It was definitely easy to feel the excitement in Eleazer Arena last night.

By the time I rushed into the gym, a couple of minutes before go time, the stands on the side opposite of the scorer’s table were packed.

And it’s pretty understandable why.

There was the “perceived” hometown underdog — Newberry College. Newberry College is having a special wrestling season, but realistically, could it compete with a major Division I program?

That would be an affirmative.

Trust me when I tell you, the Newberry wrestlers were not intimidated by what was on the other side of the mat — the powder blue.

The University of North Carolina — the flagship university of the Carolinas with an athletic budget and facilities that Newberry College athletic director Andy Carter could only dream of. North Carolina has an enrollment in the 10s of thousands, and the two high schools in the city of Chapel Hill have more students than Newberry College — and maybe even bigger campuses.

In other words, in any sport, at any time, the Tar Heels are easy to dislike.

But last night set up like the perfect “perceived” David and Goliath story.

There were the good guys — the wrestlers in the gray singlets and their coach Jason Valek. Valek stayed cool most of the time, but with his rolled up sleeves and tie swinging, it was obvious he wanted on that mat. The program is just a handful of years old and this was nothing short of a measuring stick match.

And then there were the villians — the boys in blue wearing singlets patterned after the Tar Heel basketball team’s Alexander Julian designed uniforms, and their coach that showed the referee the rulebook a couple of times to no avail.

The UNC coaches whined at calls throughout the match and, at times, appeared to try to intimidate the man wearing the stripes.

Then there was the moment of belief.

With the Tar Heels leading 14-7, Newberry’s Josh Whitelock was in a tough match in the 174-pound weight class, when it happened.

His opponent made one false step, Whitelock pounced, and within a blink of an eye, there was a pin that set off an explosion on the Newberry bench and in the stands.

North Carolina did not win a single match from that point.

The Newberry College wrestling program didn’t have anything to prove last night. It was already well-respected in the region and across the nation with its success in the Division II ranks. But something was proven — this team could undoubtedly compete with and defeat the big boys of the sport.

One of the things that struck me during the match was how many young kids were in the stands. Every where you looked there were kids from Newberry High, Mid-Carolina, Whitmire, Laurens, Ware Shoals, Abbeville and other schools that were wearing their team’s sweatshirts.

This match, with the stands as full as they were, could be the spark that turns wrestling from a second-tier winter sport in this area into a major player.

Maybe Valek could be for the Midlands of South Carolina what Dan Gable is to Iowa?

Friends, last night’s match could be so much more than just one night of celebration — this could be the springboard for a sport to absolutely explode in this area.