There's a Frank Sinatra song my mom used to sing when I was a kid that could be a pretty apt analogy to what's going on with AU wrestler Josh Glenn these days. It goes like this:
Just what makes that little old ant
think he'll move that rubber tree plant?
Anyone knows an ant can't
move a rubber tree plant.
While Sinatra croons his doubts about insect's ability to bring down a tree, the ant suddenly proves him wrong. As the song continues:
Oops, there goes another rubber tree plant.
Think about it: Glenn is the ant, attempting at the unprecedented, while the NCAA title is the rubber tree plant. He might just move it.
OK, well maybe it's not that apt of an analogy. But the fact remains that whenever Glenn takes to the mat, he's single-handedly trying to deliver AU the only NCAA championship in the institution's history.
The 184-pounder is a redshirt sophomore and already ranked No. 2 in the nation, which is a better ranking than anything AU usually achieves. The field hockey team came close by cracking the top five last fall, and on a less positive note, the library was rated close to second-worst in the country by the Princeton Review a few years ago. But that dubious honor has since been shed after it acquired its one millionth volume, so now AU has only one No. 2, and that's Glenn.
He picked up this season where he left off last March when he was an NCAA qualifier and freshman of the year in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association.
Now he could be even better than No. 2, at least if you ask him.
"I think I'm the best in my weight class," he said. "I've just gotta prove it, you know?"
Glenn is 22-1 with 15 pins, which he says he goes for every match. He's not just scraping by when he wins; he puts his opponents into submission.
And he hasn't had a cakewalk of a schedule. Just last week he went into into the Devaney Center in Lincoln, Neb., home of the No. 3 Cornhuskers, and sprung a pin on then-No. 10 Vince Jones. His only defeat was in December at the Midlands Tournament in Chicago to Purdue's Jason Wissel, who now ranks third, just behind Glenn.
Glenn is an East Coast guy from an urban East Coast school winning in a sport that the heartland traditionally dominates. The Big 12 and Big Ten programs have won most of the national championships, but AU is already among East Coast's elite, joining the Lock Havens, Edinboros and Lehighs that check the dominance of the Oklahoma States and Iowas.
But once everything is said and done, where will Glenn's accomplishments fall: with AU or himself?
Wrestling teams can win dual meets and place first in tournaments. But at its heart, it's an individual sport. So is the No. 2 184-pounder just Josh Glenn, or is it AU's Josh Glenn?
"It's everything, you know?" he said. "I couldn't win without my team around me, without the role models around me, you know what I'm saying? I couldn't win without the people behind us promoting the program, my coach, my family. I think it'll be [about] everything when it happens."
And if - or when - it does happen? There goes AU's rubber tree plant. You know?
