Urbas brothers take family battles to State College mats

The family room of the Urbas home in State College has seen more than its share of brotherly wrestling matches. A few lamps have suffered the consequences of those tussles.

Cole and Lance Urbas, however, swear that no other pieces of furniture were harmed in the telling of this story.

“I feel bad for their parents,” Little Lions wrestling coach Ryan Cummins joked. “Hopefully they’ve got some heavy-duty furniture.”

Cole, a junior, and Lance, a freshman, have turned those frequent in-home battles into success on the mat for State College. Cole, who competes at 195 pounds and has a 62-10 career record with 35 pins, picked up a third-place medal at last year’s PIAA Championships, and is among the best in the state again this season. Lance was third at the state junior high meet last season and already appears comfortable after the transition to varsity.

This season, Cole is 13-1 with eight pins and Lance is 11-4 with four pins as one of two freshmen in the varsity starting lineup, along with Owen Woolcott.

The Urbas brothers have been attending meets at Rec Hall for as long as they can remember, using the family’s season tickets, inspired by the Penn State program. They also started in youth wrestling programs more than a decade ago, although that came with a little disappointment for Cole.

“I thought it was WWE,” Cole said. “Seriously. I was like, ‘Where’s the chairs? Where’s the ladders?”

They soon began to appreciate the sport, however.

“I still learned an art,” Cole said. “I learned about something better than the WWE, something more balanced.”

While the foray into wrestling may not have resulted in broken chairs and tables, there were the countless shattered lamps.

“We didn’t wrestle — we rassled,” Cole said. “We rolled around.”

“It’s not really wrestling,” Lance added. “It’s just messing around.”

With their parents as fans of the sport — their father was a wrestler at North Allegheny High School in Pittsburgh — they didn’t get too many admonishments unless there were major escalations.

“Then someone will do something to win,” Cole said. “Like Lance will throw in a leg, power-half me, and I’ll be like, ‘Get off me!’ Then we end up feuding.”

They also have made educational use of the home sessions, trying and teaching each other new moves.

Eventually, Cole realized there was an added benefit to the brotherly sessions that makes a difference when he is wearing a Little Lion singlet.

“Lots of the scrambling positions that I get into, I feel like I’ve been there before with him,” Cole said.

Cummins is pretty familiar with the brotherly battles himself, wrestling with his two siblings — Pat and AJ — all the way up to their time at Penn State. Having family as teammates adds a lot of internal competition.

“I can remember all that with my brothers,” Ryan Cummins said. “I was like, ‘Oh, he won a match? Now I’ve got to win a match. He’s got 30 wins? Now I’ve got to get 30 wins.’ It’s the kind of thing I’m starting to see (with them).”

With their 35-pound weight difference, the Urbases have not practiced against each other much since the season began, but Lance has another challenging wrestling partner to battle daily in 170-pound senior Ian Barr. The Urbas brothers also are regulars at Nittany Lion Wrestling Club sessions, which draw some of the state’s best.

They also grasp that wrestling success isn’t about just strength and skill, but also the other little details that add up like nutrition, a healthy lifestyle and studying opponents. Cummins figures only 10 or 15 percent of his athletes each year make that kind of serious commitment. And that’s one of the reasons he thinks wrestling success in the future for both, especially for a return to the PIAA podium for Cole.

“He expects to win, I expect him to win,” Cummins said. “If he wrestles the way he can wrestle, there shouldn’t be anybody that beats him in Pennsylvania.”

Lance is hoping to follow that example, making one thing certain: The better they get, the more heated the family room battles will be — adding to the danger for the lamps.

This story was originally published January 14, 2018 at 4:35 PM with the headline "Urbas brothers take family battles to State College mats."