sat out the rest of the season. He finished his career with two PIAA championships and a 103-9 record.

"There's a lot of luck that goes with being good," Breese said. "No matter how hard you work at something, there's no guarantee that just because you did everything right, you're going to get what you want. The other guy is trying, too, and probably has done everything right, too."

There's no way to predict Nolf's fate. As Moore, Breese and others know, the path toward perfection twists and turns. But Kolat isn't sure why his accomplishment remains so rare.

"I kind of thought someone would've come along and duplicated it by now," Kolat said. "It's probably only a matter of time before it's broken."

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Kittanning sophomore faces difficult path to immortality

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Jack the Ripper - Immortality - Future of Gaming - Video

In his brief 32 years on earth, the Detroit musician born Jay Yancey accomplished quite a lot: thousands of studio recordings, collaborations with game-changing rappers and mainstream stars, a dazzling reputation in the hip-hop underground.

But in death, it seems increasingly clear, the prolific producer known as J Dilla has achieved something even greater:

Immortality.

Amid an ever-growing mythology and stature around the world, Dilla?s music, life and legacy will be celebrated with a hometown Dilla Day, including a Friday night concert at the Fillmore Detroit featuring artists such as Busta Rhymes and Jay Electronica.

It was six years ago this week that Dilla succumbed to a lengthy and brutal battle with a rare blood disease and lupus, which in his final two years left him wheelchair bound when he wasn?t hospitalized.

Dilla was certainly exalted by the hip-hop cognoscenti during his career, thanks to the pioneering music he created for artists such as A Tribe Called Quest, D?Angelo, Slum Village and others, along with his own four-star solo albums. In-the-know fans regarded him as a musical savant, capable of bending samples into dizzying new shapes while meshing live instrumentation and deceptively complex rhythms. His instrumental tracks were hailed as sonic masterpieces, stitched with a craftsman?s skill and finessed with musical soul.

But it?s only since his 2006 death that the Dilla legend has truly snowballed, a kind of folk phenomenon in a globalized, electronically linked world. Annual ?Dilla Days? have mushroomed across the globe ? New York, Los Angeles, Moscow, London. Record traders consider him one of the most bootlegged artists in hip-hop history, and leaks of his unreleased tracks send the Internet into periodic frenzies. Even his name and image have become hot items, emblazoned on everything from skateboards to cigarette lighters, mostly from manufacturers unaffiliated with the Dilla estate.

?Today you can wear his face on a shirt around the world, and everybody knows who he is,? says Detroit rapper-producer Chuck Inglish, one half of the duo Cool Kids. Some Dilla friends and colleagues draw comparisons to figures such as Bob Marley, Kurt Cobain, even Dale Earnhardt ? personalities whose deaths only served to make them larger than life.

?He?s known as the greatest hip-hop producer in history ? that?s how he?s becoming revered,? says Jonathon Taylor, head of the new Yancey Media Group (YMG), official caretaker of the Dilla legacy. ?He?s now being viewed in the way that Hendrix is viewed in the world of rock ?n? roll guitar.?

Celebrating Dilla day

If you hopped online this morning and glanced at Twitter, you?d have seen it in action: Feb 7 is Dilla?s birthday, and the tributes and remembrances poured in from hip-hop fans across the globe ? thousands of tweets, often dozens by the minute ? as the term ?Dilla? became one of Twitter?s hottest trending topics.

At least two key factors lie behind the growing Dilla phenomenon. There?s the familiar romanticization that comes to artists who die young, the enduring mystique of a genius cut down in his prime. And there?s the simple matter of exposure: As his music has spread virally ? touted by the likes of Kanye West and often circulated via breathless online leaks ? legions of new fans have become acquainted with the Dilla canon.

Aspiring producers, including those at a Berklee College of Music class dedicated to his work, scrutinize his tracks, seeking to unlock the artistry behind it all.

?People who discover Dilla get really into him,? says Inglish. ?There are very few artists where you hear one song and want to go back and hear everything they ever made. Dilla is one of those.?

?He was a magician. People continue to pick up on that, and so it?s getting mythologized,? says Gamall Awad, a New York publicist who represented Dilla for several album releases in the early 2000s. ?And I don?t see that slowing down. I see it expanding.?

Still, Awad calls it bittersweet.

?Everybody is happy to see that he?s being recognized posthumously. It?s great that his influence is spreading,? he says. ?But you can?t help wishing that it had happened more so when he was alive.?

Protecting Dilla's identity, legacy

YMG was formed last year by Dilla?s mother, Detroiter Maureen (Ma Dukes) Yancey, in an effort to wrangle and streamline a Dilla legacy that seemed to be spiraling out of the family?s control.

?We needed a structure that could protect and gatekeep his identity and legacy,? says Taylor, a longtime family friend. He says the group will ?groom the Dilla legacy in the manner of Miles Davis,? overseeing album releases and merchandise, enforcing the artist?s copyrights and likeness, and curating 1,000-plus unreleased Dilla tracks stored on tapes and digital drives.

Taylor says there?s a duty to maintain the integrity associated with the Dilla name. ?This is sacred ground,? he says. ?I have a major responsibility with this man?s catalog. There are a lot of people who will be holding me accountable here.?

This week kicks off a new, formal chapter in the Dilla story: Friday brings the Fillmore show and a website launch ? OfficialJDilla.com ? with a new record in the wings. ?Rebirth of Detroit? features hometown rappers such as Danny Brown and Guilty Simpson performing to previously unreleased Dilla tracks, and will be released in late May at Detroit?s Movement festival.

It may be that Dilla is finally achieving the mainstream stature that had largely eluded him during life.

?Now you?ve got people in the Philippines who are worshiping Dilla,? says Detroit rapper Beej. ?I believe he was close to becoming that next big producer with a household name, on that very top mainstream level. There?s no telling what would have happened if he was still here.?

Contact BRIAN McCOLLUM: 313-223-4450 or mccollum@freepress.com

Dilla Day Detroit

With Busta Rhymes, Jay Electronica, Asher Roth, Phife Dawg, Phat Kat, Danny Brown, Guilt Simpson, DJ J-Rocc, DJ Dez, Fat Ray, Chuck Inglish, Nick Speed and others.

8 p.m. Friday

The Fillmore Detroit, 2115 Woodward, Detroit

313-961-5450

$38

Dilla Day Detroit Youth Day

Art exhibit, documentary screening, interactive activities

Noon to 5 p.m. Saturday

Virgil H. Carr Cultural Center

311 E. Grand River Ave., Detroit

313-965-8430

Free

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19-01-2009 11:16 Embraced By Hatred - Immortality This is germanys hardest beatdown. the Trinity: RBS DRM EBH Take SFAR, Death Threat, Out To Win and mix it with 100 Demons and there you go. Out on FWH Records.

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