After four successful seasons, two NCAA Championship qualifications and 101 career wins thus far, senior Steve Schneider’s career on the Binghamton wrestling team is quickly drawing to a close. But before he dons a cap and gown, Schneider reflected on his influences, life as a Bearcat and postgraduation plans.
Schneider’s wrestling career began in elementary school, but the sport was not always his primary focus.
“I started wrestling to keep in shape for baseball, so my parents put me in the wrestling program in third grade and I’ve been doing it ever since,” Schneider said.
Alongside the support of his parents, he credits one of his youth coaches, Colin Curnuck, and a precollege mentor and coach, with helping him stick with the sport. After a noteworthy wrestling career at MacArthur High School that included a 175-22 record, Schneider chose Binghamton out of a wide selection of schools across the nation.
“I had a bunch of offers on the table, different schools, some out west, some down south, and I just felt like, with the coaching staff at the time and the teammates that I was going to school with, that it was the appropriate decision and it would be the best choice academically and athletically for my personal goals [to come to Binghamton],” Schneider said.
He recently surpassed 100 career wins to earn a 101-42 collegiate record. Even with this accomplishment, Schneider has not yet fulfilled his own personal collegiate goal quite yet.
“I want to be an All-American at the end of the season … that’s my own personal goal for the postseason,” Schneider said.
Currently No. 13 in the 184-pound weight class, this goal should not be too difficult to attain for the Long Island native.
As for postgraduate plans, Schneider will forgo a career related to his psychology major and will instead be practicing real estate in New York City while living on Long Island. He doesn’t plan to give up wrestling altogether, however.
“Luckily, I have a little brother who wrestles competitively in high school, so hopefully he’s going to grow the way I think he is and I’m going to be his training partner for the next three years while I’m back home living on Long Island,” Schneider said. “So wrestling is not — I hope it doesn’t — it’s never going to escape my life.”
As his last season draws to a close, Schneider says he’ll miss the blood, sweat and tears he shared with his teammates the most.
“Those moments, during practice and the workouts, and winning and losing [with my teammates], those are the most important to me and I’ll never forget those,” Schneider said.
Schneider will hit the mats in a Bearcat uniform for what could be the last time in the upcoming Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association Championships on March 2 and 3. If he qualifies, he will be eligible to compete in the NCAA Championships in mid-March as well before retiring his Binghamton singlet.