Editor's Note: Mike Juby, the Kansas/USA Wrestling State Chairman, is the recipient of the 2007 President's Award. As a reward for his great efforts and leadership in USA Wrestling's grassroots development, Juby was selected to attend the 2007 World Championships as part of the U.S. delegation.

Craig Sesker, Communications Manager for USA Wrestling, asked me for my comments on being here in Azerbaijan when our Greco-Roman World Team won their first World Championship. Since I assumed that he was looking for something other than "Wow!" I decided to write down some thoughts and then rely on him to use his journalism expertise to pull what he needs from them (and hopefully make me sound better than I'm capable of doing for myself). Also, being the lazy type, this seemed like a good opportunity to kill two birds with one stone by also posting these thoughts here (on the Kansas/USA Wrestling website), partially fulfilling my duty to update all of you on what's happening here in Baku.
 
For much of the competition, I had no idea that anything unusual was happening. I enjoyed seeing our athletes win, was disappointed for them when they lost, and relished every opportunity to see one of them standing on the medal stand and to see our flag hoisted high above the crowd. I kept hoping for one of our guys to win that World championship and witness the sound of our national anthem playing for this great crowd of wrestling fans that has assembled here. Frankly, it never even occurred to me to question where we were as a team for a few reasons.
 
First, one of my goals in coming to my first ever World Championships was to get to meet and know our World Team athletes. Thus far, all of the ones that I have met have been great people, causing me to have strong emotional feelings concerning their success. Second, there is a real sense of pride that comes from seeing our nation's athletes competing victoriously against the other nations of the world in this international venue. I suppose I was somewhat caught by the adage of "not seeing the forest for the trees." The trees were our wrestlers, and I was entirely focused on them and forgot about considering the team. Third, it frankly did not seem to me that what we were doing was that monumental compared to what other countries were doing.
 
For those of you who are experienced in following our national teams, I'm sure my reasons seem quite naive at best. Perhaps so, but in my defense, I would point out that USAW needs people like me whose primary focus is on the grassroots level. Having said that, I am finding that I've missed a lot in not taking a little extra time to learn about our National Team members and to follow their quest to become the best in the world. Yes, I've always watched our team at the Olympics and paid attention to how our national team has done at major events like the Pan American Games and the World Championships, but I've not ever really focused on the individuals on that team and what they were like.  So maybe, in a way, my total ignorance in how the team score was going was a sign of my development as a fan of our sport at the elite level.
 
In any event, I entered the arena yesterday afternoon with a new level of excitement and a bit of trepidation after being told that we were within striking distance of earning our first World championship.  Part of the equation that was going to give us the outcome we wanted was entirely in our control. But the other part relied on Russia (the team we were competing against for the top spot) losing their final match, and against an opponent who they had beaten at least twice before. Honestly, it all seemed a like the odds were against us, but isn't it when the odds are greatest that the emotional rewards are the highest?
 
As that Russia-Cuba match began, my anticipation turned to hope, then finally belief as I saw the Cuban wrestler avenge his prior losses to his Russian opponent and secure us the World championship title!
 
Wow!