Multi-Tasking

Paul Selman (right) leads Minnesota State with 23 wins

Being a student-athlete is one busy lifestyle.  You go to school as a full-time student, you practice for your respective sport every day, you’re on the road constantly for competition, and you try and balance a social life on top of all of that.  Now take that into perspective, and imagine if you did not just one, but two sports as a student-athlete.

It’s a rare feat that not many people have done historically, especially in modern times.  Dave Winfield, Jackie Robinson, Jim Brown, Deion Sanders, Bo Jackson and Jim Thorpe are just a few notable athletes to have participated in multiple sports at a high level.

There have been several athletes at Minnesota State that have played more than one sport including the likes of Chris Reed (football, track), Keyvan Rudd (football, track), Nathan Hancock (football, track), Sidni Trotter (soccer, women’s basketball), Jenna Peterson (hockey, softball), Kelvin Rodgers (football, track,), Ben King (football, baseball), Michael Lawrence (football, track), Donnell Bowyer (football, baseball), Jared Ziemke (football, basketball), Ryan Dutton (football, baseball),  Lester Mitchell (basketball, track), Tywan Mitchell (football, basketball), Monte Dufault (basketball, baseball), Nancy Kelly (volleyball, softball), Luonna Van Meveran (volleyball, track), Mike Yonkey (football, track), Joel Nielsen (football, baseball),  Mike Carroll (hockey, baseball) and Gene Glynn (basketball, baseball). 

It's possible that from the list above, you might notice that there aren’t any track and wrestling combos.  Until now.

“It’s been roughly 20 years since we have had a multi-sport athlete of any kind on our team," said Jim Makovsky, who’s in his 23^rd season in charge of the Minnesota State wrestling program. “It’s rare enough that you see a multi-sport athlete in football and track, let alone wrestling and track,” 

The wrestling and track student-athlete Makovsky is referencing one of his current team members in Paul Selman.

A native of Glen Ellyn, Illinois, Selman attended Glenbard West High School, where he exceled in not one, not two, but three sports -  soccer, wrestling, and track.  After graduating, he enrolled in nearby Millikin University in Decatur, Ill., where he was a member of the soccer and track programs at the NCAA Division III level.  Selman had a tremendous freshman season, attaining  indoor and outdoor track and field all-conference honors in the 100-meter dash while qualifying and competing at the 2015 NCAA DIII national outdoor track and field championships.

While participating in soccer and track, Selman missed participating in his third sport from high school, wrestling.  It was at that time that he met two of the coaches from the Minnesota State wrestling team in Makovsky and assistant coach Marc Harwood, who helped him get back into the sport he loved and missed so much.  Agreeing to transfer to Minnesota State to participate in track, Selman would then switch his second sport from soccer to wrestling. 

He currently leads Minnesota State in his freshman year with the Mavericks with 23 wins, while holding a 23-9 record overall while wrestling at 133 for the 14-rated Mavericks.

 “Paul is learning a lot this year since coming back to wrestling. He’s a great athlete, a hard worker, and he’s gone on to have a steady season,” said Makovsky.

While competing at the college level in sports that run concurrently poses challenges, Selman feels that in his instance, track and wrestling complement each other fairly well, albeit with some adjustments.

 “In wrestling, you run a lot, so it helps keeps me in shape going into track in the spring, and the same goes with track complementing wrestling.  I had to get out of any procrastination habits I had and get all of my homework done ahead of time.  Time management has been key for me, and I couldn’t do it without the support from my teammates and coaches”, Selman explains.”

He also said that due to the timing of practices and competition, his primary focus during the winter will be limited to wrestling, but would plan on competing in the outdoor track season.

In the meantime, there's the matter at hand with the conclusion of the wrestling season drawing near with regional and, hopefully, national tournament competition slated. The Minnesota State men's outdoor track and field season begins near the end of March. It's likely Mr. Selman has that date written down on his busy schedule. 

                             contributed by Cameron Klade, Minnesota State Athletic Communications Intern

   

Taking Solace

Jim Makovsky

"I wasn't the best technician in amateur wrestling. But I was strong, had great conditioning, and a hard head. Nobody could break me." Brock Lesnar, former NCAA wrestling and UFC heavyweight champion.

You can see it in his eyes.  Minnesota State coach Jim Makovsky thrives on working in the wrestling room with his team.  He'd played football and wrestled at Valley City State (N.D.) as a student-athlete prior to embarking on his now lengthy coaching career and the years of drilling with the boys have started to take its toll.  Makovsky, who's in his 18th year with the Maverick wrestling program, recently had his right hip replaced and although the pain from the procedure is undoubtedly tremendous, you just know that not being able to work like he normally would with his team is something he's struggling that pains him even more.

MavBlog:  "I suppose this hip-replacement thing isn't something that just cropped up."

Makovsky:  "(laughing) No, no.  It's been chronic for a while and have known since 2004 that I was going to have to get this done eventually."

MavBlog: "Can you describe what you had done and how's the recovery going?"

Makovsky: "I had what's called a Birmingham Hip Resurfacing Procedure.  Basically it's a pretty new procedure for people that are younger and active and need hip replacement.   I was pretty excited to have this rather than the other procedure which involves a total hip replacement.  You retain more bone with this process."

"The recovery is going o.k.  It's probably been mentally harder than physically.  I'm not good at sitting around.  I like being around the program with the comaraderie you have with the guys.  I like the work part of it and being around positive people.  I started rehab right away and I'm at the point now where it's more of a workout pain and feels pretty good."

MavBlog: "Where does it go from here?"

Makosky:  "I'm going to listen to my doctors and physical therapists.  Try not to push too much, which I'm not good at.  I'm not going to to our meet at UNI this weekend and that was a tough decision.  But long term it will be good for me."

MavBlog:  "What are your thoughts on the team this year and have you had a chance to be back into the room this week?"

Mavovsky:  "It's tough, because we're relatively inexperienced and don't have that national championship meet experience you like to see.  But I think we have a chance to be good.  We won't really know what we have until we get into the second half of the season.   But, I love our guys.  I'm not sure if they were happy to see me or not when I came into the room today.  They gave me some grief about my cane, but that's the nature of our guys.  Just another experience along the way."

Currently ranked seventh in the nation, Minnesota State is at the UNI Open in Cedar Falls, Iowa this weekend.

It's great to be a Maverick.