Does Amateur Wrestling Have "Heels"? Do We Need Them?

Think of all of the great people you have known in wrestling. Whether it be on a personal level or someone you watched from the stands, its not hard to come up with a list of admirable people in our sport. After all wrestling prides itself on the people it produces. We as a community take as seriously, if not more seriously who people are off the mat, as we do who they are on it. As good of a wrestler as Dave Schultz was, it is not his World or Olympic medals that make people remember him. It was his personality. How he treated people, and made everyone he ever came in contact with feel that they were his friend and that he cared about them. That's what made him the beloved man that he was and makes him 21 years post his death as sorely missed today as he ever was. We have a lot of heroic individuals that are easy to cheer. Most wrestlers are. Yet do we have any "bad guys"?

In professional wrestling, there are "good guys", the ones the fans like and cheer, called babyfaces. There are also "heels", the ones that fans dislike and boo. The "bad guys". Does amateur wrestling have heels? And furthermore does amateur wrestling need heels? In almost all other sports, it isn't hard to think of the athletes, who for various reasons were disliked by the fans. Football has its Michael Vick's, as baseball has its Barry Bond's and basketball has its Dennis Rodman's. It's not difficult to find or think of controversial figures, in the wide world of sports.

Are these people good for sports? Or, are they not? Do they, with their antics draw attention and hype up a crowd? Or do they put a black eye on the sport and bring it shame? Many amateur wrestling fans are also fans of MMA, and often the build up to the fight is every bit as exciting as the actual fight itself. Again, the level of humility and sportsmanship that wrestlers show one another is a uniqueness, that makes wrestling such a special sport. Yet ask yourself if the most recent MMA bouts would have drawn the crowds they did had the fighters sat around shaking hands and paying one another compliments instead of the back and forth trash talking that did occur. Love or hate professional wrestling, it is a multi-million  dollar business. Ask anyone who has been successful in it, from Vince McMahon to Eric Bischoff and they'll tell you that heels draw money.

So who are our heels and what effect did they have on amateur wrestling? While this article won't name them all, it will take a look at 10 wrestlers who at least at some point in their careers would have been considered heels.

10. Aaron Pico

It doesn't matter how good you are at the sport. Even when you can back it up, the fans of amateur wrestling don't like to hear it. Aaron Pico can walk the walk as well as he can talk the talk, but we're the type of sport that likes all of the talking to be done on the mat. We don't like for someone to sit and run their mouth about how good they are, even if they are that good. When Aaron Pico recently took a shot at Zain Retherford, saying that had he been wrestling at the World Team Trials in Lincoln, Nebraska, that Retherford wouldn't have stood a chance, not everyone took it well. Many were angry with Pico over his comment and in the minds of some, his comments made him an instant heel. While he still has a rather large fan base that continue to support him as he makes a name for himself in MMA, there are those, just as eager to see him get beat. If Pico were to wrestle Retherford in an exhibition, say at the NWCA All Star Classic, this match alone would make Princeton a standing room only event.

9, Shawn Charles

Shawn Charles has over twenty years of collegiate coaching experience and in that time he was never anywhere for longer than five years. All in all, he was at nine different schools during his tenure as a coach and his departures were not always on good terms. Charles has an abrasive personality that doesn't mesh well with everyone he comes in contact with. While no doubt an extremely talented wrestler with a ton of knowledge, he can come off as patronizing, condescending and even insulting. In a sport where politeness is in and rudeness is out, Charles could easily qualify as a heel.

8. Nick Simmons

If you ever have the opportunity to talk with Nick Simmons off the mat you will discover a very friendly, intelligent, articulate and neat person. However, who Nick Simmons is off the mat and who he is on the mat are two completely different people. He was nick named, "The East Lansing Strangler" for a reason. On the mat, Simmons was downright mean. In the opinions of some he was cruel, even dirty. You'd have thought that submissions were a part of amateur wrestling the way Simmons would stretch his opponents in spladles and other maneuvers. He wasn't afraid to hurt people and as a result, he had his fair share critics during his time as a Spartan at Michigan State.

7. Bubba Jenkins 

Bubba Jenkins is a rather unique case as there are two sides to the issue, two teams if you will, and how you look at the issue, really depends on whose team you are on. Years ago, Jenkins had a falling out with Cael Sanderson and Penn State University. Unfavorable things were said by both parties about one another. As fate would have it, Jenkins made the NCAA finals against a Penn State opponent, with arch rival Sanderson in the corner. Some took Jenkins' side and some took Sanderson's. Few, if any remained neutral. In the end Jenkins prevailed victorious. Some were very happy about it and some were not.

6. Thomas Gilman

Recent graduate and current 2017 World Team Member Thomas Gilman is no stranger to people in the crowd not liking him. The former Iowa Hawkeye is well known for his aggressive style and mean attitude. He's not afraid to shove and you could put him nose to nose with Brock Lesnar or anyone else considered to be dangerous and tough. Gilman wouldn't back down. He's mean, arrogant and even  at times cocky. Yet, he's also passionate about the sport and his teammates. To quote James Earl Jones in Best of the Best, "A team is not a team, unless you give a damn about one another." And that quote in a lot of ways describes Gilman. He's the wrestler that you may not like, you may even boo, but you still respect.

5. Rick Sanders

It may not be fair to call Rick Sanders a heel. He was a lovable, free spirit, whom many enjoyed being around. Yet the fact of the matter is, wrestling is both a very conservative sport and a very religious sport. If Republican doesn't describe you politically and Christian doesn't describe you religiously, you already have two strikes against you before you even step up to the plate. Sanders did not fit the mold. With his beard, long hair and wild antics, he stood out like a sore thumb and not everyone appreciated it. With Sanders its hard to separate fact from fiction, but if even a third of the stories that still circulate nearly fifty after his death are true, he is easily the most controversial individual the amateur wrestling world has ever known.

4. Patrick Downey 

Some may read this article and see their name on the list and be offended by it. Others will look at it, and embrace the heck out of it. Patrick Downey is one of those people. Not only does he not mind being thought of as a heel, he enjoys it. Controversy is a soup that needs to be stirred and Downey loves taking his spoon and stirring it with various tweets on his twitter page. He loves to get people riled. He loves to get them wound up. He doesn't mind if people have shown up to the dual in hopes that he might get beat. Regardless of why they are they, they showed up.

3. Mike Zadick

Former Ohio State head wrestling coach Russ Hellickson once said of the University of Iowa and its wrestlers, "They love to be hated." Arguably, few Hawkeyes resemble this remark more than Mike Zadick. He was ruthless, relentless and a very hated wrestler during his collegiate days. Unless they cheered for Iowa, wrestling fans enjoyed watching him get beat and were none too afraid to cheer as loud as they could when he did.

2. Johny Hendricks 

In more recent times a common tactic of wrestlers in a hostile crowd, is to wait until they have defeated their opponent and then to put their index finger over their lips in a "shhh" motion, indicating that they have silenced the crowd. This gesture usually results in a deafening chorus of boos. If you want to know when this all began, look no further than former Oklahoma State cowboy Johny Hendricks.  During his matches, he would taunt the audience to boo him. Most wrestlers step out on the mat to face one opponent at  time. Seems that Hendricks often stepped out to face two. One being the wrestler he was facing and the other being the crowd.

1. Billy George 

Many wrestlers have goals and ambitions to get into MMA post their collegiate careers. Former Cornell wrestler Billy George wanted to to get into MMA while he was on the mat wrestling. More than once during his collegiate career he was disqualified from a match for illegal moves, including both punching and kicking his opponents. Unlike some of the others mentioned on this list, George wasn't the "cool" bad guy nor was he simply disliked for wrestling for the "wrong" team. His tactics on the mat were some that the wrestling community would just as soon forget about and sweep under the rug. Yet, they did happen and as a result he's #1 on this list.

Others who might have made this list include Brock Lesnar and Dwight Hinson. Without a doubt there are others who will be mentioned as the subject is discussed.

What is your opinion of these "heels" and others? Are they good for wrestling? Are they bad? Are some good for wrestling and others bad?  What is the overall status of heels in amateur wrestling? Are they something that the sport needs? Or are we better off without them?