Back From Russia, Shvartsman Ready To Make Noise In Final Semester

By John Roth, Blue Devil Weekly

DURHAM, N.C. - The NCAA allows student-athletes five years to complete four seasons of intercollegiate sports competition, but that is not always practical for non-scholarship athletes at a school such as Duke where tuition runs in excess of $40,000 a year.

Under coach Clar Anderson, the Duke wrestling program has found a creative way to deal with that situation for non-scholarship athletes who want or need a redshirt year to enhance their development in the sport. Several Blue Devil wrestlers have opted to sit out of school for one or two fall semesters of their college careers and train elsewhere, then return to campus for the spring semester when most of the team's dual matches take place. So instead of spending five full years (and five years of tuition payments) at Duke, they stretch the standard eight semesters over five years.

The Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., has been a popular destination for some of Duke's top wrestlers to spend their falls, working on their skills while getting ready for the winter dual matches and postseason collegiate tournaments. Others have remained in their hometowns for the fall, working out at wrestling clubs, local colleges or with coaches they've known from high school. Anderson has encouraged a wide variety of personal training arrangements, with the idea of helping his wrestlers maximize their athletic potential while also earning their Duke degrees in the usual eight semesters.

One of Duke's fifth-year seniors on the 2007 team has embraced the opportunity for maximum personal growth during his stay at the school, both on and off the mat. Daniel Shvartsman wrestles in the 149-pound weight class and has won his last six matches, three in the ACC, to move onto the all-time top 10 wins list at Duke. The Burlington, Mass., native first arrived at Duke in the fall of 2002 and has had an interesting array of experiences leading up to this final semester, during which he hopes to contend for ACC and All-America honors.

Shvartsman redshirted his true freshman year of 2002-03, entering only a few open tournaments while spending most of his time getting acclimated to college wrestling and academics. In 2003-04, his first in the lineup, he led the Blue Devils in wins and placed third in the ACC. The next year, 2004-05, he wrestled in three different weight classes and had a winning record at 15-11.

During the summer following that season, Shvartsman and the rest of the Duke team took a trip to Eastern Europe, traveling and wrestling their way across countries such as Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania ? former Soviet areas where Russian is still spoken. Shvartsman's entire family is from Russia ? he was the first born in the United States ? and he is minoring in Russian at Duke, so he had a chance to do a lot of interpreting for his teammates and found his curiosity piqued for more immersion in the culture.

Shvartsman decided to stay home during the fall of 2005, for what should have been the start of his senior year, got a job and trained daily in wrestling for the 2006 spring semester, when he posted a 3-4 ACC record and made the ACC All-Academic team. He also started plotting another overseas adventure of his own.

Aided by former Soviet national team coach Granit Taropin, who helps staff Harvard's wrestling camp, Shvartsman organized a trip to Moscow for the 2006 fall semester. Taropin helped hook him up with a wrestling club in the city and his grandparents used some of their connections there to help him find a place to live. After traveling with a friend from high school for the first week of the semester, he headed to Moscow and trained there for two-and-a-half months before returning to the U.S. for his final semester.

“I entered one open competition, but mostly I was training,” he said. “I was working out every day at a large club with a lot of wrestlers at my weight, so I had a lot of different partners from all over. It was a very diverse group, and almost down to a man they were very kind to me, very helpful to me, they were excited to talk with me and they showed me a lot of technique.

“As a broad stereotype, comparing wrestling in Russia and the States, we are stronger physically and in better shape, but they have better technique, so that was exactly what I needed.”

Shvartsman said that along with improving his skill level, taking a semester off from school served to invigorate the otherwise long wrestling season.

“When you are at Duke, the season seems a lot longer because you are in the same training environment with the same wrestlers and the same coaches. It's nobody's fault, it's just the nature of the beast,” he said. “It gets a little boring to wrestle the same guys every day, it gets a little frustrating and it feels a lot longer. This way I trained there until November or December, came back, and the season is a lot shorter. Everything feels fresh. I'm excited to see the team again and work with the coaches, and I bring in a new perspective. I liked how it worked out.”

He could say the same for the rest of his college experience. After playing the piano and trombone during his formative years, his interest in music also intensified while at Duke, to the level he describes as “a strong hobby.” He lives with a group of friends who are in an independent rock band called Bombadil, and he'll frequently play free form with them in the music room at their house, as he is also proficient with the drums, guitar and trumpet. He doesn't perform with them in concert, but just last week he was at open mic night at a coffeehouse on campus playing his guitar and singing solo.

Shvartsman has a passion for writing songs, one of which will appear on Bombadil's debut CD this year, and which they cover in concert. He also writes a lot about music for the website 30music.com. He began three years ago contributing reviews of CDs and shows, and last year covered the Death Cab for Cutie performance at Cameron Indoor Stadium for the site. He is now listed as its editor.

“When I started writing reviews for them, it opened up more music to me, and rapidly accelerated my interest in music and my knowledge of music,” he said. “It's a great way to express myself, practice my writing and listen to a lot of great artists. I've met some of my favorite artists and interviewed them.”

With his last semester well underway, Shvartsman is in the midst of looking for a job ? “travel writer would be ideal,” he says ? while trying to put the finishing touch on a wrestling career that may have been a bit unconventional but still rewarding.

“We're not a wrestling powerhouse. We're not Minnesota or Iowa or Oklahoma State,” he said. “If I were interested purely in wrestling, it's possible I would have been better off somewhere else. But our coach, Clar, is just a really great all-around person, he's really been encouraging to me. And then Duke as a school, I feel like I've gotten my academic bang for my buck. I got what I wanted.

“It's kind of a cliche to say, but I found my niche. I found myself. In wrestling I would have liked to achieve more and I would still like to achieve more this year, but on the whole, I'm happy with my choice and my experience.

“Personally my goal is to walk off the mat and be proud of the effort I gave and happy with the technique I showed, the aggressiveness, and sort of just put it all together. Ideally that would be at the ACC Tournament, when it matters, and nationals. Just fulfill my potential.”

Back From Russia, Shvartsman Ready To Make Noise In Final Semester

Players Mentioned

Dan Shvartsman

Duke information

Back From Russia, Shvartsman Ready To Make Noise In Final Semester

Players Mentioned

Dan Shvartsman

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