Waynesburg grad has wrestling in his blood
Tri-State Sports & News Service
Coleman Scott struggled with the transition from competitor to coach when he retired from wrestling in 2013.
“I was definitely feeling the void of competition,” said Scott, who began his wrestling career at Waynesburg High School. “I get butterflies in my stomach every time I step onto the mat. I had to find a way to fill that competition void.”
In 2014, Scott was hired as assistant coach at North Carolina University. The following year, he was promoted to head coach.
“Coaching has filled that void,” said Scott, now in his third year as Tar Heels head coach. “I still have those same feelings when my kids step on the mat. I’m glad I got into coaching. Wrestling is my calling. It’s something that gets into your blood.”
Scott’s wrestling roots are in Waynesburg. He moved up to the varsity after winning four Pennsylvania Junior titles in five years. His career with the Raiders was even more impressive.
Scott won four WPIAL Class 3A titles, three Powerade Christmas Tournament titles, three PIAA tournament titles and was selected to wrestle at the Dapper Dan Wrestling Classic in 2004. Scott finished his high school career with a 156-12 record. He also won a Cadet National Greco-Roman title in 2002 and two Junior National freestyle titles in 2003 and 2004.
“I don’t get back to Waynesburg very often since my parents moved to Virginia Beach,” Scott said. “But I try to get back when possible. I love Southwestern Pennsylvania. It’s where I started wrestling.”
Scott continued his career at Oklahoma State University. He was a threetime Big 12 Conference champion and four-time NCAA Division I place-winner. He placed second in the country at 133 pounds in 2007 and first in 2008. He had a 117-24 career record in college.
“When I was going to college, I thought about what I might do when I graduated,” Scott said. “I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business with minors in marketing and management. I considered finding a job in my major, but decided that I still had goals to reach in the sport of wrestling.”
Scott excelled at the international level as a four-time member of the United States National Team. His crowning achievement came at the 2012 London Olympics, where he earned a bronze medal in freestyle while competing at 60 kg.
“The Olympic bronze was my biggest accomplishment in wrestling, by far,” Scott said. “It was a combination of everything I had done in my career. It was my crowning achievement.”
Scott retired after his Olympic experience, but has been able to say in the sport he loves so much. He also got another taste of international competition at the 2017 World Championships.
“I was a volunteer coach for USA Wrestling at the World Championships,” he said. “It was a great honor and a great experience. I would be glad to help again in the future.”
Scott does have another tie to Waynesburg. One of his wrestlers, A.C. Headlee, is a starter on his North Carolina squad. Headlee, a 2015 Waynesburg graduate, is starting at 141 for the Tar Heels and is ranked in the top 20.
Scott and his wife, Jessica, have two children, daughter Leighton Ann and son Stetson Lewis.
From mullets to mohawks tocrew cuts to porkchops. Denise Del Greco has seen all kinds of hair configurations inher 38 years as a barber.
Some clients have been with her so long that they’ve used her for their first communion, 16th birthday, prom andwedding.
Others have taken things even further. ‘Til death did theyand Del Greco part.
“I’ve cut the hair of at least 10 people who have died,” Del Greco said. “I go to the funeral home and make sure they look good, put gel in their hair if they need it. I never charge [the families]. Funeral directors tell me I can charge $150 for it, and I say, ‘Are you kidding me?’ This person came to see me for 30 years. It’s the least I can do.”
The Esquire Barbershop in Uniontown, co-owned by Del Greco and Rita Hudock, is a long way from the basketball court at Baldwin High School, where she led the Highlanders to WPIAL championships in 1974 and 1976.
Del Greco was so entertaining that her playing style would have played perfectly to the sounds of “Sweet Georgia Brown.” She smoothly dribbled behind her back, throughher legs and between traffic, as if she were a member of the Harlem Globetrotters.
This future barber was a cutabove.
“I always wanted to be like Pistol Pete Maravich,” said Del Greco, who averaged 20 points a game as a senior. “I liked having the ball in my hands. I was doing things people hadn’t seen a female dobefore.”
In an era when girls basketball was rarely publicized, Del Greco was impossible to ignore. So transcendent was the Brookline/Baldwin star that a rambunctious talkshow host absolutely had to haveher on his show.
Yoi! and double Yoi! Del Greco caught the eye of the inimitableMyron Cope.
“She was on with him in February, a month when it was usually all Steelers talk,” said Bobby Del Greco, the renowned local criminal defense attorney and big brother of Denise. “He saw her play one time and liked what he had seen. He said she was extraordinary. Back then, if you were Mickey Mantle you didn’t get on the Myron Cope show, unless you played for the Steelers. But Denise was well-publicized.”
It is not a stretch to call Del Greco the first breakout girls basketball player in WPIAL history. Her playing style brought piazza and panache to the sport, much like Suzie McConnell-Serio did nearly a