Brad Wilson also wrote this gem about Jody this morning - which I'm going to post in full (sorry Brad, I'll double my subscription).
________________________
Drama has always followed Jody Karam.
“I like life at 200 miles an hour,” said the departing Easton head wrestling coach after he coached the final bout of his career Saturday evening at the Giant Center in Hershey.
For better or worse, from Delaware Valley to Liberty to Easton, the veteran wrestling coach has always attracted attention, always had a certain style, a certain intensity, a certain – at times, overwhelming – passion that makes him one of the most distinctive, and occasionally divisive, and even dramatic, figures in Lehigh Valley wrestling.
The term “larger than life” is overused, we think, but one of the reasons Lehigh Valley wrestling has been such a successful, and colorful, affair for decades and enjoys a unique niche in regional culture is the presence of people like Karam, like Steve Powell, like Rick Thompson, like Dave Crowell, like Don Rohn and Vince Fitz and Ray Nunamaker and a hundred others, from broadcasters to officials to reporters, whose mere presence commanded attention.
Such figures rarely leave the stage quietly – and Karam surely didn’t leave his alma mater quietly.
The final bout of Karam’s career, his last time in his well-coiffed corner – Karam’s elegant sense of fashion is one of his more striking aspects – turned out to be a PIAA 3A championship final.
Of course it did.
And it ended with Easton junior Nick Salamone winning a tense, dramatic bout, 4-3, over Cedar Cliff sophomore Kavin Mulyeart, snapping a 14-year drought of state champs for the Red Rovers.
Of course it did.
And the exuberant celebration reached its high point when Karam picked up Salamone and tossed him over the hockey boards into a mosh pit of roaring Red Rovers supporters.
Of course he did.
And then Karam walked away.
“When you can quit your job on your best day, it’s the right decision,” Karam said.
Salamone was the right instrument, too. The Rovers junior’s physicality and intensity reminded longtime observers of great wrestlers Karam had coached before, from Mario Stuart to Luke Werner to the Gunning brothers, Jake and Andrew. Only Andrew of those won a state championship – it’s a very hard thing to do, and the slightest factor can turn champs into runner-ups – but in a lot of ways, Salamone was Karam’s perfect pupil.
“Nick’s as wholesome as it gets, but he’s a fierce competitor,” Karam said. “That’s one of the many things I love about him, the fierceness he has, the intensity, As weird as it gets, if you were making a kid out of a catalog and picking parts, you pretty much nailed it with this one. Nick fits the mold of the kind of kids I want to work with.”
Salamone was critical to Karam’s success on his return to his alma mater in another way. It was no secret that Easton, one of the state’s, if not the nation’s, premier scholastic wrestling programs, was a mess. The Easton-area youth programs, always productive, were still productive – producing wrestlers for other schools, that is.
If Karam was to have a chance to restore the Red Rovers to glory, that had to stop.
“When I walked into the program, there were seven or eight kids wrestling for teams that should have been wrestling for Easton,” Karam said. “Nick was the first one that stayed at Easton when I got the job. That commitment said a lot. When his father called me and said, ‘We’re staying at Easton,’ that stopped the bleeding. And that was an important step in the right direction because I knew the potential of this kid. So, when we kept him, that was inspiring and encouraging.”
For both sides.
“Words can’t explain,” Salamone said of what it meant to wrestle for Karam. “I’m glad I chose Easton, that’s all I’ve got to say.”
Karam also took steps in a different direction to help Salamone. He recognized top wrestlers need top competition to reach the top, and Easton’s milquetoast schedule wasn’t getting it done.
“We changed our schedule drastically,” Karam said. “When we left this tournament one year ago, I felt like a total loser and that I had failed my team, because we had one medal (Salamone’s eighth place). So, we made some serious changes, and I don’t think there’s anyone in (PIAA) 3A that can rival the schedule we put together. It was brutal, and the evidence was that we had four or five kids injured – and we never have kids injured – because of the grind and schedule we put together with the intent of winning at Hershey.”
As Karam noted, the success of the strategy of adding tough tournaments such as Beast of the East and Escape the Rock was limited – the Rovers’ seven qualifiers netted one medal, but then, what a medal.
“Our goal was to come here and go home with a bunch of medals,” Karam said. “Unfortunately, we’re not leaving with a bunch of medals, but fortunately, we’re leaving with the right medal.”
Championships have a way of putting everything else in the shade. Easton may yet need more refinement and improvement to become a Hershey medal machine such as Nazareth, which won four this weekend including a championship, and has won 50 medals since 2016, but that will up to the next head coach, not Karam.
“People are like, ‘Oh, you’re leaving your job now’ (after winning a state title), and, I say ‘Yeah,’” Karam said, “Because when you can quit your job on your best day, it’s the right decision. So, Nick made that decision easy for me. He really did.”
It also reinforced that Karam’s decision not to quit in March 2024 was the correct one.
“I resigned last year, and (Easton athletic director) Matt Baltz called me in and said, ‘This is not the year to resign,” Karam said. “I said, ‘I think in the best interest of Easton wrestling, I am done.’ And Matt said, “If you really have the best interest in Easton wrestling, you’ll stay one more year.’ And I did, and there were times this year where I was saying I stayed one year too long. Because what’s going to be better than taking your team to the state (duals) finals, so many kids felt that success and enjoyed it.
“But I tell you what – today surpassed (going) to the team state final. I never talked about winning an individual state championship because I didn’t know if it was obtainable or not. But when I picked up Nick and threw him into the bunch of Easton kids who were there supporting him, every one of those kids was just as happy as Nick was for that championship. That says a lot right there.”
When Karam, who retires with a 440-166-1 record, took the job at Easton five years ago, he promised five things: that the Red Rovers would end long losing streaks to rivals Bethlehem Catholic, Nazareth, Northampton and Phillipsburg and that the Rovers would be back in the team state finals.
Promises made, promises kept.
The last Rovers finalist before Salamone was Matt Cruise in 2022 and he ran into Nazareth’s three-time champion Sean Kinney in the final. The Rovers finalist before Cruise, Andrew Balukas in 2019, ran into Nate Schon of Selinsgrove, one of the three PIAA wrestlers to ever beat Kinney.
You get the idea. But Karam never gave up hope.
“I kept (winning an individual champion) in my back pocket,” Karam said. “I definitely wanted this so badly, The way it happened, I couldn’t be more happy.”
One might the same about Karam’s entire spell at Easton.
“I am definitely leaving the program a whole lot better than when I took it over,” Karam said. “There’s talent in the pipeline coming through and it’s going to stay. The future looks bright. It’s a great time to be a part of Easton wrestling right now. Today’s a great day, but tomorrow’s going to be even better.”
It will be for Jody Karam as well. Karam has, unusually so for a high-level wrestling figure, never completely defined himself by the sport in his 34 years as a head coach. He has a lot going on.
For one, he’s a grandfather.
“Jettson, Sage’s son,” Karam said. “He was born at the end of May, and has the same initials I do, JFK, you have to love my marketing thing. And we have an Easton singlet for him.”
But wait, there’s more.
“The plan now is try and find sponsorship for Sage, keep him racing a couple of more years in NASCAR, try and find the best steak in Pennsylvania, and I really want to sell a whole bunch of more houses. I really enjoy that, I really do. And see how life goes.”
Life – and Easton wrestling – goes very well for Jody Karam right now. And we couldn’t be happier for it.
________________________
Drama has always followed Jody Karam.
“I like life at 200 miles an hour,” said the departing Easton head wrestling coach after he coached the final bout of his career Saturday evening at the Giant Center in Hershey.
For better or worse, from Delaware Valley to Liberty to Easton, the veteran wrestling coach has always attracted attention, always had a certain style, a certain intensity, a certain – at times, overwhelming – passion that makes him one of the most distinctive, and occasionally divisive, and even dramatic, figures in Lehigh Valley wrestling.
The term “larger than life” is overused, we think, but one of the reasons Lehigh Valley wrestling has been such a successful, and colorful, affair for decades and enjoys a unique niche in regional culture is the presence of people like Karam, like Steve Powell, like Rick Thompson, like Dave Crowell, like Don Rohn and Vince Fitz and Ray Nunamaker and a hundred others, from broadcasters to officials to reporters, whose mere presence commanded attention.
Such figures rarely leave the stage quietly – and Karam surely didn’t leave his alma mater quietly.
The final bout of Karam’s career, his last time in his well-coiffed corner – Karam’s elegant sense of fashion is one of his more striking aspects – turned out to be a PIAA 3A championship final.
Of course it did.
And it ended with Easton junior Nick Salamone winning a tense, dramatic bout, 4-3, over Cedar Cliff sophomore Kavin Mulyeart, snapping a 14-year drought of state champs for the Red Rovers.
Of course it did.
And the exuberant celebration reached its high point when Karam picked up Salamone and tossed him over the hockey boards into a mosh pit of roaring Red Rovers supporters.
Of course he did.
And then Karam walked away.
“When you can quit your job on your best day, it’s the right decision,” Karam said.
Salamone was the right instrument, too. The Rovers junior’s physicality and intensity reminded longtime observers of great wrestlers Karam had coached before, from Mario Stuart to Luke Werner to the Gunning brothers, Jake and Andrew. Only Andrew of those won a state championship – it’s a very hard thing to do, and the slightest factor can turn champs into runner-ups – but in a lot of ways, Salamone was Karam’s perfect pupil.
“Nick’s as wholesome as it gets, but he’s a fierce competitor,” Karam said. “That’s one of the many things I love about him, the fierceness he has, the intensity, As weird as it gets, if you were making a kid out of a catalog and picking parts, you pretty much nailed it with this one. Nick fits the mold of the kind of kids I want to work with.”
Salamone was critical to Karam’s success on his return to his alma mater in another way. It was no secret that Easton, one of the state’s, if not the nation’s, premier scholastic wrestling programs, was a mess. The Easton-area youth programs, always productive, were still productive – producing wrestlers for other schools, that is.
If Karam was to have a chance to restore the Red Rovers to glory, that had to stop.
“When I walked into the program, there were seven or eight kids wrestling for teams that should have been wrestling for Easton,” Karam said. “Nick was the first one that stayed at Easton when I got the job. That commitment said a lot. When his father called me and said, ‘We’re staying at Easton,’ that stopped the bleeding. And that was an important step in the right direction because I knew the potential of this kid. So, when we kept him, that was inspiring and encouraging.”
For both sides.
“Words can’t explain,” Salamone said of what it meant to wrestle for Karam. “I’m glad I chose Easton, that’s all I’ve got to say.”
Karam also took steps in a different direction to help Salamone. He recognized top wrestlers need top competition to reach the top, and Easton’s milquetoast schedule wasn’t getting it done.
“We changed our schedule drastically,” Karam said. “When we left this tournament one year ago, I felt like a total loser and that I had failed my team, because we had one medal (Salamone’s eighth place). So, we made some serious changes, and I don’t think there’s anyone in (PIAA) 3A that can rival the schedule we put together. It was brutal, and the evidence was that we had four or five kids injured – and we never have kids injured – because of the grind and schedule we put together with the intent of winning at Hershey.”
As Karam noted, the success of the strategy of adding tough tournaments such as Beast of the East and Escape the Rock was limited – the Rovers’ seven qualifiers netted one medal, but then, what a medal.
“Our goal was to come here and go home with a bunch of medals,” Karam said. “Unfortunately, we’re not leaving with a bunch of medals, but fortunately, we’re leaving with the right medal.”
Championships have a way of putting everything else in the shade. Easton may yet need more refinement and improvement to become a Hershey medal machine such as Nazareth, which won four this weekend including a championship, and has won 50 medals since 2016, but that will up to the next head coach, not Karam.
“People are like, ‘Oh, you’re leaving your job now’ (after winning a state title), and, I say ‘Yeah,’” Karam said, “Because when you can quit your job on your best day, it’s the right decision. So, Nick made that decision easy for me. He really did.”
It also reinforced that Karam’s decision not to quit in March 2024 was the correct one.
“I resigned last year, and (Easton athletic director) Matt Baltz called me in and said, ‘This is not the year to resign,” Karam said. “I said, ‘I think in the best interest of Easton wrestling, I am done.’ And Matt said, “If you really have the best interest in Easton wrestling, you’ll stay one more year.’ And I did, and there were times this year where I was saying I stayed one year too long. Because what’s going to be better than taking your team to the state (duals) finals, so many kids felt that success and enjoyed it.
“But I tell you what – today surpassed (going) to the team state final. I never talked about winning an individual state championship because I didn’t know if it was obtainable or not. But when I picked up Nick and threw him into the bunch of Easton kids who were there supporting him, every one of those kids was just as happy as Nick was for that championship. That says a lot right there.”
When Karam, who retires with a 440-166-1 record, took the job at Easton five years ago, he promised five things: that the Red Rovers would end long losing streaks to rivals Bethlehem Catholic, Nazareth, Northampton and Phillipsburg and that the Rovers would be back in the team state finals.
Promises made, promises kept.
The last Rovers finalist before Salamone was Matt Cruise in 2022 and he ran into Nazareth’s three-time champion Sean Kinney in the final. The Rovers finalist before Cruise, Andrew Balukas in 2019, ran into Nate Schon of Selinsgrove, one of the three PIAA wrestlers to ever beat Kinney.
You get the idea. But Karam never gave up hope.
“I kept (winning an individual champion) in my back pocket,” Karam said. “I definitely wanted this so badly, The way it happened, I couldn’t be more happy.”
One might the same about Karam’s entire spell at Easton.
“I am definitely leaving the program a whole lot better than when I took it over,” Karam said. “There’s talent in the pipeline coming through and it’s going to stay. The future looks bright. It’s a great time to be a part of Easton wrestling right now. Today’s a great day, but tomorrow’s going to be even better.”
It will be for Jody Karam as well. Karam has, unusually so for a high-level wrestling figure, never completely defined himself by the sport in his 34 years as a head coach. He has a lot going on.
For one, he’s a grandfather.
“Jettson, Sage’s son,” Karam said. “He was born at the end of May, and has the same initials I do, JFK, you have to love my marketing thing. And we have an Easton singlet for him.”
But wait, there’s more.
“The plan now is try and find sponsorship for Sage, keep him racing a couple of more years in NASCAR, try and find the best steak in Pennsylvania, and I really want to sell a whole bunch of more houses. I really enjoy that, I really do. And see how life goes.”
Life – and Easton wrestling – goes very well for Jody Karam right now. And we couldn’t be happier for it.
