CLEVELAND — Ohio is home to some of the fiercest high school football rivalries, from Canton McKinley and Massillon Washington to Saint Ignatius and St. Edward to Avon and Avon Lake. However, one of the state's most intense showdowns didn't happen on the football field. Instead, it played out under gymnasium lights, where two wrestling powerhouses dominated the national stage in the 1990s.
Clash of Dynasties, a four-part docuseries, dives deep into the rivalry between the St. Edward Eagles and Walsh Jesuit Warriors over a 10-year period. During their heyday, the teams were routinely ranked No. 1 and 2 in the country, attracting thousands of fans to their dual meets while ESPN cameras covered their seasons.
Episodes one and two of the series will premiere Friday, Nov. 22 at the Akron Civic Center, starting at 7:30 p.m. Episodes three and four debut two days later on Sunday, Nov. 24 during an event at the House of Blues in Cleveland, beginning at noon.
The rivalry was fierce. Just ask Sonny Marchette, a former wrestler and 1997 Walsh Jesuit graduate.
"I wanted to punch these guys right in the face," Marchette recalled, "because they were the best."
St. Edward's Yoshi Nakamura echoes that intensity.
"There was nothing more that we wanted to do than to crush those guys," he said.
For Ben Hatta, a former St. Edward wrestler and the docuseries' producer and director, this is more than just a story of matches won and lost.
"It really was sort of this band of brothers, these guys that went to war together," he explained.
Hatta's "Clash of Dynasties" begins with St. Edward as the reigning powerhouse, a team ESPN regularly covered, described as disciplined and polished.
"Ed's was the perfect uniforms. Everything was the same — they wrestled the same, they practiced the same," recalled Frank Favaro, a former Walsh wrestler who joined the Warriors just as the tide was beginning to turn.
The Warriors, by contrast, were seen as the underdogs. Favaro describes them as "a bunch of ragtags" taking on "a bunch of very uniformed trained killers," intent on taking the Eagles down.
Behind Walsh Jesuit's rise was coach Bill Barger, who devised a bold strategy.
"He started scheduling every tournament St. Ed's was in," Favaro shared. "He wanted to wrestle them every single weekend if he could, because he figured, 'That's the way we're going to beat them.'"
The docuseries goes beyond the competition, exploring the personal struggles of the athletes. Hatta highlights a decade marked by loss.
"There were seven or eight deaths that took place over this decade that affected both teams," he told 3News, "whether they were coaches, parents, or teammates."
As all classic conflicts do, "Clash of Dynasties" transcends what happens on the battlefield, and reveals young fighters not just grappling against each other, but with immense personal pain.
Take Yoshi Nakamura and Sonny Marchette, fierce opponents who didn't know at the time they were carrying the same heartache.
"What I realized is that Sonny and I had completely different lives — e grew up in completely different areas in Ohio, completely different upbringings — but we had a similar path," Nakamura said.
Nakamura's dad died when he was just 13, and Marchette lost his father during his freshman year of high school. Their shared pain came to light during the shooting of the docuseries, and it brought the two former adversaries together.
Grief has its own timetable, and can visit you at unexpected times. Nakamura found himself struggling recently, and needed someone to listen. On instinct, he called Marchette.
"The conversation that we had was right on time for the both of us," Marchette shared. "Just because he called me doesn't mean that I didn't need him in that same conversation, because I did."
The two men recently held a wrestling clinic together.
Decades later, the people involved in "Clash of Dynasties" remain dedicated to wrestling in some fashion. As for the two teams, they combined for 11 state championships during the 1990s, but while St. Edward has currently won the last nine straight in Division I, Walsh Jesuit has not won a title since 2000.
All involved express hope that this iconic rivalry could one day be renewed.
"It was a moment in time that was just fantastic," Hatta said. "That might not ever happen again."
Following the premiere, Hatta says the docuseries will be available through the Clash of Dynasties website at a later date.