A movie with connections to wrestling in Pennsylvania, including the Lackawanna League, received five Academy Awards nominations last week.
“Foxcatcher,” which was filmed almost entirely in Pennsylvania, tells the story of Olympic champion Dave Schultz’s murder by USA Wrestling supporter John du Pont at du Pont’s suburban Philadelphia estate in 1996.
Lackawanna Trail graduate Keith Gavin, the only National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I national champion ever produced by a Lackawanna League school, was one of the wrestlers, many with ties to Pennsylvania, who were involved in the filming.
Gavin, who won the 2008 title at the University of Pittsburgh, is a two-time U.S. Open champion who finished third his weight class at the 2012 Olympic Trials. He played Bulgarian wrestler Alexander Nanev in a scene against Channing Tatum, playing Dave Schultz’s brother Mark, at the 1987 World Championships.
“We just watched what happened in real life,” Gavin said in a telephone interview from Colorado where he was working out with the U.S. National Team. “In filming, we just did the whole match how it really happened.
“We created the situation and they just edited it to make it more exciting, I guess.”
Steve Carell was nominated for an Oscar for Actor in a Leading Role for his portrayal of du Pont. Other nominations went to: Mark Ruffalo, Actor in a Supporting Role, as Dave Schultz; Bennett Miller, Directing; Bill Corso and Dennis Liddiard, Makeup and Hairstyling; and Dan Gilroy, Writing and Original Screenplay.
Ruffalo lives just across the border from Wayne County in Callicoon, N.Y.
The 87th Academy Awards are scheduled for February 22.
“Foxcatcher” ranked behind only five other movies – Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, Boyhood and American Sniper – in nominations this year. The movie tells the story of the Schultz brothers, both Olympic champions, and Team Foxcatcher, the creation of du Pont, a descendant of one of the nation’s wealthiest families with a fortune built through du Pont Chemical and other businesses.
Actors and wrestlers joined together in the process.
Former Harvard wrestler Jesse Jantzen and former Wisconsin wrestler John Guira trained Ruffalo, who had some experience, and Tatum, who has a background in sports but had never wrestled. Jantzen, the wrestling choreographer, and Guira, the wrestling and training coordinator, turned to other wrestlers for help in filming scenes from training and competition.
Jantzen approached Gavin for the two days in filming in the Pittsburgh area.
“We were impressed with how they definitely really trained for it,” Gavin said of Ruffalo and Tatum. “Before they even started filming the movie, the actors trained for six months.
“It was still a little uncomfortable for them, but they handled it well.”
WEEK IN REVIEW
Montrose took over sole possession of the Lackawanna League Division 4 boys’ basketball lead Friday night when the Meteors won 51-36 at Susquehanna while Lackawanna Trail was defeating host Elk Lake, 51-44.
Austin Smith hit four 3-pointers while scoring 20 points to help Montrose improve to 4-0 in the division. The Meteors were in position to clinch at least a share of the first-half title Tuesday night when they were scheduled to play at home against Elk Lake.
Lackawanna Trail ended a 25-game division winning streak by two-time defending champion Ek Lake. The streak included 24 regular-season games and an overtime victory over Montrose in the playoff for the first-half division title in the 2012-13 season.
Elk Lake dropped into a second-place tie with Forest City at 3-1. Lackawanna Trail is 3-2.
In girls’ basketball, Montrose and Forest City finished the week tied for first at 4-0.
Forest City rallied in the fourth quarter Wednesday to hand third-place Mountain View its second division loss, 45-43.
Katelyn Zembrzycki led Forest City with 15 points.
Mountain View’s Makenna Whitaker reached the 1,000-point mark in the loss on a free throw for the game’s first point in the opening minute.
Whitaker finished the game with 14 points, then had 27 more than next night in a 53-32 victory over Blue Ridge.
Blue Ridge had been the only winless Lackawanna League girls’ basketball team overall until Isabella Cosmello scored 21 points Saturday in a 60-44 victory over Lackawanna Trail.
In wrestling, Mountain View and Elk Lake each went 2-3 Saturday at the Lackawanna Trail Duals.
Montrose was 1-4 and Blue Ridge was 0-5.
In swimming, Elk Lake swept meets from Scranton to improve to 3-1 in the Lackawanna League in girls and 2-1 in boys.
In track and field, Elk Lake’s Megyn Stevens finished third in the girls’ shot put to lead Susquehanna County athletes Saturday at the first of three Baptist Bible College High School Invitationals.
BBC, in Clarks Summit, will also host indoor track and field meets January 30 and February 20.
Stevens was third with a distance of 30-7. Emmillie Miller of Mountain View was fourth and Summer Bredsoe of Blue Ridge was sixth in the same event.
Mikaela Parrett of Elk Lake was fourth in the 55-meter dash in 8.24 seconds. Amber Brecht and Lindsay Rupakus of Blue Ridge was fifth and seventh.
Blue Ridge’s Alexis Presley was fourth in the 55 hurdles.
Amber Brecht of Blue Ridge, in the 500, and Parrett of Elk Lake, in the 200, added eighth-place finishes.
Elk Lake’s Cody Oswald led county boys by placing fourth in the 400.
Susquehanna’s Christian Good was seventh in the shot put and Elk Lake’s Hunter Bedell was eighth in the 1600.
COLLEGE CORNER
Adam Phillips, a junior from Elk Lake, has been a big part of both Rider University men’s swimming victories this season.
The Broncos, a NCAA Division I program competing in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, went 2-5 in the first semester.
During a 185-115 win over Marist, Phillips won the 100 breaststroke in 59.25 seconds and 200 breaststroke in 2:11:33 while also swimming a leg of the winning 200 medley relay team.
Phillips also had an individual win and a relay win in a 158-136 victory at Lehigh in his closest competition to home.
In the final competition before the break, Phillips placed fourth in the 100 breaststroke and was part of a sixth-place 200 medley relay team at the Brown Invitational in Providence, R.I.
Phillips won the MAAC title in the 100 breaststroke last season as a sophomore in 56.39 seconds, helping Rider to the conference team title for the third straight year. He was also part of two conference champion relay teams and another that finished second.
Phillips shared Rider’s Most Improved Swimmer award at the end of his freshman season.
At Elk Lake, Phillips won three district titles and four state medals in swimming. He was also an all-star and team Most Valuable Player in baseball.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Forest City is at Montrose Wednesday in a Lackawanna League Division 4 girls’ basketball game.
The Lady Foresters and Lady Meteors have decided many of the division’s titles in their meetings in recent years and the same could be true of the division’s first half which concludes with Wednesday’s games.
In professional hockey, the American Hockey League All-Star Classic is scheduled for Sunday and Monday in Utica.
The skills competition is Sunday, followed by the All-Star Game Monday.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com.
BUSCH’S EX IS A DANGEROUS WOMAN
Kurt Busch with ex girlfriend Patricia Driscoll and her son Houston, prior to the May 25 Charlotte race. Furnished by NASCAR
“She’s an assassin and could take me down at any time,” the Wilmington News-Journal quoted Kurt Busch as saying about his ex girlfriend.
The courtroom drama between the “Outlaw” Kurt Busch and his former girlfriend Patricia Driscoll took on the theme of a Hollywood soap opera as both Busch and Driscoll accused the other of weird actions.
Busch's time on the stand was spent describing Driscoll as a trained assassin. He claimed she'd help take down drug lords. He said she had shown him pictures of corpses and that the lead character in the film "Zero Dark Thirty" had been based on her. He shared details of her leaving him one evening, dressed in battle-ready boots and gear and returning later that night in a trench coat and nightgown with "blood and other matter" on it.
Driscoll, who is seeking a court order for Busch to stay away from her, told a family court commissioner that he had choked her and smashed her head into a wall inside his motorhome at Dover International Speedway after she drove from her Maryland home to check on him.
Busch’s attorney Rusty Hardin, suggested that whatever happened the night of Sept. 26 could have been prevented had Driscoll left when Busch told her to.
Driscoll disagreed.
“I am not to blame for him putting his hands on me,” she said.
Driscoll, who was born in 1977, is an American businesswoman and author. A native of El Paso Texas, she now heads a national charity, the Armed Forces Foundation, and a surveillance system company, Frontline Defense Systems, LLC., both based in Washington, D.C.
She also serves as President of the Armed Forces Foundation (AFF), an organization devoted to providing financial assistance, morale activities, career and educational opportunities to wounded service men and women and their families.
Busch testified he ended their four-year relationship following a race in New Hampshire, a week before the race at Dover International Speedway, where the alleged altercation occurred. He said the two of them had a discussion en route to Logan International Airport in Boston and in the process he wrecked a rental car.
“She left me stranded at the airport,” he continued.
The two had no contact in the week leading up to the Dover race, but Driscoll said she did reach out to Busch's mother and was concerned about his alcoholism and depression.
Busch said he did not drink the night of the alleged assault and has avoided alcohol during race weekends for 15 years. That night in Dover, Busch said he had been sleeping when Driscoll arrived unannounced at his motorhome with her nine-year-old son. He said he told her repeatedly to leave, but she kept bringing her son in from another room, saying that Busch needed to tell the boy that their relationship was over.
Busch said he was naked during the entire encounter, and finally put his hands on either side of Driscoll's face. “I took my hands and cupped her cheeks. I looked her eye-to-eye. I said, ‘You have to leave’. I was diffusing the situation,” he told the courtroom.
Busch's motorhome driver and personal assistant to the couple testified Wednesday that Driscoll had instructed him at the beginning of the year to not bring any alcohol on the bus because Busch had a problem. He was the first witness called by Busch's attorneys. Doncheff said he believed Driscoll when she said Busch had assaulted her, but added she had also told him several stories that he thought were exaggerated. He said Busch treated him well but had a temper at times. Busch often deferred decisions to Driscoll, who Doncheff said could be "high maintenance."
But wait. We can expect more mud slinging. Driscoll’s attorneys sent out a mass email to the media in which she claimed that Busch's "trained assassin" claims were based on a screenplay that she had been writing, and was only meant to discredit her.
NEW PIT STRATEGY FOR NASCAR
NASCAR officials will no longer be standing alongside crewmen to police pit stops in 2015, but that doesn't mean the sanctioning body won't be watching what takes place. A new, technologically driven system that incorporates the use of 45 cameras will film video of every stop made by every team to a central location, where eight officials will log pertinent information and report any violations.
Each of the cameras will display two specific pit stalls. Once a car is on pit road, the individual cameras will record its progress as it moves through each area. The use of tracking software and pit road scoring loops identifies and verifies each car. That same system software tracking its movement will indicate any infractions, such as too many men over the wall or driving through too many pit boxes when entering or exiting the pits based on information ingested prior to the event.
If there are no infractions logged by the system, one of the eight officials will still monitor the stop, noting the number of tires taken, whether fuel was added and whether any changes (chassis adjustments or repair to a damaged area, for example) to the car were made. Infractions fall into three groups -- vehicle (such as pitting outside pit box), equipment (leaving pit box with gas can still attached, etc.) and personnel/crew (too many men over the wall; over the wall too soon, etc.) When the software picks up an infraction, it will be displayed on the monitor where an official will quickly view the stop and either confirm the issue (and subsequently notify the tower) or clear it if it can be determined that no infraction took place. Although it was in place during the final portion of the '14 season, the system was tested, but not used for official purposes.
The expectation is for each pit stop to be viewed and cleared in no more than eight seconds and stops are prioritized -- those that are flagged as infractions are moved to the top of the list for immediate attention. The eight officials work through each stop until all have been cleared, reported when necessary and logged. Teams will be notified of any penalties that occur once a stop has been completed. “We're not going to tell anyone of any violations until they leave pit road,” said Shawn Rogers. “That's how we do speeding violations now.”
The use of the technology will change the number of officials along pit road. Instead of the approximately two dozen that policed pit stops last year, only 10 will be in the pits this year. And Rogers said they would be stationed behind pit wall where they can respond to any team inquiries and monitor actions from that side of the car when necessary. The officiating system will not be used at stand-alone events for the NASCAR XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series.
Meanwhile four-time Indianapolis 500 winner A.J. Foyt has been released from a Houston hospital more than three weeks after triple-bypass heart surgery. Spokeswoman Anne Fornoro says Foyt was released from Baylor-St. Luke's Medical Center on Tuesday and is recovering at home.
Racing Trivia Question: The 2015 racing season is just around the corner. When and where will the first NASCAR Sprint Cup race be held?
Last Week’s Question: Where is Kasey Kahne’s hometown? It is Enumclaw, Washington.
You may contact the Racing Reporter at: www.hodges@race500.com
Makenna Whitaker
Makenna Whitaker has two older sisters that she followed into sports.
Like Colleen, a 2009 graduate, and Kelsey, a 2010 graduate, Makenna became a three-sport high school athlete, playing soccer, basketball and softball at Mountain View.
“They’re the reasons that I’m interested in sports,” Makenna said.
When explaining her success in all three sports, Makenna also points to her family, per parents Roger and Maureen.
“It’s just a work ethic that I’ve grown up around,” said Makenna, a senior who lives in Harford. “Both of my parents are just insanely hard workers. I’ve just grown up learning how to work hard.
“I’m definitely not the fastest. I’m definitely not the strongest. I’ve just known I have to work hard because I don’t have those things.”
Makenna has seen the results from that hard work, becoming a four-year starter and an all-star in all three sports.
Last winter, Makenna led Division 4 of the Lackawanna League in scoring while helping Mountain View finish in third place in basketball. In the spring, she was the shortstop and batted close to .400 on a second-place softball team. In the summer, she kept going in softball and helped the Binghamton, N.Y.-based Diamond Dusters win the American Softball Association Eastern National 18-Under Championships in Sterling, Va. In the fall, she averaged nearly a goal and assist per game and Mountain View completed a four-year sweep of division and district soccer titles when Makenna scored both goals in a 2-0 District 2 Class A championship game victory over Lakeland.
Those year-round efforts made Makenna the choice as 2014 Susquehanna County Transcript Athlete of the Year.
Makenna’s family sports background got her pointed in the direction of athletic success early. She attended her first basketball games in a carriage, began playing soccer on the Under-6 level and advanced to travel softball competition at an early age. She said growing up around successful Mountain View teams got her excited about sports.
Each of the Transcript’s Athletes of the Month were eligible for the yearly award.
Whitaker narrowly edged Montrose’s Meghan Gilhool, a standout on championship basketball and track and field teams as well as a strong soccer team, for the honor. Mountain View graduate Colby Thomas and Elk Lake distance runner Katie Bennett also received significant consideration.
Thomas, the 2012 and 2013 winner of the award, finished his high school soccer career with an all-star season in baseball, then continued to thrive in soccer. He was an all-tournament player and made it to the championship game at USA Soccer’s 18-Under National Championships, then broke into the starting lineup at Messiah College on the way to an NCAA Division III Final Four appearance.
Bennett finished 10th in the state individually to help the Elk Lake team finish second in the state in Class A cross country. She also won a district title and was part of a 14th-place state finish in the 3200 relay during track season in the spring.
