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Announcements
Summer session coaches schedule...
6/29/09
With the summer sessions less than a week away it was about time I announce our coaching schedule. We've been able to compile an impressive group of guest clinicians (listed below). I can't stress the importance of mat time enough, the coaching is good, the cost is minimal (a one time fee of $15 for the entire summer) - and it's as close to home as it gets. For sign-up information go to: http://www.ci.maple-grove.mn.us/filestorage/323/327/MGRecBrochure.pdf Page 35.
We will have at least one coach on our staff (in parenthesis) at each session to support the lead clinicians. I also hope to be at nearly all of the sessions. Here's what our clinicians look like:
6:30p - 8:30p 7-12th grade wrestlers
Monday 7/6/09 Chris Muller - 5th in MN state tournament and over 80 career collegiate wins at Eau Claire (w/David)
Thursday 7/9/09 Jackson Mboma - Former Maple Grove MVP and current Augsburg wrestler (w/Dan)
Monday 7/13/09 Brian Baker - Former St. John’s wrestler (w/Dan)
Thursday 7/16/09 Adam Kolo - Wisconsin state champ, 3 time national qualifier and All-American at Eau Claire w/___________
Monday 7/20/09 Nick Campbell - Former Maple Grove section champ and Eau Claire wrestler (w/David)
Thursday 7/23/09 Mike Dill - Former Augsburg wrestler (w/Josh)
Monday 7/27/09 Chris Dykhoff - Former Maple Grove wrestler and St. Johns wrestler (W/___________)
Thursday 7/30/09 Luke Greder - All-time Maple Grove wins leader and 3rd place state finisher (W/Brad)
I also expect to see the following coaches at some of our practices:
Ryan King - Our new Junior High coach and 2007 Augustana wrestling graduate.
Todd Klemz - Current Southwest State wrestler.
Dan Arnold - Former Collegiate wrestler in Michigan.
Matt Philips - Three time Maple Grove Team captain.
Nick Davis - Former Maple Grove wrestler and Junior College National qualifier.
Will Smith - Former Maple Grove wrestler.
Also Possible:
Jake Deitchler - U of M wrestler and 2008 Olympian.
Chad Shilson - Former Augsburg wrestler.
Luke Vollmer - Two time Maple Grove Team Captain and All-Conference wrestler.
Robbie Gawboy - Two time Maple Grove State qualifier and two time team captain.
Kazim Kahn - Former Maple Grove wrestler.
We will also be hosting our first ever K-6 summer session from 5:30p - 6:30p. We have about 20 kids signed up for that program already so we need all the help we can get - if any of our current wrestlers are willing to help out that would be much appreciated. The lead coach for those practices will be the following current Maple Grove coaches:
7/6 Coach Ron
7/9 Coach Ron
7/13 Coach Ron
7/16 Coach Josh
7/20 Coach Josh
7/23 Coach Ron
7/27 Coach Brad
7/30 Coach Brad
Like I said we can use all the help we can get during these practices. Alright well hope to see you all next week.
Troy
Maple Grove Wrestlers put on a strong showing at camp...
6/26/09
Fifteen Maple Grove Wrestler's recently finished up wrestling at two different Augsburg wrestling camps with mostly positive results. Two weeks ago Adam Whirley, Andy Quam, Frank Cramer and Jesse Hawthorne, and Zach Quam took on the competition at the Augsburg technique camp and enjoyed a good amount of success. They wrestled 7 or 8 matches consisting of three 1 minute periods (running time). Adam, Andy, Frank and Zach each finished with six wins or more. Jesse also picked up a few wins but injured his shoulder and missed at least one match at the end.
This past week ten more Maple Grove Wrestlers headed down to Augsburg for the fairly intense team camp. These campers included Austin Dean, Zack Gawboy, Ryan O'Kane, Reid Weiland, Greg DuFoe, Jeremy Borchardt, John Herbes, Dan Rekuski, Joe Borchardt, and Justin Piche along with coach Ron who attended to coach the team. During this camp each wrestler gets roughly 15 matches in four days. Each match is three 1.5 minute periods (running time) and the competition is tough - some of the better teams from Minnesota and Wisconsin attend this camp.
While 15 matches is too many to keep track and list official records (non of our managers were in attendance), the report I received from coach Ron on this camp is that our guys wrestled well. Like I said the competition was tough - and none of our wrestlers finished with less than two losses - but they all also won their share of matches. Coach Ron was especially impressed with Dan Rekuski who wrestled up a weight for the team and still did as well as most or all of our other wrestlers. He also said he was impressed with our team work ethic and our toughness as a whole - even when our wrestlers were a little banged up they kept going out there and wrestling their best. Coach Ron reported our captains (all three of them were there) did a great job of being team leaders throughout the camp - which is a good sign for the direction of this years team.
A couple things many of our guys may have learned from this camp include how important it is to be as strong or stronger than your competition and what a difference good conditioning makes when you wrestle tough guys. Coach Ron also said it's obvious if some of our guys can avoid making some simple (often times mental) mistakes it will go a long way towards winning many more matches. Experience and mat time are the biggest things to help with that and this camp was a great start towards obtaining both quickly. Coach Ron also noted while they worked hard, and learned a lot, he also thought all of our wrestlers had fun - which is ultimately as important as anything. One example of how much fun they were having was that even on the last day Ryan O'Kane was still "picking on" Coach Ron. My take: Either Ryan really loves wrestling, he doesn't value having all his body parts in one piece, or both.
As of now I know that Alex Gray and Jonny Dill also plan on attending the Team Minnesota Cadet Camp in July. I believe this camp to be as good as any week long camp that a wrestler can go to - as it will attract the best wrestlers in the state and if they make the team they'll have an opportunity to wrestle some of the best competition in the nation. I'm very excited to see how both Alex and Jonny do - I think they both have excellent chances of making Team Minnesota and wrestling up in Fargo.
I'm also holding out hope that we get a few of our wrestlers to attend the U of Minnesota technique camp in mid-July. If you have not attended or signed up for a camp as of yet I strongly encourage you to take advantage of these opportunities. Email me at
While camps are a great way to get top notch coaching and mat time there are also a number of other ways to improve this off-season. Beating top level competition consistently takes at least adequate strength - Hopefully all of our guys are working hard in the weight room at least three times a week this summer. Dedicated wrestlers will also start making a commitment to conditioning in about a month.
Lastly the least expensive way I can think of to get the all important mat time is getting signed up for our summer sessions that begin just over a week from now on Monday 7/6 from 6:30p - 8:30p in our high school wrestling room. There are 8 sessions and the total cost to each wrestler is $15. We have many wrestlers signed up already but it would be great to see 30 or more Maple Grove wrestlers at these practices. For more information on this go to:
Lastly our annual trip to the cabin in coming up July 24-26. The response for this has been great but it's an awesome time and all are welcome. Let me know if you are interested and haven't done so already.
Coach Troy
A couple of things...
5/30/09
~ Thank you to Dan Rekuski, Jonny Dill, Mike Munsen, and Reid Weiland for your help with the yard clean-up day. Four ended up being the perfect amount of wrestlers. The day went really quick - we met at the high school at 9am and were finished by 2p. A donation of $200 will be made to the booster club soon ($50 each). Thanks again boys!
~ Congratulations to Justin Piche and the Maple Grove Baseball team - who have qualified for the section finals on Monday at 5:30p at Midway stadium. Justin has been batting fourth and has already hit two home-runs during the playoffs. After watching Justin wrestle around in the infield with a teammate after the game on Friday night it's obvious we need to work the heal spike more next year!
~ We’ve added one more dual to our schedule. Armstrong will join our dual with Blaine at Maple Grove on Feb. 11th to create a Tri. I would imagine the schedule is now complete - as I'm pretty satisfied with the way it looks.
That's it for now. Feel free to get a hold of me if you have any questions or comments. UWECWrestling@hotmail.com or 763-913-0601.
Troy
The latest...
Here's what's happening with Maple Grove Wrestling recently:
- Congratulations to Crimson wrestlers Joseph Borchardt and Justin Piche for receiving individual All-State Academic honors this season. These honors are awarded to Juniors and Seniors who excell on the mat and in the classroom. Points are awarded for GPA (i.e. a 4.0=400 points, 3.5=350 points, 3.0=300 points, etc.), one point for each Varsity win (i.e. 30 wins = 30 points), points for being a state qualifier (25), and points awarded for place in state (i.e. Joe received 100 points for placing second in state). Joe made the All-State Academic 2nd team and Justin Piche made All-State Academic honorable mention. Congratulations boys!
- The Varsity and JV meet schedule dates and locations for next season are finalized. The only thing that we would change now is if we added a team to a dual to create a tri. Here are some interesting tidbits:
~ 5 home meets and our tournament.
~ If we dual Mounds View and Spring Lake Park at the Mounds View tournament again we would dual all eight teams in our section next year. Centennial, Champlin Park, Osseo and Park Center are in our conference and thus we dual them every year. We scheduled a dual with Irondale at Maple Grove in January.
~ We will attend eight tournaments next year including six individual tournaments. One of those individual tournaments is the Rumble on the Red - a two day, 64 team tournament in Fargo in Dec. Varsity wrestlers who stay healthy all season should be guaranteed there full 36 regular season matches. I would also expect many second team guys who stay healthy to also get 10-15 or more varsity matches.
~ There are no Varsity only tournaments next season. JV will be able to wrestle at every tournament.
~ Fri. Jan. 15th we will wrestle a district Tri. for the first time in district history to my knowledge. We will wrestle both Park Center and Osseo at Park Center.
Other things going on:
~ Captains Joseph Borchardt and Justin Piche have called many of their teammates about attending the Augsburg Team Camp in June. It sounds as though 12-13 wrestlers have committed. I also think there may be a group going to a Minnesota Team camp. Let me know if you are interested in either and I'll get you the information you need to go with your teammates. UWECWrestling@Hotmail.com
~ Speaking of camp anybody who could use a few more dollars to help pay for the camp is encouraged to help with the Seek Home yard clean-up this upcoming Saturday May 23rd. Money will be donated to the booster club in the name of any helping wrestlers for them to get from the booster club and use towards a camp or wrestling related expense of your choice. Again contact me if you are interested. Right now I have commitments from Jonny Dill, Dan Rekuski and Mike Munsen. We could use 2 or 3 more wrestlers (but can do it with three if needed).
~ It sounds like the trip to the cabin will be a big hit again this summer. So far I have interest from multiple wrestlers including third timer Frank Cramer, along with first timers Jonny Dill, Zach Gawboy, Mike Munsen and Mark Danelich. We will do our best to facilitate as many wrestlers as are interested but the sooner we know what to expect the better. The dates are set for July 24 - July 26.
~The Freestyle tournament season may be over but I know of at least a few Maple Grove wrestlers still getting to practices.Joseph Borchardt attended the Augsburg regional practice again this past Monday and Zack Gawboy was up at High Flyers this week as well.I know there are many others but I couldn’t tell you exactly who.Feel free to email me and let me know if this list includes you – I’ll be more than happy to add you.
~ Finally the recruitment of summer wrestling clinicians for the July sessions at Maple Grove is coming along really nicely. The clinicians will include several former college wrestlers in the area along with many of the top wrestlers in Maple Grove history. Some of the names that have committed include UWEC All-American Adam Kolo, Former Maple Grove and St. John's wrestler Chris Dykhoff, Former St. John's wrestler Brian Baker, Maple Grove career wins leader Luke Greder, and former Maple Grove and current Augsburg wrestler Jackson Mboma. Sign up is through the Maple Grove Community Center and the cost is $15 for the summer. The sessions are Monday's and Thursday's from 6:30p - 8:30p. I would encourage all of our wrestlers to take advantage of this opportunity!
Hoping to see some wrestling this weekend...
I'm hoping to make it up to Buffalo on Saturday or down to Augsburg on Sunday to see some Maple Grove wrestlers in action. I know Jonny and Zack Gawboy will be at Buffalo and Will Anderson will be at Augsburg for Junior State. I'd love to see as many Maple Grove wrestlers in action as possible so I'd like to encourage the rest of you to hit up a freestyle tournament. Junior State would be especially great for you upperclassman!
I know we have quite a few wrestlers up at high flyers and more are still joining. Mark Danelich made an appearance this past Tuesday (for the first time to my knowledge). Also Jonny and Zack Gawboy made their first appearance at Augsburg Monday and plan on going both Monday and Wednesday next week. Zack said it was an awesome practice!
The great thing about wrestling is you get to decide how good you are. You're either satisfied where you're at or you're doing something about it. Great wrestlers come in many different shapes and sizes with many different styles and techniques but they have one common denominator - the drive and passion to be the best. And they all have it! Do you have it?
The latest...
It's been about a month since I saw my last live wrestling match and I can tell I'm already getting that itch. That said there have been plenty of Maple Grove Wrestlers who have already made themselves better this offseason. I know many of our wrestlers have been in the weight room and Maple Grove has had a pretty good showing at High Flyers so far. As the saying goes "Summer wrestling makes winter champions" - and we could always use more champions! We've also had some guys wrestling (and winning) at the tournaments on the weekends.
High-Flyers wrestlers have included: Zack Gawboy, Austin Dean, Jonny Dill, Frank Cramer, Andy Quam, Jacob Halvorson, Ryan O'Kane, Will Anderson, Reid Weiland, Jeremy Borchardt, Luke Piche, Dan Rekuski, and Alex Gray. To my knowledge Zack Gawboy and Jonny Dill have each wrestled at two tournaments thus far and are planning on wrestling this Saturday at Apple Valley. Zack is undefeated thus far - having won both of the tournaments he's been to. Jonny also took home one first place finish. Ryan O'Kane also got his first taste of a free-style tournament (after only one career free-style practice) last Saturday at Eastview. These tournaments are attended by the top wrestlers in the state so for these wrestlers to do as well as they have is significant. Congrats boys!
Zack and Jonny also plan on finding out where they stack up vs. the best of the best by wrestling at the state tournament in Rochester. Most of the top wrestlers in the state will be there so it will be interesting to see how we do. Jonny also hopes to qualify for Team Minnesota that wrestles (all expenses paid) in Fargo during the summer.
If you would like to join High Flyers but think it's too late it's not! Ryan attended for the first time last Thursday but has already been to three practices and a tournament. This added experience is going to make him and the others who are getting up there significantly better wrestlers next season so I encourage all of you to try to work it into your schedule.
If you've read the Guillotine forum recently a lot of people think we have a chance to do some real nice things next season. It's all talk until we do though. A quote I heard a big time college coach say recently was "Good teams have good athletes. Great teams have great teammates." I know we have good athletes. I hope we have great teammates this offseason and next year.
Here's some things going on with the team:
Summer Camp:
Captain Joseph Borchardt has informed me that he plans to go to the Augsburg Team camp (June 21-25 - $325/wrestler) this summer and I encourage other wrestlers with varsity aspirations to do the same. Joe and Justin will be calling all the wrestlers and be encouraging them to go to a camp. For our wrestlers who may not be varsity ready at this point I encourage you to try a technique camp with a group of teammates.
Summer Wrestling at Maple Grove:
For some extra mat time we will be hosting eight wrestling open gym/practices in the month of July. These practices will be for K-6 from 5:30p - 6:30p and for 7-12 from 6:30p - 8 or 8:30p. We hope to have the practices run buy some of the best wrestlers in the area including Maple Grove's top alumni wrestlers, some accomplished Eau Claire wrestlers and people from the area. The cost of this program is $10 for K-6 and $15 for 7-12. Sign up at the Maple Grove Community Center. The dates are as follows:
Mo 07/06, Th 07/09, Mo 07/13, Th 07/16, Mo 07/20, Th 07/23, Mo 07/27, and Th 07/30/2009.
More information to follow as far as what clinicians will do which practices.
Summer Trip to the cabin:
Assuming people are interested we will once again be making our annual trip to the cabin. The dates are July 24-26. Email me at UWECWrestling@Hotmail.com and let me know if you are interested and can make this work.
Coaches contacts:
You can expect a call from one of your coaches before school gets out to find out how things are going for you. Each coach has been assigned 6-7 kids to be in contact with throughout the summer. Hopefully this helps keep us all on the same page for the season ahead.
In Alumni news:
Jackson Mboma (2007-2008 graduate) has been invited to go out to Colorado to work out at the Olympic training center for a week this summer. He will be wrestling Freestyle and Greco out there. What an experience that will be for him.
Congratulations to Maple Grove All Time Win leader Luke Greder. Luke recently got engaged and plans on getting married in October of this year.
Well that's all for now. Keep working hard and encourage your teammates to do the same. It's going to make all the difference. There comes a time when Winter is going to ask what you've been doing all summer.
How will you be able to answer that?
From the somebody's on our side department...
While at a routine appt. this week Coach Brad Quam told his doctor about a recent blockage found in his older brother's heart. In his words:
With the family history (my dad and grandfather both died in their 40's) I mentioned it to my doctor when I was in on Monday. I had an EKG done and there was a blip on it showing there was something happening on the right bottom of my heart. So we did a stress test on Wednesday AM. I was basically running up the mountain which was good but very out of breath. At that time they decided three signs were enough that they put me in the hospital for an angiogram. They did find the right bottom of my heart had a blockage but that my heart had already been bypassing it on it's own. They did the angioplasty to open the artery and put the stint in to keep the artery open now. As the doctor said to me on Thursday, I'm in better shape now than I was on Wednesday AM. The rest of my heart had no damage and is very strong now. So now that I know everything, you can put it out there for everyone. And yes, fried foods are not good for me now which means I will have oven baked fish instead (I like it that way anyway). As I told Zach, I was operating on 3/4 of my engine. I will not tire out as fast now - watch out boys. Mary is very relieved now that I have had my overhaul.
Brad
We are all glad you decided to mention this to the doctor Brad and you found this the easy way. That's scary and it could have been a lot worse. Hope you start to feel better as soon as possible and don't push your limits too soon!
The latest...
The 2008-2009 Maple Grove Senior High Wrestling season is over but many people have been busy finishing off this season and preparing for next. Here's what's going on in Maple Grove Wrestling:
- Obviously the biggest thing coming up is the banquet on Sunday. Many people have worked very hard so that we can celebrate the successes of the 2008-2009 wrestling season and look ahead to the 2009-2010 season. Hopefully everybody is planning on attending. If you aren't signed up but would like to attend email me and I'll let the appropriate people know. UWECWrestling@Hotmail.com.
- I know many of our guys have been wrestling freestyle at high flyers including: Jonny Dill, Zack Gawboy, Austin Dean, Frank Cramer, Will Anderson, Reid Weiland, Jacob Halvorson, and Andy Quam (at least once). That speaks well for the future of our lower and middle weights. I'm have heard some of our bigger guys have been talking about finding some time to get up there and I'm hoping that happens. It does make a huge difference! I've also heard some of those that are wrestling Freestyle plan on wrestling at Eagan this Saturday. I will be interested to see how they do!
- We have been officially accepted into the Rumble on the Red in Fargo, N.D. next season. This is a 64 team individual two day tournament. This tournament takes place in the Fargo Dome and is for Varsity and first string J.V. I wrestled there in high school as part of Team Minnesota and it's like wrestling in the Metrodome. It's a pretty cool experience - I'm looking forward to coaching in it already! We will be staying in the Holiday Inn in Fargo. Tournament dates are Dec. 29th and 30th. I have posted a partial and VERY tentative 2009-2010 schedule on the website. I am still putting together a meet schedule that I'm completely satisfied with - so I expect it continue to take form over the next couple of months. Check it out if you’re interested in what we have so far.
- I have finished my post season exit interviews schedule. There are a few wrestlers who didn't sign up and I wasn't able to talk to. I do feel like these meetings are very beneficial and I would like to talk anybody whom I haven't already. Please email me at UWECWrestling@Hotmail.com or call me at 763-913-0601 to set something up.
- We held our post season coaches meeting. It was a very positive meeting with a lot of good discussion. Check out the coach’s corner for how this may directly affect you as a wrestler.
- Our Tuesday and Thursday youth program continues to truck on. I am very thankful that we have a few committed wrestlers who have stepped up to make sure this program is a success. A big thank you to Joseph and Jeremy Borchardt, John Herbes, Matt Philips, Zack Gawboy, Aaron Grant, Erik Wallace, and Alex Gray as well as Coach Ron. This program wouldn't work without your commitment! We have one practice left and it's the tournament so we would appreciate all the help we can get.
- We held our post season booster club meeting last Monday. It was a good meeting and a lot was covered. I'm hoping in the future we are able to continue to grow our booster club participation. The booster club is such an integral part of what we do and everybody - no matter how much or how little time you have - can make a difference in the program.
- Matt Philips and I attended the Osseo youth wrestling banquet last Monday as well (roughly half those wrestlers will end up at Maple Grove). I am very impressed with the program they have put together the last couple of years. They have over 100 kids in their program and they were able to win the team folk-style state title down in Rochester this year. That speaks well for the future of wrestling in this area.
- The Season, Career, and Alumni pages ("Crimson dream team" section) have been updated on the website. Let me know if there is anything else you would like to see on the website.
Hope to see you all Sunday. It should be a lot of fun!
Troy
Stories
Maple Grove wrestlers thump Blaine - Four grapplers take home JV titles
