Brusly's Cebollero wins in double OT

Pearl River's Cannon gets second straight loss in title match

By Pierce W. Huff, Staff Writer for The Times-Picayune: February 19, 2006

Pearl River junior Matt Cannon had a long, emotional group hug with his mother, father and younger sister on the floor of the Pontchartrain Center on Saturday moments after his double overtime loss to Brusly's Thomas Cebollero in the Division III state championship wrestling match at 160 pounds.

The match marked the second consecutive season that Cannon lost the state championship in double overtime.  He was exhausted and frustrated.

But in the end, winning or losing the state championship match didn't matter to Cannon as much as the people who sat in the stands to watch him wrestle.

Other local state championship winners in Divisions II and III included Riverdale's Brandon Bond (189, Division II), and two Shaw wrestlers.  Bond rallied from a 10-3 deficit and pinned Parkway's Brittian Emmels.  Shaw had its first individual champions when Zachary Schaubhut (171) and Paul Hatty (215) won titles.

It's been a long emotional year for Cannon and his family.  The family lost its home in Hurricane Katrina.  They originally evacuated to Vicksburg, Miss., where Cannon's father, Roger, had a stroke.  Roger regained his health, and then the family moved to Bolton, Miss., and later settled in Lawton, Okla.

During the first leg of his family's journey, Cannon told his mother, Twila, about his desire to be with his classmates at Pearl River, and she re-enrolled him at the school and let him stay with Rebels assistant coach Jim Ballantyne.  Cannon shared a room with Pearl River junior Ian Ballantyne, who finished third at 130 [135].

This weekend, Roger, Twila, and Cannon's younger sister, Melissa, drove more than 12 hours from their family home in Lawton, Okla., through a snowstorm to watch Cannon wrestle in the two-day tournament.

"This is the first time that we've been able to see him wrestle this season, because there has been so many other things going on," Roger said.  "He's our son.  You would go through hell to be with your son."

Cannon said he knew his family was coming to watch him wrestle, but he didn't know what they had to go through.

"It almost brought tears to my eyes when I learned that," he said.

Cannon wanted to win the state championship for his family more than he did for himself.  There was a scoreless tie after the first period.  The score was tied at two after the second period.  Cannon scored two points in the final 18 seconds to tie the score at five at the end of the third period.  Neither wrestler scored at the end of the first overtime period.

Then, Cebollero scored the game-winning point when referees called Cannon for "stalling."

"I don't agree with the cal," said Cannon.

But even in defeat Cannon had something to cheer about.  Through Katrina and numerous relocations, he and his family were back together again, if only for a little while.

"It makes me feel like an important part of our family when I consider what they went through to watch me wrestle," he said.

Cannon was one of three Pearl River wrestlers in the finals, with Jimmy Ballantyne and Paul Wright.

Ballantyne, trying to win his third consecutive state championship, was pinned by Brusly's Casey Landry in the final at 145.  Wright scored two points  on a move at the last second of the match to beat Basile's Aaron Lapoint 17-15 in the final at 130.