Is Lee best of all time in WPIAL?

normal population talks about,” said Kolat, the coach at Campbell College, N.C. “Wrestling has a select breed of fans, and wrestlers have an extremely different mindset than others. But looking at success that wrestlers have had, we’re athletes, too, and should be included in the conversation of great ones. But the thing about wrestlers, and I’m sure this is true about Spencer, is that we really don’t pay attention to this and don’t care.”

Franklin Regional wrestling coach Matt Lebe was an assistant football coach at Jeannette when Pryor was a football-basketball star there. Lebe has watched Lee dominate like no other wrestler. Consider that in the past two PIAA tournaments, Lee has won eight matches that have lasted a total of only 13 minutes, 4 seconds.

“You look at Terrelle Pryor, of course he could jump higher and was more athletic than Spencer,” said Lebe. “Terrelle was obviously dominant. But Spencer Lee is equally as dominant, if not more in his sport. I’d say Spencer belongs in the greatest athletes ever from here because just comparing him with Terrelle, they were both so dominant.”

But put the “greatest athletes” debate aside with Lee and you have a smallish guy at 131 pounds with this gigantic inner desire to win — and dominate. Lee sat in an empty Franklin Regional cafeteria recently, talking about his career and examining his inner self. He has a twin sister, Gabrielle, but it’s hard to believe anyone is like Spencer Lee. He dislikes social media, is an avid Pokemon player and has a 3.5 grade-point average in the classroom. He is a workout madman, running three miles on a treadmill every day before school and then usually going through two different wrestling practices after school.

And then there is that competitive desire that sometimes makes him misunderstood. Like when he won the prestigious Powerade Tournament in December for a third time, but ran off the mat, looking upset.

“I only won, 9-0,” Lee said. “In my mind, if you can’t beat a high school kid worse than 9-0, then you don’t deserve to win an Olympic gold medal someday. Maybe you don’t get that or people don’t get it, but that’s my mindset. I didn’t think I did enough in that match. I was too boring.”

When Lee wears his glasses and you look at his 53 frame, he looks like he might be terrific at hop scotch. But on the mat, he transforms.

“I am mean,” Lee said matter-of-factly. “On the mat, I might break your arm and won’t feel bad about it until the referee raises my hand. Then I’ll feel bad. I don’t know where I get it, but that’s how the Cary Kolats and Terry Brands were when they wrestled.”

Lee is the son of Larry and Cathy Lee, who were terrific judo athletes in their day. Cathy Lee made the 1992 U.S. Olympic judo team and Larry coached judo at the national level. Spencer Lee grew up in Meadville and Saegertown but moved to the Pittsburgh area when his father got a job at Carnegie Mellon. Larry Lee is now a vice president at Coe College in Iowa and the entire family will move to Iowa next year to be closer to Spencer.

Kolat knows Lee and believes greatness is in store for him. Kolat didn’t hesitate to say Lee is better than he was in high school.

“The level of wrestling now is much better than when I was doing it,” Kolat said. “Spencer is a hammer. But the high school thing is not his true goal. When it all shakes out, he’s going to measure himself by the way things end up after high school.”