Lloyd Rogers may never take off on an 80-yard touchdown run or stuff a basketball, but the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior has made himself into a pretty good athlete and was recognized as such Tuesday.
Rogers was named co-wrestler of the year for the Southern Conference and was one of five Mocs named to the all-conference team.
“I never thought about winning an award like this until you wrote it down and showed it to me,” Rogers said. “I can’t dunk a basketball like Michael Jordan. I can barely touch the net. And I’m not going to be the fastest in a 40-yard dash.”
The 174-pounder will likely be the leader or be among the leaders, though, when the Mocs run their sprint laps in practice.
“That’s more desire than talent,” he said.
It is that desire that has made Rogers a successful wrestler.
“He is not really an athlete in the pure sense of the word, but that is not a bad thing,” Mocs coach Chris Bono said. “Lloyd is all about heart and soul and guts. The thing that makes him good is guts. He’ll do what he’s told and then some, and I feel he has complete trust in me and the staff. He will do what we tell him regardless of how he feels.”
Rogers is 24-3 overall this season with a 16-1 dual-meet record and a 5-0 conference record.
“Even if you have the skills, you have to believe in yourself and know that you outworked everybody else,” he said. “I might not have had that confidence before, but I have worked hard, I focused on my technique and I am more technical now to go with the constant pressure.”
Rogers shared the top-wrestler honor with Appalachian State senior Scott Ervin (33-5), who figures to be the No. 1 149-pound seed for the conference tournament that begins at 11 a.m. Saturday at McKenzie Arena.
Joining Rogers on the all-conference team from UTC were senior Javier Maldonado (125), sophomore Cody Cleveland (141), junior Seth Garvin (157) and senior Josh Edmondson (184).
“It is a great honor for all of those kids,” Bono said, adding that three other Mocs could have been in the running for the team, including freshman heavyweight Matt Lettner. “Lettner was an overtime win away from making it. He would have been undefeated in the conference, and Joey (Knox) and (Matt) Koz were hurt or sick and missed conference matches or they could have been there. But this weekend is a great time for those guys. This is the time you want to step up and make it up if you’re going to.”
Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own wrestlers. Other members of the team are UNC Greensboro’s Jeff Hedges (133), Byron Sigmon (165), Daren Burns (197) and Ryan Hsu (285).
The six-team conference tournament is a one-day affair with championship finals scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Champions and five wild-card wrestlers will advance to the NCAA tournament March 20-22 in St. Louis.
E-mail Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com
Southern Conference wrestling tournament
Saturday at McKenzie Arena
Admission: $15 for adults, $10 for students
Participating teams: Appalachian State, The Citadel, Davidson, UNC Greensboro, UT-Chattanooga, VMI.
Schedule: 9:30 a.m., doors open; 11 a.m., quarterfinals; 1 p.m., semifinals; 3, consolation semifinals; 4:30, consolation finals; 7, championship finals
Ward Gossett is an assistant sports editor and writer for the Times Free Press. Ward has a long history in Chattanooga journalism. He actually wrote a bylined story for the Chattanooga News-Free Press as a third-grader. He Began working part-time there in 1968 and was hired full time in 1970. Ward now covers high school athletics, primarily football, wrestling and baseball and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga wrestling. Over a 40-year career, he has covered ...
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