Former 70-pound Lake View wrestler aims for Olympics

In the beginning, it would have been insane to predict Joe Betterman ever would come to this. How could anyone believe that a kid who entered Lake View in 1998 without a shred of wrestling experience would be a contender for the U.S. Olympic Greco-Roman team a decade later? But, boy, were there ever clues. There were clues in the toughness and guts of someone who played frosh-soph football in '98 measuring 4 feet 5 inches and weighing all of 70 pounds. And there were more clues after Betterman reported for wrestling that year, even though all he knew of the sport was the pro circus he had seen on TV. He was, to put it kindly, awful at first, but he wouldn't let futility deter him. "He wasn't a quitter," said St. Ignatius coach Carmelo Flores, who then coached at Lake View. "He'd get thrown a couple of times but kept coming and coming and coming. "I told an assistant, This kid is going to be good."

The kid is 23 now and just back from competing in the Greco-Roman World Championships in Azerbaijan. That's a long way from Betterman's freshman year, when he didn't win a varsity match at 103 except by forfeit and was so light Flores told teammates who needed to cut weight to give part of their lunches to him. Betterman nonetheless fell for the sport immediately and gave up football to focus on it, especially after Flores told him he could amount to something. "What attracted me the most is it's a one-on-one sport," he said Sunday during a visit to Chicago. "If you lose, it's your fault. If you win, it's your hard work that got you there." Betterman worked hard from Day One, and it started to pay off the following summer when he placed in freestyle in the cadet national championships in Fargo, N.D. Weeks later, though, his mother decided to move to Wisconsin. He wanted to continue training under Flores, in part because he believed wrestling would get him to college. After much pleading, she let him stay in Chicago and live with his father. "If that didn't happen, I don't know where I'd be today," he said. By his sophomore year he was 88 pounds and wrestling varsity full time at 103, but opponents still would snicker at him during weigh-ins. Their smiles usually disappeared quickly. "They would laugh at me, and I would beat them," said Betterman, 38-12 that season. As a junior, finally actually weighing 103, he qualified for the Class AA state meet and won two matches. The following summer he earned All-American honors with a fifth place at the Greco-Roman junior nationals in Fargo, and as a senior he placed sixth at state at 103 after losing in the quarterfinals to the eventual champion. Betterman was headed for small-college wrestling when he returned to Fargo that summer. He didn't repeat as an All-American but impressed Ivan Ivanov, the Greco-Roman coach at the U.S. Olympic Education Center at Northern Michigan University.

After seeing much what Flores had seen four years earlier, Ivanov invited Betterman to join his program. "I noticed the kid is aggressive, he's not afraid and he cares if he loses," Ivanov said. Betterman would attend Northern Michigan free but would not wrestle there. He would instead train with top wrestlers at the USOEC and compete in high-level events. He accepted Ivanov's offer almost on the spot. The scholarship was hugely appealing, and so was joining an Olympic training program out of high school, seemingly a fast track toward achieving his ultimate wrestling dream. "I wanted to be an Olympic champion," he said. Betterman's start at the USOEC was similar to his debut at Lake View. More experienced, technically proficient wrestlers abused him in practice. "I didn't score a point on them in practice for probably four months," he said. "They were the hump in front of me, the hill I had to climb to get to the next level."

Betterman once again relied on determination and hard work to get there and within a year started winning major junior events. He had a break through season in 2005, winning the 121-pound title at the prestigious Dave Schultz Memorial International against some of the world's bestwrestlers.This season the 5-3 wrestler moved up to 132 pounds and finished second to 2006 world champion Joe Warren at both the U.S. nationals and world championships team trials. When Warren left the world team, Betterman got his first shot on wrestling's big stage. He drew a tough first-round foe in European championships runner-up Stig Andre Berge of Norway and lost in a close match on Sept. 17.Betterman was eliminated when Berge lost his next match but experienced the thrill of belonging to the first U.S. team to win a Greco-Roman world championship team title.

The experience wetted his appetite for the Olympics. He is closing in on a degree in criminal justice but will take off the 2007-08 school year to concentrate on making the 2008 team. Ivanov believes Betterman has the ability to win Olympic gold, especially once he gets more international experience. Betterman plans to wrestle until 2016, retiring at 32 after winning his third Olympic gold medal -- in Chicago, of course. It may all sound a bit nuts, but it's best not to bet against Betterman. "Once I set a goal, I do everything I can to accomplish that goal," he said. "As long as I compete, I want to win."