By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

Though historic, high school wrestling victory No. 305 for Osceola High’s Pete Baldwin Jr. came in typically understated fashion Saturday.

The 145-pound senior registered a 43-second pin against Palm Harbor’s Allen Myers, shook hands with Myers’ coach, then left the mat to watch his teammates complete a victory over Palm Harbor that made OHS the champion of the A.J. Jones Memorial Duals at the Kowboys gym.

Baldwin, who won four matches to raise his season record to 35-0, broke the national high school career record of 304 wins jointly held by Kentucky wrestlers Travis Sullivan and Josh Johnson. He also owns the national record for falls (226).

“To be honest, it’s just another stepping stone toward what I want to accomplish in the future,” Baldwin said. “It’s a great honor to have it, but at the time we were in the middle of a championship match against Palm Harbor, so I just went back to the team. I wanted my teammates to do well so we would win.”

Osceola Coach Jim Bird has coached Baldwin since elementary school, before he started racking up victories at Life Christian Academy as a sixth-grader.

“I couldn’t be happier to see a kid who works as hard has he does have this kind of success,” Bird said. “Pete has always been a kind of humble and quiet person. He never gets real excited; he stays on an even keel. You love to see someone like Pete do well, because you know kids like that are going to become great community members. He’s everything you want to see in a student-athlete.”

Baldwin, who signed a scholarship to Old Dominion University in November, won the 2008 state championship at 119 pounds and has reached the Class 3A finals three years in a row. He’s been to the state tournament five times, joining former teammate Gabriel Bird as the only wrestlers from Osceola County to do that. Two weeks ago he won the Powerade tournament 145-pound title in Canonsburg, Pa.

With the national wins and pins records behind him, Baldwin now is concentrating on winning a second state championship. He lost close matches in the finals the past two seasons, something he is not thrilled about.

“I don’t want my career to have peaked in my freshman year,” he said. “To be honest, I’m never going to be happy after a match. There always are things you can do better, unless maybe you pin somebody in a fraction of a second or something like that.”

Baldwin said one reason for his success is the guidance he received from his parents.

“My dad (Pete Baldwin Sr.) always said that you have to work twice as hard as everyone else if you want to be the best,” he said.

Coaches throughout the  nation are familiar with Baldwin’s talent.

Coach Vic Lorenzano has sent wrestlers to compete against Baldwin as the coach at St. Cloud, Liberty and Celebration, and he said that the Kowboy wrestler ranks among the best he has seen.

“In my 29 years of coaching, I have seen some other outstanding talents on the same level (as Baldwin), coached against some and coached some of my own,” he said. “Pete is genuinely one of the most courteous, polite and sportsmanlike kids I have been around.”

Lorenzano said much of the credit for Baldwin’s record-setting career belongs to his parents, Pete Sr. and Diana, who ran club and middle school programs that their sons participated in. They took the boys and their teammates, often at their own expense, to national youth tournaments.

Fox Baldwin, Pete’s brother, is a two-time Class A state qualifier as an eighth-grader at Lake Highland Prep. He owns 156 career victories.

“Pete seems to me to have an outstanding mix of great personal desire and work ethic, great parental support, great coaching and personal faith in God that keeps him grounded,” Lorenzano said.

Lorenzano said Baldwin benefited by having Bird and OHS assistant Rick Tribit as high school coaches. They, like Lorenzano, are members of the National High School Wrestling Hall of Fame.

“They deserve a ton of credit,” Lorenzano said.

Tribit said Baldwin’s business-like manner earns him the respect of his peers and other coaches.

“Pete never showboats. He never disrespects his opponent,” Tribit said.

Steve Martin, the Old Dominion head coach, said Baldwin is poised and mature.

“He impressed everyone he met here. He is going to be a great ambassador for Old Dominion,” he said. “I know a lot of (college) coaches would love to have him. They just got on to him a little late, and now they are wishing they had signed him.”

Martin said Baldwin is going to be a good wrestler for the Norfolk, Va., university.

“It’s funny with Pete. He’s the nicest, most polite kid you could ever meet, but when he gets in a match, he flips a switch. He gets mean on the mat,” Martin said. “In wrestling, that’s not a bad thing. Mean is good.”