1994_12 The Daily Collegian December 1994

              Thursday, December ), 1994
Page 7
Youngest Zinkin continues family tradition
Nick Zinkin fol-1
lows in the foot-
steps of two great
FSU wrestlers
j    By Dennis Claborn
Wheja you think of Fresno
State wrestling one name prob¬
ably comes to mind— Zinkin.
The only question is: which one?
Harold Zinkin was an All-
American wrestler for FSU in
1992-93 in the 134-pound
weight class. His younger
brother DeWayne Zinkin, now
a senior at FSU, is the defending
WAC Champion, at coinciden-
tally, 134-pouftds, and currently
is seeking Ail-American hon¬
ors. And then there's the young¬
est brother, Nick, who's also a
WAC Champion at 126-pounds
and is only a sophomore, and if
all goes well this year, he could
gain an Ail-American claim
himself.
Nick is the smallest of the
three brothers, and according
to Coach Dennis Deliddo, an
uncle of the Zinkins, "Nick has
been by the far the easiest to
coach. He has the patience to
listeri^&fcthefcrwfculdti't lis¬
ten to me," he said. "They had
already decided what was best
for themselves."
It's no wonder the Zinkins
have found a lot of success with
wrestling. Their father,
Dewayne Zinkin Sr., wrestled
at Fresno High school and came
to Fresno State to wrestle before
injuring his neck in a car acci¬
dent. .  \
Their uncle, Deliddo, was
also a Fresno State wrestler be¬
fore becoming the head coach.
NickZinldnstarted wrestling
Todd Wa
Sophomore Nick Zinkin, right, became the third brother in the Zinkin clan to
last year, in the 126-pound weight division.
when he wad five, and admits
wrestling has been the a nter of
attention as long as he can re¬
member. "Wrestling's been the
main topic of discussion for
years. Every day and every
night it's wrestling."
With a wrestling room in¬
side their hbauviwo older
brothers who wrestled, a father
who wrestled and an uncle
who's the head wrestling coach,
it's-no wonder Nick has found
success so early*
Nick said he liked playing
soccer, tennis and most sports
when he was younger, but was
always too short to be any good.
"It's kind of funny; me and my
brothers always talked about
how much we hate wrestling. I
mean you have to starve your¬
self six months out of the year to
maintain your weight. We don't
get to do anything during winter
break because we always have
wrestling practice, and it doesn't
matter how good we get, we can't
become professional wrestlers."
But Nick admits, "After a few
months away from it [wrestling]
I really start missing it, and can't
uruversi
theatre
tl
Night's
Dream
December 2-3 & 7-10 at 8 p.m. and December 4 & 11 at 2 p.m.
call   27^   2216
Box office located.in Speech Arts Building       student tickets l/0 price with valid i.d.
wait for it to start up again."
When Nick's not wrestling
he enjoys going down to the
river and fishing. He admits to
fishing almost every night dur¬
ing the summer. "I know what
it is about fishing, it's just relax¬
ing and fun."
It would be hard to compare
the three wrestlers, but who
would win a wrestling match if
all three were in their prime?
"Probably Harold; he's the big¬
gest and the oldest," said Nick
after a long hesitation. "But then
again, DeWayne had the best
skills...I don't know. The oldest
brother probably." That would
be HaroldJThat sounds like the
text-book answer, but what does
coach Deliddo think? The an¬
swer was the same.
Nick admits the three of them
used to fight a lot as siblings
growing up. "Our old house has
holes in the walls of every room.
It was crazy. I guess that's why
our father had the wrestling
Honors, from Page 6
efforts with the books this semes¬
ter. The redshirt freshman was
honored for his 3.40GPA, major¬
ing in business management.
In his final year, senior busi¬
ness major Thomas aggressively
hit the books as well, as he does
against opposing teams' of¬
fenses, with his 3.20 GPV
All honorees must meet spe¬
cific-requirements in order to be
recogniiedfornominatiort They
all must be at least a sophomore
in status, have completed one aca¬
demic year, participated in at least
rshaw - Sports Information
in a WAC championship
room built in our new home."
Although Harold is finished
wrestling, and DeWayne is fin¬
ishing out his senior year, wres¬
tling is still a big part of the
Zinkins'life. "Harold still comes
to my matches and gets all fired
up before I wrestle, and
DeWayne ends up watching my
match instead of warming up
fo'r his."
Nick, a I4beral Studies ma¬
jor, plans on finishing his de¬
gree and going on to law school
when wrestling comes to an end.
Nick said, "I don't think I'^miss
wrestling when it's over, but
it's been good to me" and my
family."
When Nick graduates the
Zinkin wrestling legend may
momentarily^'put on hold,
but likely won't end forever. It
will just have to wait a genera¬
tion before they decide to have
kids, and their five-year-old
sons try to carry oqt the legacy^,
left behind.
50 percent of the teams' contests
and achieved at least a 3.2 cumu¬
lative grade point average.
The two volleyball players to
be honored this fall were two of
only 18 to get the honor. Top¬
ping all five Bulldogs receiving
the honor was sophomore out- ~
side hitter Cheli, with a 3.72 \^
grade point average. Cheli is
majoring in liberal arts.
Booker, also a sophomore,
was retognized for her 3.2*
grade point average as a com¬
municative disorders/educa-     '   .
tion major. *
r
m
.
.
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