Northeast's three time state champion Maurice Fleming (left) and McDonogh's state champion Kramer Whitelaw (right) are shown during their recreation and youth league days. The duo will be on the same team again, starting in the fall, when they'll perhaps be college roommates at George Mason University. (Photo by Lori Whitelaw).
GUESS WHO? McDonogh's Kramer Whitelaw (left) and Northeast's Maurice Fleming (right) during their junior league days. The two will be teammates again, starting in the fall, at George Mason University (Photo by Lori Whitelaw).
by Lem Satterfield
When three-time state champ Maurice Fleming (140 pounds) of Northeast and state champ Kramer Whitelaw (160) of McDonogh meet up in the fall on the campus of George Mason University, where they'll both wrestle, it won't be the first time the two grapplers have been on the same team.
"They wrestled for several years together in tournaments along the East Coast traveling together," read an e-mail from Whitelaw's mother, Lori, who also provided photos from their youth days to DigitalSports.
"In Kramers seventh and eighth grade year, they wrestled for MJWL's Buccaneers under head coach Ted Fleming," wrote Lori Whitelaw, referring to Maurice's father. "I will tell you that I am very excited to have my friend, Vicky Fleming [Mauric'es mother] rooting in the stands for our sons together. It has been five years since we were part of the same team."
Kramer Whitelaw, likewise, is looking forward to the reunion with Maurice Fleming as a teammate.
"We are planning on being roommates, that's the talk we had, and it's going to be really special to be on the same team with someone that I've known for a long time and who is a former teammate that I'm going to be spending the next four or five years with," said Kramer Whitelaw.
"When I went down on my visit to GMU, they said that they thought that Maurice was coming to school there. And then, actually, Maurice called me the night that he committed," Kramer Whitelaw said.
"That night, we talked about the school, and after we hung up, he committed. that night, and I wound up committing a week later," said Kramer Whitelaw. "I think it's going to be cool that I'm going with someone that I have a relationship with and that I know prett well."