Shane Cunanan
November 26, 2002 03:06 PM | General
By Adam Zundell
Mountaineer
Illustrated
Shane Cunanan craves accountability. No, "craves" is not a strong enough word because a person with a "craving" gets an itch just before midnight and hops in the car and goes a few blocks to get a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
As an Oregon State sophomore, Cunanan’s desire was much more than an inkling that could be cured by the local convenience store. Instead, he took the ultimate road trip across the country in one of the first models of a mini-van to finally find what he was looking for at West Virginia University.
All Cunanan wants is everything. He left Oregon State despite being a two-time NCAA qualifier there because he did not feel it had the resources for him to become a national champion. WVU did. Now, it’s all up to the Spokane, Wash., native. He has one of the most knowledgeable coaching staffs in college wrestling, a strength coach second to none and a support staff that includes a sports psychologist. By maximizing those resources he is finally accountable and has control over his own results.
"I could never get questions answered in practice; it was always their way; there was no relationship between the athletes and coaches," Cunanan says of his experience at Oregon State. "The thing that frustrated me the most is that I didn’t have the knowledge at Oregon State. Now I feel like it’s totally up to me because I have the resources.
"It’s all on me, definitely. That’s what makes me so happy, because I have control over my destiny."
Dedication is a thing that athletes like to talk about but can only be measured by actions. Actions such as holding school records in his weight class in several lifts is evidence of his pursuit to get stronger. Further proof of Cunanan’s dedication is his voracious study of wrestling. Hours after a competition, he will be on the bus going over the videotape of his last match with a pencil and paper, furiously taking down notes like a student cramming for a final.
"I like to keep a journal of things that work well for me," Cunanan says. "I’ll compete and then I’ll have ideas written down on what was working for me or what I need to work on and then we’ll go to the tape and diagnose the wrestling. I’ll write some of the stuff we go over and go work on it."
As much as he is a student of wrestling, he doesn’t get too caught up on techniques. His repetitions in practice allow him to wrestle unencumbered without too many thoughts bogging him down. Cunanan realizes that a great deal of success in wrestling is beyond getting your hands in the right spot or getting your hips further back in a certain position.
"It’s not all about technique," he concedes, "I think it comes down to desire. How bad do you want to win and how much are you willing to put forth out there on the mat?"
Cunanan wants to win badly. He’s generally calm and understated, but the one thing that fuels his emotions is wrestling. Despite a 28-10 record and a lofty ranking during his junior season, the disappointment from last year’s NCAA tournament when he went in seeded ninth but came short of becoming an All-American still stings the senior physical education major.
"It was some of the worst pain I’ve ever felt, undescribable broken-heartedness," he admits. "You have to get over it, though. I try to make it more of a motivator. I try to think about how bad I felt and how let down I was. I try to have that help motivate me."
Now he’s craving another shot at the NCAAs. Never mind the regular season; to Cunanan it’s all warm-up for the big show. Having a national champion (Greg Jones) in the wrestling room only helps to make Cunanan’s dreams more tangible because it lends credence to the fact that he is doing the necessary things to accomplish that feat.
That’s a long way from the seventh-grade kid who preferred soccer and scoffed at wrestling during his youth. Instead of continuing to dog the sport, his friend encouraged him to go ahead and try it. All Cunanan did was go undefeated through two years of junior high and continue that same steady success throughout his high school and college career. He has thrived on constant action and his tenacious and aggressive style, but it is that same style that has also gotten him in trouble at times.
"One thing I’ve had to work on is over-wrestling," Cunanan admits. "Sometimes I get too aggressive and take too many risks. At the same time, though, that’s my style. I like to score first or have them score first. That way I don’t have to think ‘Am I going to do this, am I going to do that?’ I don’t care if someone takes me down right away, I’ll be like ‘Now I’ve got to go.’"
And he keeps on going. He traveled across the country to satisfy his craving for wrestling knowledge. Now that he’s in Morgantown, he now has the best chance to cure his craving for a national title.
