Ryan Prater Starring in "The Greatest Scramble"

Welcome to the world premiere of "The Greatest Scramble" starring Ryan Prater along with co-star Cartice Lloyd. I was reminded of this most unbelievable of scrambles on Twitter and rewatched it. Once you see it, you will agree that it deserves the star treatment. 

This video shows the very end of the 2007 IHSA State Championship bout at 135 between Ryan Prater (Plainfield Central) and Cartice Lloyd (Bremen). They battled to a 2-2 tie in regulation, went into overtime, then magic.

"The Scramble" is about thirty uninterrupted seconds of reaction time:

Most of the match can be seen here on YouTube.

When I asked Prater (pronounced "Pray-tur") a number of questions about that incredible finish, he was kind enough to reply as follows: "When it comes to 'the scramble' I’ll just say it’s crazy what two kids can do or the show they can put on when they both have the will to win. Neither one giving an inch and battling the entire scramble, unfortunately in this sport there is no draws and somebody has to lose. Going into overtime I was confident, I thought we had a lot of action in that 3rd period and I made him work a lot, I could feel him slowing down and his shots didn’t have the same pop on them as they did in the earlier periods. I knew I just had to hand fight hard and start taking a little bit of ground, I could get him going backwards so he couldn’t cover as much ground on his shots. I think that moment just showed how much heart I have and how big of a competitor I am. That moment has shown me that I can accomplish anything even when the odds aren’t in my favor or things aren’t going good for me -- just keep battling and grit it out and wait for the outcome. You’re never out til it’s over!!"

It appears that Lloyd tried a duck, but that was stopped cold by Prater. He then chained into a quick spin-behind and hooked Lloyd's leg. It looked like he had caught Cartice for the takedown, but no. Lloyd rolled and then rolled again.

Next, Lloyd looked to have Prater dead to rights.

What comes after that looks like a desperation Gator Bacon followed by a second Gator Bacon, then a single, which was converted into a double for the final "2."

Amazing! Both of the wrestlers went on to college and had excellent wrestling careers. Prater joined the University of ILLINOIS and started for three years. He then moved on to Elmhurst College, where he went undefeated and won a National Title. He is currently one of the head coaches (with his brother-in-law and ILLINI legend and teammate Jordan Blanton) of the Relentless Training Center in Johnsburg, Illinois. The two are also head coaches for Marian Central Catholic High School. Credit for the original video goes to ILLINOISMatmen.com and the IHSA. Intro and outro music by Audio Beats. Photo credits in the intro sequence to FightingILLINI.com, NCAA.com, uiaa.org, Wrestlingchangedmylife.com, ILLINOISMatmen.com, Flowrestling.com, Intermatwrestle.com. Additional music by RG Piano. This video is not to be monetized.